Play The Game

LET THE GAMES BEGIN:





Terry parked her news van on the side of the street, not far from where she had seen Snap. She stepped out of the van and locked it, placing her keys in her pocket. She got out her umbrella and opened it. It was still raining. She walked slowly over towards the house. She looked it up and down. It looked more worn than she thought. She wondered just how old this house was and why it hadn't been torn down yet. Maybe no one just got around to it yet.

She walked up towards the door and peered inside through the window. She didn't see much of anything. It was a little dark. She turned the door handle and went inside. She made sure to shut it behind her. She closed her umbrella, shaking off some of the water onto the ground. She took a bit of time to look around the building.

It was quite dusty, with cobwebs everywhere. She didn't know why any sane person would want to come in here. Some wood was rotting in a few places. Some areas looked like they were falling apart. The house, surprisingly, overall was holding up better than she thought. Some of this stuff could easily be repaired, though she thinks it would be better if it was just destroyed. No one had attempted the buy the house for decades, and it just looks out of place in this part of town.

She took a few steps further inside. Her hands on her hips, she looked around. She tried to figure out where Snap could have gone to. There had to be a chalkboard around here somewhere. One with a working portal. There was no other reason why Snap would have gone into this building. If he had just been wanting to escape the rain, he would have went into the nearest building; he skipped it in favor of this one.

She knew that, sometimes, zoners left smudge marks in the real world. They weren't common, and she didn't know of many incidents where this occured. She knew the school bully, Reggie, mentioned about Snap White leaving blue markings on his paper work. Maybe, with how much of a hurry he was in, Snap left markings on the ground here. She looked down and tried to find them.

She soon saw a little bit of blue. Narrowing her eyes, she kneeled down and touched it, collecting it on her fingers. She lifted her finger up and stared at it. The blue coloration seemed to be the right shade to be from Snap. She rubbed her two fingers together, feeling its texture. Yeah it was chalk all right. Definite proof that Snap was in here, not that she needed it since she saw him run into this old building.

She looked around on the ground some more and found more blue smudges. She smirked when she saw there was a bit of a trail. She followed it, letting it lead her to wherever Snap had gone. It lead her up some rickety flight of stairs and into what she guessed was an old bedroom.

Upon entering it, she could tell that this room had belonged to an artist. There were some art supplies on the ground. Not a lot, but enough that told her, whoever had lived here, spent some time painting. And sitting in the corner, she could see a blackboard. It looked pretty dirty. The edges looked almost moldy. The artist who lived here may have done some chalk drawings as well, or they used the blackboard to work on formulas...though that didn't make much sense.

Oh well, it wasn't of her concern. What she was more interested in was what was on the blackboard itself. Her smile broadened when she saw what she had been hoping to see. Just like she had predicted, there was a portal into ChalkZone.

She was a bit confused by the blue outline. She hadn't seen that before. Oh well, probably a different type of chalk. She didn't have doubts there'd be other types of magic chalk in that world. She wouldn't put much past a world where anything drawn comes to life.

Terry walked up to the chalkboard, staring at the portal. She looked through it. She could see it was definitely ChalkZone it lead into. She felt excitement rise up inside of her. She now had proof of this place's existence. All she had to do now was get a broadcaster to see thsi. She would have another chance to show Plainsville, the world, that she wasn't crazy. She would prove to them that she hadn't lost her mind, that she had been speaking the truth all along.

She grabbed the chalkboard and started to lift it up. Then a thought came across her mind. She set it back down. No, she couldn't take this thing with her. If she did, she would move the portal around. If Snap saw it move, or if he saw it was in a new location, he would know something was up. And since she had no magic chalk, she couldn't erase the portal. She couldn't go into ChalkZone to get magic chalk because she wouldn't know where to get some. So she had no choice but to leave the portal here and bring a broadcaster over.

But what if the blue boy did try to erase the portal? She wasn't sure of the likelihood of a zoner erasing a portal, but she didn't want to take that chance. She had to find a way to keep this portal open, at least long enough for her to get a broadcaster to come to this place. She looked around the room. Maybe the artist who lived here had something she could use.

She soon found something that she found useful. Some kind of thick, heavy cloth. She wasn't sure what it was called, but she's seen it before. Some artists use it to cover their art, maybe to protect them from the elements or something. She placed the cloth over the chalkboard. She grabbed some sharp artist tool she found on the ground and cut along the glow she knew was ChalkZone's day light. She removed the cut piece and took a step back.

She stared at what she did. Yes, this would do nicely. She had made sure the cloth was secured tightly around the chalkboard, ensuring that Snap wouldn't be able to move it that easily. It was no guarantee it'll buy her enough time, but it would certainly make things a little easier for her. And the cloth was a bit on the heavy side, too. She doubted Snap would have an easy time removing it.

Now all she had to do was contact someone from a news station. A broadcaster that would listen to her, and give her a chance. All she would have to do was show them this portal, and everything would be set. There was no way they could think she made something like this up. As soon as they stepped into ChalkZone and saw just how real it truly was...yes they would definitely believe her then.

Terry stared into the portal. She narrowed her eyes slightly. She knew that this world had something to do with those disappearances. And once she exposed ChalkZone, an investigation would be underway. Detectives would be sent in, and they would find where the missing citizens have gone to. And their families would find out what happened to them. They deserved to know the truth, and it angered her that Rudy and Penny had tried so hard to keep it a secret. At a time like this, it was best not to keep secrets such as this.

She did still feel bad for them, though. She had never wanted them to disappear like the other victims. She would never have wished this fate on them. Although it made things easier for her, with them out of the way and all, a part of her still hoped, deep down, that they would be okay.

A lightning bolt flashed, lighting up the room. Terry nearly jumped up into the air. Her body shaking, she took a few steps away from the window. Another flash and she started to move out of the room. She could hear the sound of thunder rolling across the skies. She heard the ran fall harder on the ground. She needed to get out of here and back home before the roads became too water logged to be driven on.

It had been raining since she saw Snap rush into this building. Hours of rain, and it never let up. She heard a report there was going to be a flash flood warning. And Plainsville was due to have a few severe thunderstorm warnings as well. Horrible weather... She hated it.

As she left, she didn't notice that the window in the bedroom had a crack in it. She didn't notice a bit of lightning had struck it, breaking off a piece. She was unaware of the rain pouring into the room. Along the window's edge, water rolled over and onto the hard floor. The rain collected into a small puddle and started to spread...

...towards the chalkboard.

sss

Snap wasn't sure what to make of this. He wasn't sure if Bardot was quite serious about this, or if he had somehow, made a mistake. He took a look around. Something about it didn't seem right. Was this really the right place?

Snap, Rapsheeba, and Blocky stood on the outskirts of the playground, one Snap had played in from time to time a few years ago. He hadn't come here that often, but it's not like a lot changed. Maybe a few additions here or there, but it was still overall, the same playground. It didn't look like it was anything too special, at least not something he felt would have caught Bardot's eye. If this was supposed to be one of his dangerous games...he wasn't getting it.

He had read the riddle to Blocky and Rapsheeba. It took them a while to answer it. Maybe ten minutes. When Rapsheeba suggested playground, Snap almost laughed. The riddle itself didn't seem like it had anything to do with a playground. But Blocky agreed with her. Confused, Snap asked them to explain. They described, in detail, why they came to that conclusion, and when they had spelled it out for him, it really did make sense.

With nothing else to go on, Snap decided they should go to the playground. Where else could they go? They had to at least try. They didn't have all the time in the world to find Rudy and Penny. They had to get started on these...games that Bardot had set up, somehow without anyone realizing what was going on.

The playground was completely empty. He wasn't sure why at first until he saw a sign on the edge. 'Warning: Closed'... Bardot must have put that there. He must not have wanted anyone else to interfere with his games. Perhaps he was worried that someone else might 'ruin his fun'... Snap growled at that thought.

He, Rapsheeba, and Blocky walked around the playground for a bit, looking for anything out of place or suspicious. After a few minutes, they didn't find anything. Not at first anyway. But soon, Blocky came running towards him and Rapsheeba. There was something in his hand that he was waving back and forth frantically. It was a piece of paper.

"Hey guys! Look what I found!" Blocky shouted. He stopped in front of his two friends, holding the piece of paper in his left hand.

"Well, don't leave us hanging." Rapsheeba said. "Tell us what it says!"

Blocky unfolded the paper and looked down at it. "Welcome to the first game. Your task here is a scavenger hunt. Locate all the items on this list, but it must be done in order. Go out of order, and you lose the game. The final item will have a card attached to it with a riddle to the next time. Good luck."

Snap looked at him, perplexed. "Are you sure that's what it says?"

Blocky nodded his head. "If you don't believe me, here it is." He handed Snap the card.

Snap looked over it, wondering if Blocky misread a sentence or overlooked something. To his surprise, he did not. What Blocky said was exactly what the note had read. The only thing after it was a list of items to locate.

Snap couldn't understand it. He thought that these games were supposed to be life threatening. Bardot certainly made it sound like it was going to be that way. He would have expected something like avoiding gunfire or being breathed on by a fire spewing dragon. But not a scavenger hunt. That was...pretty harmless. All they were doing was looking for items, eventually finding one that would take them to the next game. How dangerous could that be?

He soon realized that maybe..it was designed to make him lower his guard. Perhaps the items they'd have to find would be dangerous. Or maybe he would be tricked into not giving it his all, and by the next time, he would be killed in the first ten seconds. No, despite his confusion and disbelief, he couldn't allow his guard to be lowered. He had to take this seriously and approach with caution.

He was ripped from his thoughts when the ground started to shake. He and his friends looked over and watched in utter shock as a large timer rose out of the ground. The time on it flashed 5:00. This game was going to last five minutes. And there was a lot of items on the list they would have to find. Second later, the timer started to count down.

"Okay, what's the first thing we have to find?" Rapsheeba asked, turning to Snap.

Snap looked at the list. He scanned his eyes up and down, trying to find where the top of the list was. When he found it, he stared at it for a few seconds. "Okay, first thing one list is...a tire."

"A tire? But since when would a playground..." Blocky started to say.

"It must be talking about the tire swingset!" Rapsheeba said. She made a motion with her hand. "Come on!"

The trio ran over to the tire. Sure enough, when they got there, the tire had some kind of mark on it. It was the same mark that was written next to each item. This was definitely one item they had to find. But there was something strange about this tem. There appeared to be a button underneath it. He looked over at the timer and noticed some empty dots along the sides of the numbers. Maybe he was supposed to press it.

Cautiously, he pressed it. The tire began to glow a little. And when he looked over at the timer, one of the dots filled in. Perhaps that was what he was supposed to do. He figured, as he would find each item, and pressed each button, it would fill up the timer and then it would stop when they were done. He guessed that it was from the deactivated timer that they would find the clue to the next game.

Snap looked down at the list. "Okay...next thing is the swingset."

"Well that's pretty easy to find." Rapsheeba said. She headed over to the swingset. She took notice of the button. She looked over at Snap. "Should I push it?"

Snap nodded. "It seems like we are supposed to."

She did so. Same thing happened before. The swingset began to glow a little and, up on the timer, another dot filled up. Though something did look a little off about the timer. He could have sworn it, too, started to glow. Maybe he was just seeing things.

Before they continued to the next item, which was the monkey bars, Snap let Rapsheeba and Blocky look at the list as well. He let them study it. Both of them had good memories, and there weren't too many items on the list. So it was easy to remember what order they were in. Snap felt it would be easier this way so they could all go and push these buttons in less time.

Snap looked at the list once more. All of the items were in plain sight, now that he thought about it. Nothing was obscure or hidden. Was this really one of Bardot's games? Because he would have thought he'd put more effort into it. Listening things that are out in the open doesn't really count as a scavenger hunt. Usually the items would be a bit harder to find. But listing obviously seen things like the swingset? Really? That was the best this guy could come up with?

He looked over at the time. Then again, with just five minutes total for them to find everything, perhaps it was best that the items were easy to find. They would be able to find everything pretty easily in that amount of time, and all the buttons would be pressed, which he assumed that's what they had to do. Then this game would be won and they would be one step closer to finding Rudy and Penny.

He had a feeling things were just going to get worse later on. He suspected that this game was nothing more than a mere warm up. In video games, he knew that it started off pretty easy and only got harder later on as the player learned more skills and got the hang of it. Bardot's games may be just like that. Easy, and then increasing in difficulty.

As they continued the scavenger hunt and found more items on the list, as more buttons were pressed and the circles on the timer filled up, Snap started to get suspicious. The timer really was glowing now. A whitish yellow. Something told him that wasn't a good thing, but it wasn't like he could stop. If he didn't finish before the timer ran out, he would have lost the game, and Rudy and Penny would die. But still, something about this whole thing just didn't feel right to him.

And the whole thing was just...too easy. He wanted to chalk it up to being a 'beginner' kind of level. But ultimately that didn't make much sense to him. Bardot didn't seem to be the kind of guy to make things this easy. He thought about his earlier concerns about him lowering his guard. Perhaps...perhaps that's what he was doing.

Snap took a look around. He took note of the items they had found, the way they were glowing. He looked up at the timer, which had the same glow as the items they found. He looked back and forth between them. Slowly, something clicked in his mind. He wondered if they were playing right into a trap.

He watched as Rapsheeba and Blocky worked through the remainder of the items. They, in the proper order, went to items such as the slide, the merry-go-round, and one of those horse-things that kids like to play on. More items glowed. And the glow on the timer just increased more.

"There's just one more item left." Blocky said, running up to Snap.

"And what would that be?" Snap asked. He tried to hide his worry from before. Maybe he was just overthinking this.

Rapsheeba pointed over to what appeared to be the center of the playground. "The pole right there. I'll go take care of it!"

Snap watched as Rapsheeba rushed over to the pole. He got that bad feeling again. He looked around the playground again. The way the objects were positioned was odd. And why was the timer glowing so brightly now? Snap tried to figure out what was going on. The buttons, the glowing, the positions of the objects...they had to mean something.

He stared at the pole. Rapsheeba was almost to it. In a few seconds, she would press the button. Then this game would be over.

...or would it?

Snap looked around the playground again. He took a few steps back so he could get a better view. It was only by moving back that he started to notice something strange about the floor the playground they were standing on. There were lights shining, and they looked like they were connecting the objects together, in a sense. And the items...they were arranged in a circle. And the pole was in the dead center of it all.

Horrific realization struck Snap. He had a feeling he knew what was going to happen if Rapsheeba pushed the final button. He started to run towards her. A confused Blocky rushed after him.

"Snap, what's wrong?" Blocky asked.

Snap ignored him, his attention focused on Rapsheeba. He reached his hand out, calling out to her in desperation. "Wait! Don't press it!"

But it was too late. As soon as he said it, Rapsheeba had already pressed the button. She turned her head over to him, looking confused.

"What? I thought I was supposed to press it." Rapsheeba said. She was going to say more, but a low rumbling silenced all three of them. They looked around at what was going on.

Their eyes widened in horror. The timer's glow had gone a blood red, and they swore they heard a distorted and drawn out version of Bardot's voice sounding out from a timer, and they had a sickening feeling that they would hear this every time a game was completed. But the red glow and unexpected laughter weren't the only things that have them scared right now.

Snap's suspicions turned out to be right. There was something wrong. Very wrong, and he had realized it too late.

The glow he thought he saw from before brightened, and now it was clear as day. The items that were glowing also shifted to a red color. They started to shake a little, and then they heard the rumbling below them grow louder. It felt as thought something large had been turned on. Then the ground started to shake violently.

The trio gave a scream when the shaking got so bad they fell to the ground. Snap struggled to his feet, but was horrifed when his leg started to sink into the sand. He looked all around them. The ground was...it was being sucked down. The playground equipment started to break apart. The pole had already sunk down below. And they were being pulled closer to the center. Snap tried to push himself away, but the force of the sand was too strong.

Rapsheeba let out a cry of terror. "Snap! Blocky! Look!"

When Snap looked in the direction she was pointing, he felt his heart freeze. The edges of the playground, they were...not normal. It looked as though the playground was cut out by a giant saw. He looked down at the pole, and it took all his strength not to scream at what he saw. The sand had parted, exposing a black abyss below, only it wasn't empty. There was something down there, twisting, churning, and chopping. Some large machine, and it was sucking them all down...

Gravity was also at work. The three held onto some objects, which were secured to the playground floor when this area was created. But they were still being lowered towards this machine. They were descending faster and faster. Snap looked all around, realizing in terror, that it looked as though they were going down a waterfall, only with sand instead of water. And instead of rocks, they were going towards a machine that could easily crush and grind their bones. They needed a way to get out, and fast.

He then saw the monkey bars. They were still pretty close to the edge. If they could just get up there, they could survive this.

"Blocky! Rapsheeba! Quick!" Snap started to jump from item to item, the ones that hadn't already fallen down to the grinding machine. He winced as he heard the metal being easily ripped apart. "Get to the monkey bars! We can pull ourselves out!"

Rapsheeba and Blocky wasted no time. Working together, they jumped from object to object. They slowly scaled upwards, along with Snap. With each object they landed on, they had to climb up as high as they could go, then muster up the strength to jump to the next one. And it wasn't always easy doing this. But they still managed to, slowly, scale upwards.

Then they got to the monkey bars. Blocky was the first one to jump up onto it. Despite having short arms, he was able to keep a pretty tight grip. Snap jumped up and grabbed onto his feet. Blocky swung himself back and forth and was able to thrust Snap high enough to reach over the edge of the pit.

Rapsheeba was next. She jumped up and reached for Blocky's feet. She grabbed on. Like with Snap, Blocky swung her back and forth, gathering up the energy to throw her. When he did, Rapsheeba flew over the edge and crashed into Snap. The two fell to the ground.

The two of them returned to the edge. They looked down, horrified, as Blocky started to go closer to the machine. They called out to him, encouraging him to climb up. They reach their hands down towards him, beckoning him to come up faster. Blocky looked like he was having a hard time climbing the monkey bars. He was trying, but he found it hard to keep his footing and he slipped. And as each second passed by, he was getting further and further away.

Finally, when he made it to the front of the monkey bars, he looked up. He was still a good distance away. And it looked as though he wasn't going to make it. But Blocky wasn't one to give up that easily. Narrowing his eyes, Blocky tightened the muscles in his legs. He took in a deep breath, and he jumped into the air.

Time seemed to freeze for Snap as Blocky jumped towards him and Rapsheeba. They pushed themselves closer to the edge, reaching out as far as they could towards him. Then Blocky started to lower before he got to them, and Snap was worried they weren't going to be able to save him.

"Gotcha!" Rapsheeba said as she grabbed onto one of Blocky's arms.

"Me too!" A relieved Snap said as he managed to get Blocky's other arm.

Working together, they pulled Blocky out of the pit. Then all three of them collapsed on the ground, taking in quick breaths, trying to calm themselves down. Their minds swirled with thoughts of what just happened. Their bodies started to shake as they realized just how close to death they had been.

And what was worse...was that this was only the beginning. Game one. That's it. The death pit plan that Bardot clearly implemented...that was only for the first game. The thought scared all three of them. It was then that they realized just how dangerous these games were going to be. Each one was going to have a death trap for them to avoid. Something that could kill them if they weren't careful.

Snap grew nauseated as an unsettling thought crossed his mind. If this was the death trap they had to survive for the very first game...

...then what was the next death trap going to be?

HOW WILL WE GET OUT OF THIS?:





"M-My...my right..my right h-hand..." Rudy whimpered, his voice laced heavily with pain. He held his right hand to his chest, his body shaking. "I-I c-can't..."

Penny looked at Rudy sympathetically. She sat down beside him, slinging her arm over his shoulder and pulling him close. She could feel this body shaking against hers. She felt so bad for him. He was in a lot of pain, both mental and physical, from Draow's horrific attack. It was such a low blow, something she would have expected from Draow anyway. It hurt her seeing Rudy like this, so shaken up and wracked with agony.

After Draow crushed Rudy's right hand and let him drop, the bat wolf and the hybrid zoner just smirked at his pain. Draow looked the most satisfied. He had mentioned something about how it was nice to finally avenge his master, and how he looked forward to doing more to the boy. Bardot might have said something in response, about taking it easy so the two of them would last for a few days, but Penny hardly paid attention to him. Her mind was focused on Rudy.

The 16 year old boy was on the ground, writhing in pain. He held his trembling right hand. He was constantly crying out in pain. His calls of agony made Penny's heart twist. She immediately rushed over to him after Bardot released her. She knelt down by Rudy and coaxed him to let her see his hand. She gasped at what she saw.

Draow's fang had punctured straight into his hand, all the way through. There was a gaping hole in his hand. A few of his fingers were bent at odd angles. When she attempted to touch his hand, Rudy screamed and yanked his hand away. She looked at him sorrowfully and apologized. She was able to touch his hand long enough to tell there was more eternal damage. A few broken pieces of bone. She realized that he needed to go the hospital as soon as possible to get his hand treated.

Since they weren't going to be able to do that any time soon, she did the next best thing. She did whatever she could to treat the wound. She had no medical items with her at the moment. She had a feeling even if she did, she wouldn't be able to use them; no doubt Draow or Bardot would have taken them from her. So she used the only thing she had available. Her own clothes.

She reached down towards her skirt. She gripped the end of it and pulled hard. She tore off a long piece along the edge. She turned to Rudy and asked him to hold out his hand. Not surprisingly, he was reluctant and moved back from her, holding his hand protectively. She didn't back down so easily, and she kept getting close to him, telling him the wound needs to be patched up with something. Eventually, Rudy did give in, though reluctantly, and let Penny do her best to mend his broken hand.

She wrapped the cloth around his hand. She made sure it was good and tight. Rudy winced and whimpered at the pain. She tried to be as gentle as she could. She made sure to go slow as she continued wrapping the cloth around his broken hand. Once it was wrapped around enough times, Penny then tied the ends together, secure and tight. After she was done, Rudy pulled his hand to himself once more. He lightly wrapped his left hand over the bandage and grimaced at the pain. He looked over at Penny and thanked her for the help.

Although Rudy was grateful Penny helped him, his mood didn't get any better. He sat on the ground, his legs crossed, holding his hand in clear agony. Tears flowed from his eyes. Penny knew that they weren't just from the physical pain. It was from the mental pain inflicted on him. Penny was glad that Draow and Bardot had left not long after injuring Rudy's right hand. She didn't want to hear their mocking voices as they watched Rudy clearly suffering.

Penny knew, without a doubt, that this whole thing had been planned. Bardot and Draow both knew that Rudy would come to her aid if she were in trouble. And Bardot did make a deal with Draow which involved getting revenge on them, especially Rudy. So they had set up the perfect trap for him. Bardot attacks her, Rudy rushes over to save her, and he becomes open to an attack. Draow seized the change and took Rudy's right hand into his jaws. And, despite Rudy's pleas for mercy, the bat wolf still crushed his hand. Penny would never forget that sound, or the screams Rudy made right after he was dropped.

She continued to hold onto Rudy gently, careful not to touch his hand. He leaned against her, sobbing against her shoulder. He had comforted her earlier when Bardot taunted her about her father's death. Now it was time for her to do the same for him. They leaned against the rocky wall, laying below a few of the orange torches. Their fiery warmth did little to chase of the cold they were both feeling.

The attack on Rudy's hand was a double blow. The physical pain was horrendous, and he lost a good amount of blood from it. He couldn't move his hand at all without being wracked with horrific pain. It was also a mental attack. Rudy is the protector of ChalkZone. He is the one who wielded the magic chalk and helped the zoners whenever he could, both against minor things and more major ones. He felt confident in his ability to protect them due to his ability to draw and create anything out of thin air. But with his right hand crushed, he could no longer do that.

Rudy had been afraid of injuring his right hand ever since his left one was permanently damaged by Mr. Cosmo. He had been extra careful with it whenever he did anything. He knew that if he wrecked his right hand, that was it. It wasn't like when he broke his arm just before a bowling tournament. At that time, he could still use his left hand decently. Well enough to defend himself. Now he could barely grip a piece of magic chalk with his left hand, let alone draw with it.

Now, with his right hand crushed and his left hand much weaker than it used to be, Rudy was completely defenseless. Even if he had magic chalk, he wouldn't be able to use it very effectively. If the damage in his right hand becomes permanent... Rudy wouldn't be able to protect ChalkZone anymore. He wouldn't be able to draw. He would have lost his artistic abilities.

The thought broke Penny's heart. Rudy prided himself in his art and his ability to help and protect others. Being stripped of this, being rendered unable to do anything with art anymore, no longer able to protect others, it really hurt him mentally. She shot a glare in the direction Bardot and Draow had walked in. They were truly monsters. And she looked forward to when karma struck them back.

As she held Rudy against her gently, stroking his hair in an attempt to calm him down, her thoughts wandered to her father. Tears welled up as she recalled the cruel words Bardot told her. She remembered every detail. She could practically hear her father's screams of pain. She could see him being ripped apart by this monster. And the way Bardot taunted her about her father's death, it still sent chills down her spine. If she ever needed proof of Bardot being worse than Cosmo...this was it.

She had been making great strides with her father. Even though he wasn't there much as she was growing up, and though her mom didn't really like him that much, she was growing close to him as he started spending more and more time with her. She looked forward to whenever his dad had enough time off to take her places or just to hang out in general. He was a good man...a good man...

It had been such a terrible blow to her psyche when she learned her dad was gone. Not just captured, but actually dying. And very painfully at that. She never thought something like that had happened. Neither her mom nor herself had suspected something like this. If he had been living with them, they might have noticed him going missing. But because he lived across town, there was no way for them to know when he disappeared...not until they saw the news...

Even if they get out of this alive, she knew that was only the beginning. She needed to deal with the loss of her father. She knew her mom was upset by the news. She may not have liked her ex-husband that much but she still would care if something terrible happened to him. She wanted now, more than ever, to be in her mother's arms, hug her, trying to seek comfort. The loss of a parent was a heavy blow to bear. Penny still had a hard time believing it was true, but it was all confirmed when Bardot had the audacity to eat her father's arm in front of her like that. Daddy...

Rudy also needed comforting as well. If the damage in his right hand became permanent, and his ability to draw hindered, she knew he was going to go through a mental breakdown. He wouldn't be able to help the zoners as much as he used to, and that was going to hurt him mentally. He loved helping them out and he was determined to protect them from any possible danger. With two permanently damaged hands, he wouldn't be able to do any of that. He was going to feel very low, and he was going to need support from his friends to help him recover mentally.

Her thoughts then wandered over to Snap. She was very worried about him. When Bardot had told them what happened when he visited them briefly, she and Rudy were both horrified. The thought of Snap, Rapsheeba, and Blocky almost dying like that..and the way Bardot said it so cheerfully, so happily... It was obvious how sick this zoner was. She couldn't believe that he was forcing those three to go through all that torment. And of course, Bardot was going to tell them every bad thing that happens to them, just to drive their spirits down further.

Penny was not aware of just how bad these 'games' of Bardot's would get. Would the last few games be unbeatable? Would Snap die a horrific death? Her eyes welled up with tears at the thought of her friend losing his life to this. And Blocky and Rapsheeba...they were getting pulled in for the ride as well. Bardot was going to have fun hurting them, she could tell. He didn't care if they weren't his targets. The guy was twisted, sadistic...he'd torture Blocky and Rapsheeba just for the fun of it...

Penny couldn't believe all this was happening. It was a nightmare...only it was reality. She felt so helpless. She felt the same as Rudy, like they couldn't do anything. And right now, what could they do? They were trapped. Her father was killed. Rudy's right hand was crushed so he would be defenseless. They were both injured. They were both going to die a painful death if Snap is unable to get to them in time. Things just looked really bleak for them. She felt like there was nothing she could do.

Yet, despite how low she felt, she still had some spark of hope in her. She didn't want to completely lose hope that they'd get out of this. She and Rudy knew how competent Snap could be. She knew that Snap wouldn't rest until he found them. Snap knew they were in grave danger, and he would hurry. She had to remain confident that he'd find them in time.

And once he does, they could capture Bardot and Draow and bring them to justice. It wouldn't be hard to convinct either of them. With all the damage they did, especially Bardot and with Draow's past crimes, they would be locked up forever. Penny would be more than happy to testify against those creeps in court. She would, in that way, make them both sorry for what they've done. She didn't know what kind of punishment they could get that would satisfy her, but she was certain the zoners there would think of an appropriate and satisfying punishment for those two.

Despite her crying, despite her feelings of helplessness, despite her injuries, Penny hadn't truly given up yet. And she knew Rudy hadn't either. They weren't going to give into the torture that easily. They would not allow Bardot and Draow the pleasure of breaking them, of taking away their hope. Rudy was right. They had been in a terrible scrape with Mr. Cosmo. Thinks looked hopeless then, but they still managed to pull through against the odds.

And they could do it again.

"I'm...I'm hungry..." Rudy murmured through his cries.

"Yeah...I know..." Penny whispered back.

Neither of them had anything to eat or drink for almost 24 hours, if not more. Though both of them could easily survive a day without food, neither of them knew how long they were going to be here. It was hard to say how long it would take Snap to get here.

Though their hunger pains were pretty mild, they knew it was just going to get worse from here. As the days go by, they would get hungrier and weaker. And the weaker they got, the more vulnerable they became to their captors' torture. They would soon be unable to fight back effectively. If Snap didn't find them soon, they were both going to suffer a very painful death. Penny knew that they could last a while longer if it was just being without food. But humans didn't last nearly as long if they were deprived of water, which meant that she and Rudy had less time.

And dying of dehydration...that wasn't exactly a pleasant way to go. It was a slow and painful death. And it was going to be further aggravated by the torture that their captors were going to inflict on them. The blood loss was going to speed up the dehydration, speeding up their death. Stopping the bleeding from any new injury they recieve was going to be crucial. But even if she did manage to stop all bleeding, she could do nothing about the water situation...

She could feel the back of her throat feel a tad dry. It wasn't too bad now, but it was going to get worse as time went on. She swallowed, wishing she could have a glass of water right about now. But she knew that Bardot and Draow would not allow her and Rudy to have anything. Though Bardot had access to the real world and could bring food and water for them, it was unlikely he would. He was very clear about wanting them to dehydrate to death, so giving them water would just delay his 'meal time', as he would put it.

It did seem a little odd to be thinking about food after what's happened to them. But having no food, or water for that matter, was part of their torment. It was one part of all the bad things that happened or is going to happen to them. It was going to make their stay much less pleasant, not that they were going to have a good time here to begin with.

Penny gingerly touched her forehead and immediately seethed in pain. The cut itself had stopped bleeding. The blood coagulated a while ago. But it was still a deep cut and it hurt to touch it. It was like someone was slowly cutting her head open with a shard of glass. Though it stopped bleeding, she knew it was going to get worse if she didn't find some way to treat. She didn't have much to worry about in regards to chalk germs. But Rudy was with her, and he had real world germs on him, as did she. Their wounds could still become infected. Even using their clothes as bandages wouldn't stop infection from settling in. They needed sterile bandages.

When Penny shifted herself, she accidentally hit against Rudy's side. He let out a yelp of pain and cringed away from her a bit. She looked at him apologetically.

"I'm sorry, Rudy." She said to him.

Rudy groaned and said, "It's okay. I know you didn't mean it..."

Penny looked down at his side. Her eyes widened when she saw a bright red stain. "Rudy...let me take a look."

Rudy was a bit reluctant. He put left hand carefuly over his side and scooted away. He looked at her with slightly widened eyes and he shook his head. "No. It's fine...really."

"Rudy..." Penny said, narrowing her eyes. "Let me look."

"No." Rudy shook his head.

Penny was frustrated with Rudy. She didn't know why he had to be so stubborn. She needed to look at his wound and see how it was healing. This was, currently, Rudy's worst wound. The one on his right hand was bad, yes, but the one in his side was deeper and had more flesh torn. She needed to look at it and see if there was anything she could do to help.

With how Rudy reacted to her accidentally touching the area, the wound was very tender and sore. With how deep the wound was, she wasn't surprised. It was also a clear sign that Rudy was lying; that area wasn't fine. He could try to deny it all he wanted to, but she could see right through his lies just by his reactions alone.

Penny gently touched his left hand. "Please, Rudy... You were bitten pretty badly by Draow there. Let me take a look. I'll do my best not to hurt you, okay?"

"...oh okay..." Rudy said reluctantly. He moved his hand away.

Penny motioned for Rudy to straighten himself up. When he did, she reached down to the bottom of his shirt. She grabbed it and lifted it up a little. She pulled it until she could see the wound in plain sight. She grimaced at it.

She could see the puncture marks where Draow had bitten down. The skin was discolored, mostly a dark purple. She thought she saw a little bit of green, too, and she realized, in horror, that infection had already started to settle in. And that wasn't her only worry. In the biggest puncture wounds, there was still blood dripping from it. It has been at least 24 hours, and the wound was still bleeding...

Horror swept through her heart, an uncomfortable feeling gripping her chest. All of her wounds had stopped bleeding an hour or so ago. But Rudy's side wound...it was still bleeding. He was still losing blood. And judging from it, the bleeding hardly slowed down. Draow had done a lot more damage to his side than she thought. She had to do something to stop the bleeding and fast.

Penny kicked off her shoes. She grabbed one of her socks and pulled it off. Yeah it wasn't exactly the best smelling piece of cloth, but she needed something thick, and her socks were a little thicker than her skirt. She pressed the cloth against Rudy's side. He hissed in pain and struggled a little. Penny placed a hand on his shoulder and gently rubbed it to try to calm him down a little. She felt bad about doing this. She could see how much it was hurting him. Tears of pain were coming from the boy's eyes. But she had to do this to stop the bleeding.

But to her horror, no matter how hard she pressed the sock against the wound, no matter how much pressure she applied, the wound just wasn't stopping with the bleeding. Fear swept through her body as she realized what had happened. Draow bit down so hard that...that he ruptured something inside Rudy. The bleeding was eternal, deep. No amount of pressing against the wound was going to stop it. He needed to to the hospital, and fast.

But he wasn't going to be able to go to the hospital any time soon. And there was nothing in ChalkZone that could help them. The blood would dissolve any bandages she got from this place. Not right away, but slowly it would. It would do little to stop the bleeding. And if she didn't stop the bleeding soon...oh no...Rudy...

"No...come on...please..." Penny whispered. She pressed the sock a little harder, prompting a cry of pain from Rudy. "Please...work..." She hoped that, by some miracle, she could stop the bleeding. But it didn't work. She shook her head in disbelief. "No..."

Rudy gave her a small smile. "It's...okay. I'll be fine..."

Penny shook her head. "No you won't. You're still bleeding." Her voice was laced in worry and fear. She stared at the wound for a few seconds, then turned her gaze back to Rudy. "I lost my father. I don't want to lose you, too..."

"You won't.." Rudy said reassuringly. He put his right arm around Penny, careful not to move or hit his damaged right hand. He pulled her a little closer to him. "We'll..get out of here. And we will both be fine. You'll see..."

Penny tried her best to smile back. But she could barely manage it. Her dark brown eyes slowly gazed back down on the bleeding wound. She needed to find a way to stop the bleeding and fast. Rudy was going to lose strength faster if he kept bleeding out like this. And with Bardot and Draow willing to hurt him more, to give him more injuries, having an injury bleed like this for over a day wasn't something that Rudy could afford.

"I know, Rudy." She finally said, trying to sound as hopeful as she could. "I know."

BET YOU DIDN'T SEE THIS COMING:





Rudy growled under his breath. When he spoke, his voice was laced in pain and anger. "I hate you..."

He glared up at Bardot, who stood in front of him and Penny, wearing the usual cocky smile. Draow was laying in the door way, his back turned to them. Bardot didn't look at all fazed by the boy's anger. He just smiled down at Rudy, grinning practically from ear to ear. If anything, Rudy's anger made him look happier, like he was pleased with himself.

Bardot had just finished telling them what had happened to Snap during his run through the Candycane Forest. He had put so much emphasis on when Snap got hurt, describing in detail the brutal mauling he had gotten. It was so descriptive that Rudy could practically see and hear it in his mind. It didn't get much better when Bardot brought up the limp that Snap would have throughout the rest of the game. Bardot made a cruel joke about how Snap would have a hard time surviving the next game with that injury.

Rudy was utterly disgusted by the whole thing. Bardot was taking great pleasure in all of this. Causing pain and suffering... what kind of sicko gets off on this? Even Mr. Cosmo, who was a terrible man himself, had some boundaries. Rudy couldn't see that guy, as horrible as he was, going to the same lengths as Bardot. Maybe that was why Cosmo feared the red chalk. Maybe that's why he refused to erase Bardot himself. He must have known that, by doing so, he was unleashing literal hell, and it would be something beyond his control. That man was all about control.

Penny was frightened by what Bardot told them. She kept shaking her head and crying, obviously thinking about the danger Snap was now in. Knowing that Snap had an injury that coud slow him down and make him lose an upcoming 'game'...it was really unsettling.

But despite her worries, Penny still hadn't given up on Snap or on themselves. She never gave in that easily, and Rudy was glad she still had that same determination here, despite all that had happened. That was one of the things he loved about her. She wasn't helpless and she could really hold her own if she had to. If she weren't injured right now and if she had magic chalk, she would teach Bardot a lesson and she could them out of this mess.

A dark chuckle broke him out of his thoughts. He almost stumbled back when he saw how close Bardot had gotten to him and Penny. He snarled at Bardot, clenching his left hand into as tight of a fist he could make. Which...wasn't much of a fist since he couldn't bend his fingers to the same degree as he could on his right hand, at least before it was injured.

Although Penny was afraid, she didn't cringe back like Rudy guessed Bardot thought she would, especially with the knowledge that he is her father's murderer. Instead, Penny looked just as angry as Rudy did. She didn't form a fist, but she did give Bardot a look that, if stares could kill, would have caused the monster to drop dead where he stood. But not suprisingly, this only brought another laugh from Bardot, completely unfazed by the teens' anger.

Bardot put his face close to Rudy's. He sneered, "Oh is that so? Well then... If I were you..." He moved his muzzle until it was next to Rudy's ear. He said in a harsh whisper, "I'd hate me too." He moved back when Rudy tried to strike him with his weaker left hand. Bardot let out a quick chortle. "Almost got me there. But I tell ya, trying to hit me isn't going to do you much good."

Rudy narrowed his eyes. "It'll make me feel better."

Bardot smirked. "Well yes I suppose it would. But you're wasting too much energy. You should try to relax a little more."

"As if..." Penny said, her voice low. She glared hatefully at the hybrid zoner. "It's not like you'll let us relax. You heartless beast..."

Bardot cocked an eyebrow. He turned his head towards Draow. He stared at him and looked like he was contemplating something. Seconds later, he turned his head back to Penny. If he had been thinking about calling Draow over here, it was clear that he had changed his mind. Rudy wondered if it was because Bardot wanted them alive for a while. Draow isn't exactly the most gentle zoner around.

Or maybe...there was another reason. There was that look in Bardot's eye. The kind that he and Penny became too familiar with during their short stay here. The look that told them he had something special in mind for them. And this special thing was never anything good.

Rudy's eyes widened a little. Just what did he have in mind Draow do next? Was he going to crush his other hand? Was he going to tear more into his side, or tear up Penny more? And knowing Bardot, he wasn't going to tell them anything. He had a feeling Bardot was going to be the kind of villain who gives hints that they will get hurt, but then leaving it all to their imagination, leaving them in cruel suspense until the torture does happen.

"If you won't relax, I suppose I'll have to make you relax." Bardot said in a sweet sounding voice. "And I think I know how to do that..."

Without warning, Bardot seized Penny and dragged her away from Rudy. In protest, Rudy tried to get to her, but Bardot kicked him in the leg with his hind foot, knocking the boy to the ground. Rudy landed on his right hand and let out a scream of pain. He held his hand, trembling, and looked over to see what Bardot was doing.

Penny fought against Bardot. She managed to land a couple of punches on him. Though the punches seemed to be hurting Bardot, he was ignoring them. He gripped Penny by the throat and held her down. But rather than slash her up like Rudy expected, instead, Bardot merely struck, and not with his full strength, directly on her head wound. Rudy's eyes widened, horrified by Bardot's cruelty. Did it know no bounds? No limits?

Penny's eyes flew open and she let out a horrific scream. Then seconds later, she crumpled to the ground, unconscious. The pain was too much for her to handle. Bardot had struck by pressing his three claws against the wound. The sharp tips combined with the pressure had sent so many shockwaves of pain that Penny fainted from it. It was a horrific sight for Rudy to behold.

And when Bardot looked at him, Rudy knew that he was going to be next. The yellow and red zoner started to slink towards him. Rudy tried to get up, but he was unable to get far. Another blow to his leg and he was on his knees. He glared hatefully at Bardot.

"You're sick..." Rudy hissed under his breath. His gaze went over to Penny for a second, then he looked back at the zoner. "Striking an open wound..."

"Eh...does it really matter? It's going to get infected anyway." Bardot waved a dismissing paw. "I'm just speading up the process."

"I'll kill you..." Rudy threatened, baring his teeth at the deranged zoner. He was not a violent person, and he usually didn't wish death on anyone. But Bardot...he deserved it. "You will regret the day you messed with me and my friends."

Bardot shook his head. "Yeah, yeah...sure, kid. We'll see about that. But for now...sleep!"

Rudy noticed how much louder the word 'sleep' had been spoken. But he barely had time to dwell on it because, in that instance, Bardot made his move on him. He pressed his paw against his wounded side, pressing the claws into it. The moment this happened, Rudy's mind was assaulted by agony.

He let out a bloodcurdling scream as the claws pressed into him. Bardot pushed harder and harder, not enough to cut him up badly, but enough to send him through a world of pain. Bardot's other paw held onto his arm, holding him in place. Rudy kept screaming, begging Bardot to stop it. Tears streamed down his face. This was absolute torture. It felt like someone was pouring lemon juice and salt down into the wound and then, just because, driving a knife down there as well.

Rudy tried to struggle to get away, but the pain was getting to be too much for him. The pain caused the world around him to spin. It felt like minutes went by, but actually only seconds did. Rudy felt his mind start to shut down, unable to handle the pain Bardot was triggering. He took one last look at Bardot, who was wearing an evil smile, before he closed his eyes and fell to the ground.

And soon, everything was dark.

sss

Milly Tabootie stood in her son's room. The blood still stained the ground and walls. She had meant to clean it up, since the police already investigated it and got all the data they could from it. But her heart...it just wasn't into it. No parent should have ever have to do this. No parent should ever have to clean up blood that came from their own child...

It hurt to be in the room. Knowing something terrible happened to her child, just being in here makes her practically hear her son's screams. A horrendous feeling of guilt overwhelmed her. Why hadn't she or Joe heard the screams? Why hadn't they noticed someone sneaking into their house? With all this destruction, she couldn't believe that she and Joe both slept through it. If they had just woken up and came in, then maybe they could have...

Usually she had no problem with coming into Rudy's bedroom. She usually did when she wanted to clean up his room a little. Rudy, even at this age, still sometimes left messes behind. Or she'd come in to speak to him, or check on him to make sure he's okay if he was sick.

Now, standing in his room, all she could feel was a cold chill. A sickening feeling welled up inside of her, making her want to throw up. Her son was gone...and no one knew where he was. He just vanished, along with those other victims. The victims that no one has found yet. She didn't know if her son was dead or alive. And not knowing made her stomach twist in knots.

Sometimes she would stare out of Rudy's window, onto the sidewalk. She fumbled her hands together as she imagined Rudy coming back home. There would be times where she thinks she sees Rudy, but it was either a figment of her imagination or just a kid that kinda looked like Rudy. And each time she came to the realization she had not seen her son, the lower into depression and hopelessness she fell. She wished there was something she could do. Something...anything...

She wasn't the only mother in suffering. Mrs. Sanchez had also lost a child. Her daughter, Penny. Milly felt so bad for the woman. She had lost not only her ex-husband, but also her daughter, to whatever force has gripped the town. It was bad enough losing her ex-husband, whom while she didn't like, she still cared something for him, but to lose her daughter as well...and in such close proximity... Milly understood how she felt.

The two of them had been speaking to each other over the phone, hoping to learn from each other if any new details had arisen. But sadly, there was nothing. No matter what the investigators tried, nothing was coming up. No new clues, no new details, nothing. It was almost as if they simply vanished into thin air. And for that, she was kind of grateful there were blood stains, because that alerted her something was terribly wrong. If there was no blood, she would have thought that Rudy just left early, and they wouldn't have known he was in danger until many hours later. All that time where they could have been searching for him would have been wasted, and time would be closer to running out.

Mrs. Sanchez felt guilty about about letting Penny stay over. She felt that she should have made Penny come home, so she would be safe. She didn't blame Rudy or his family for what happened, however. She understood that Milly and Joe were suffering just as much as she was. She just wished there was something more she could have done.

Milly felt the same way. She felt that she and her husband could have prevented this from happening if they had been more careful and vigilant. If only they hadn't been such deep sleepers, if only they had kept their bedroom door open at night, if only they paid more attention...

The blood all around her wasn't helping her mood any. With so much blood loss from Rudy and Penny...she had no idea if they were...still alive... What happened to them that made him lose so much blood? Had their attacker beat them to death? She stifled a sob at that thought.

She hoped whoever did this was caught soon. She hoped they would be brought to justice. She hoped that they would be stopped before it was too late, before this...this monster could harm anymore people.

She went up to her son's chalkboard. It still had some faint marks from his latest creation. She could mentally picture him standing there, working on something else and smiling at her. This choked her up. She reached over and placed her hand on the chalkboard, feeling the cold surface intermixing with the chalky dust that clung to it. She moved her hand up and down, tears streaming down her face. Rudy...she wished she knew where he was.

"Milly?"

The large woman turned and looked behind her. She saw her husband standing in the doorway, looking at her sympathetically.

"Oh, hi, Joe..." Milly replied, her voice soft and quiet.

Joe slowly walked into the room. He looked around at the blood stains, grimacing at just how much blood there was. He stood behind his wife, staring at the chalkboard his son loved to use. He wiped away a tear. He placed a comforting hand on his wife's shoulder.

"They'll find him, Milly." He said, trying to sound as reassuring as possible to her.

"And what if they don't, Joe?" Milly said, her voice cracked with emotion. The tears came faster. "No one knows where they are... No one knows what happened to these poor victims that have been disappearing from Plainsville. There...there isn't enough evidence to find them...Oh Joe..."

She swung around and grabbed her husband into a tight hug and refused to let go. She started to cry into his shoulder. Joe's eyes widened at the sudden gesture, but soon returned the hug. He patted his wife's back, trying to do whatever he could to help her feel better.

"Let's not give up hope, Milly." Joe said. "Someone...someone will find out what happened. And we will find out. Whether it is for the better or for the worse...we'll soon know what happened to Rudy. And whoever hurt him and those other people will be given the punishment they deserve. You'll see."

"I..hope you're right, Joe." Milly whispered. She continued crying, her mind flooded with thoughts of what could have happened to Rudy and Penny. "I really hope so..."

sss

Snap glared at the ominous timer. He hated it. He knew that it was a mocking reminder of how little time he had to save his friends. He knew that, once all those circles were filled up, the timer would activate the next death trap. He had been glad when he didn't have to look at the thing in the previous 'game'. But he should have realized that it wasn't to last. He would have to get used to this thing appearing in most or all of these sinister games, staring at them, mocking them.

He held onto his golf club, squeezing it tightly. He stared down at the blue ball laying on the ground. He pressed the golf club against it, eyeing where he was going to hit it. The hole was straight ahead. He pulled back and he swung the club, hitting the ball.

As he made the motion, he let out a cry of pain. The motion had irritated the injuries on his leg and side. His knees nearly buckled, and he stumbled forward a little from the pain, which didn't help alleviate any of it; it just made it worse. Blocky stood close by and he grabbed Snap, helping him steady himself before he fell into the ground. He looked at Snap sadly, looking like he really wanted to help him, but was helpless to do anything.

Blocky and Rapsheeba had done all they could to help Snap. Rapsheeba had turn off a large piece of her right pant leg and used it to try to stop the bleeding. This took some time, but it managed to work. The wounds were still exposed to the air, and while she managed to wrap up the wounds on his leg as well as his arm, his side was a different story. The cut ran along vertically and was so long that Rapsheeba doubted she'd have enough coverup left to create a make-shift bandage for that wound.

Snap felt that they would be able to find something soon to help treat his wounds, and for now, decided to just deal with it. He couldn't ignore the raging pain, but he could try to manage his reaction to it. He focused on Rudy and Penny, reminding himself that he is doing this for them. The pain would not get better until he is treated, but he did manage to turn the pain into a motivator. This is what Rudy and Penny were going through. The pain... His determination to save them rose, knowing that this is what his friends were experiencing.

After Snap saw that his ball had gotten down the hole, he gave a small, uncomfortable smile. He looked up and he saw another dot fill up. They were on the tenth hole. Eight more to go. They were getting closer to winning the game; but they were also getting closer to another death trap they would have to survive.

He remembered what the note had said when they first arrived. The card was attached to the flag of the first hole, taped on hastily like whoever put it there was in a big hurry.

It had said:

"Welcome to the third game. All you need to do is play a nice game of chalk golf. Sounds relaxing, right? Well think again. One of these holes will activate the next death trap. I would love to see how you manage to get out of this. Be careful of the ground you stand on. It's not as stable as it appears. Good luck!"

This had all three of them worried. It took a lot of courage for them to even start up the game. The fact that, at any time, the death trap could be activated, and the mention of the ground being unstable...it had all three of them on edge. The timer didn't help either; the circles filled up at random, with no rhyme or reason. Sometimes getting a ball into the hole would fill up one circle, sometimes two, sometimes three. It all varied.

And if that wasn't bad enough, there was a timer in this game. Twenty minutes was all they had to activate the death trap. And they weren't allowed to cheat so they couldn't speed anything up. And because this was chalk golf, they had to deal with the balls walking a foot away from the hole.

Normally, Snap loved this part of the game because of the challenge. But now all it did was frustrate him and make him angry. Now wasn't the time for such delaying tactics like this. He could now see why Penny was so angry with this portion of the game. Snap wished that Bardot had chosen regular golf, but then again, this was Bardot he was thinking about. He would, of course, pick a harder form of golf just to make things even more difficult for him.

"It's my turn." Rapsheeba said solemnly.

Snap and Blocky moved out of the way for her. She took her red ball and placed it on the ground. They were at the next hole now, the eleventh. She pucked the ball and the three of them watched it roll down towards the loop that it had to go past. This hole was going to be one of the toughest to get past because of that darn loop. But it wasn't like they had a choice.

They watched as Rapsheeba's red ball just barely made it through the loop. It bounced a little when it fell from the loop, but it was on the other side at least. The red ball rolled towards the hole. It was getting very close. Snap, Blocky, and Rapsheeba held their breaths, watching intently as the ball got ever closer to the hole. Then, seconds later, the ball fell in.

Relief swept through the trio and they hugged each other for a second. It was rare that any of them were able to pull off a hole-in-one, but when they did, they were very excited and happy. With what little time they had remaining, about ten by now, the more hole-in-ones the faster they would be able to move. And the faster they'd be able to get this game done and over with, the better. They had little time to diddle dally. Rudy and Penny were in danger, and with only ten minutes on the clock remaining to finish this game...

Unfortunately, Blocky and Snap did not have as much luck sinking hole-in-ones on this hole. Snap's ball rolled back, unable to make the loop. Blocky's ball stopped immediately after the loop. And of course, since this was chalk golf, the balls walked a foot away, adding to the distance they had to sink the ball into the hole. Rapsheeba stayed with them; it was not considered breaking the rules if she waited for them before going down to the next hole. Snap guessed it was because he wanted all three of them together when they...had an unfortunate accident.

The three of them continued to advance through the chalk golf game. As they continued, anxiety rose in Snap's heart. They were running out of time to finish this game. They still had several more holes to go through before the game could be considered finished. He kept looking up at the timer, seeing it counting down. Seven minutes...then six...then five... His heart raced. Time was running out.

They were only on the fifteenth hole. Most of the circles were filled up on the timer, but so far no sign of the death trap. With this hole and three more holes remaining, Snap knew that they couldn't waste any time. He knew they had to get at least a couple of hole-in-ones if they want to finish this game in time.

But the odds of that were slim to none. Snap watched as Blocky hit his green ball, only to have it stop halfway down, then the ball walked back a foot. Blocky wasn't the best at chalk golf, but he was still trying as hard as he could. That was all any of them could do. Try the best they can with these games, no matter how bad they actually are at them.

Blocky did soon get his ball into the hole, though. And so did Rapsheeba, who managed to sink another hole-in-one. Now it was Snap's turn. He stared at the course, the barrels that moved back and forth, and tried to judge at what time he should hit the ball. As soon as he made an educated guess, he pucked the ball. It managed to slip through the barrels and headed towards the hole.

He and his friends watched it, tension rising up, knowing there was only three minutes left. The ball rolled around the hole. Their hearts pounded. If the ball missed...

Then the ball rolled into the hole. The three of them smiled, happy that Snap was able to pull off a hole-in-one. But their celebration couldn't last. They still had more holes to take care of first. Snap glanced briefly at the timer. Only two minutes remaining...

Fear gripped him. How were they going to finish the game with just two minutes remaining? That seemed like an impossible feat. That would require them taking less than a minute on the final three holes. There was no way that was possible unless they all sunk hole-in-ones all the time. And that was not a likely possibility. Snap began to fear the worst. Had he...had he failed...?

Before he could go get his ball, something unexpected had happened. Well it wasn't that they didn't see something like this coming. It was just that they didn't realize it would be this early in the game, when they hadn't even reached the eighteenth hole just yet.

The numbers 1:30 flashed constantly on the timer. There was no glow like before, but the horrific laughter of Bardot could be heard. The ground beneath their feet started to quake. It wasn't as bad as on the playground, but it was still enough to knock them off their feet. Snap cried out as he landed on his injured arm. Rapsheeba and Blocky helped him up and the three of them looked around. Fear rose up inside them as the rumbling started to get worse. Then they heard cracking and what almost sounded like bubbling.

Then, at a rapid pace and much to their horror, lava started to pour out of the golf course's holes. The lava rapidly spread across the ground, melting and covering everything in the tremendous heat. The lava was incredibly runny, not thick like it usually was, meaning that it was able to spread faster than normal lava.

The trio screamed, looking all around as the golf course literally erupted, turning into several mini-volcanoes. The lava spewed from the ground, covering much of the course. And just when the trio thought things couldn't get any worse, the sprinkler system activated. But Bardot had done something to it. Rather than spewing water in an attempt to cool the lava, instead fire spewed, raining down everywhere. Intense heat filled the air, and lava and few set the golf course ablaze, and smoke began to rise, making it hard to see too far in front of their faces.

"L-Lava? Fire?!" Blocky cried. He jumped as a small bit of flame almost hit him. "What are we going to do?!"

"I'll tell you what we need to do! Run away!" Rapsheeba cried as she quickly backed up, her feet almost touching the lava.

Snap looked all around him, trembling in fear. The heat was intense, almost burning his skin. How was he going to survive this? He had a bad limp. He wouldn't be able to easily outrun this. But he would slow down Rapsheeba and Blocky if he had them try to help him. He..he would have to do this on his own...

Snap turned to his friends. "Rapsheeba's right! Run!"

With that, the three began to run away from the fire and lava. Smoke swirled around them, causing them to cough. Though it hurt him to run like this, almost falling over, Snap refused to ask his friends for help; he didn't want to slow them down and risk letting them burn in the flames.

As the fiery flames and lava began to surround them more, Snap's mind raced with a burning question. How were they going to get out of this?

sss

"Snap...no..." Rudy whispered, his voice laced in pain.

He had woken up about thirty minutes ago, along with Penny. Bardot informed them they had been out for a little while, though he did not give the time. He mentioned they had a good rest and thinks they will be in a better mood. It was obvious sarcasm of course. What he did to them..if anything it just made them even more nervous and afraid, as well as angry and wishing to be able to fight back.

As soon as he and Penny woke up and were aware of their surroundings, Bardot had informed them of Snap's progress. He gleefully announced that Snap's time may have come. He told Rudy and Penny about the lava and fire that he had placed under the course, and joked about how the three were about to be cooked alive. They were almost completely surrounded by the heat and flames, and with Snap's limp, they weren't going to be able to get out in time, it looked like.

Rudy refused to believe Snap would be beaten so easily. He had confidence that, somehow, he would be able to make it out alive. So did Penny. But still, knowing what kind of danger his friend was in, knowing that, any moment, he could die, Rudy couldn't stop the feeling of dread from occupying his heart. To know he was this close to losing his best friend...He gave a shudder.

"Perhaps I should pull in a television set and hook my nano-cameras to them, so they can broadcast what is going on." Bardot said in an eerie voice. "We could watch Snap die together."

Rudy snarled at this. "You're a sick bastard!"

Bardot smiled at Rudy. "I'm quite well aware that I am."

Rudy just glared at him. The guy certainly wasn't trying to act like he wasn't a monster. He fully admits that he is, and then proceeds to do the most horrific things. Making them watch Snap die...that was just completely heartless. Everything this guy did was twisted and abhorrent. And every new action he committed, the worse he seemed when compared to Mr. Cosmo. Rudy never thought he's think this, but he...really missed Mr. Cosmo right about now. He was easier to deal with than this guy.

The nano-cameras that Bardot mentioned.. He was familiar with them. And it had chilled him to the core, not just because of the use, but how similar it was to something Penny was working on. About seven months ago, Penny had been working on a project to create tiny nano-cameras for use in ChalkZone. She wanted to use them for peaceful reasons of course. Just exploring areas of ChalkZone they couldn't normally reach very easily. She never got around to finishing it and the idea was put on the back burner.

The fact that Bardot somehow knew about these cameras that Penny thought of was terrifying. There was no way he could have known. Penny had only spoken to Rudy and Snap about the project, and it was always done at Snap's house. No one was around to spy on them. There was no way Bardot could have known this.

There..there had to be a reason Bardot could know. But the only way he could have known was...

...was if he talked to Barney...

Rudy's eyes flew open at this realization. Could that be the reason why? Could Bardot have paid Barney a 'friendly visit' and forced him to release the information? That was the only thing that made sense to him. It would explain how Bardot knew all this information despite being relatively young. He glared in Bardot's direction, wanting to much to do something against him.

Yet he was still reeling back from the pain inflicted on him. His side radiated with agony, spreading across his stomach and up to the side of his chest. Bardot's strike against his wound was a horrendously low blow. His side still ached with the pain, still feeling those claws hitting against him. And Penny was still in obvious pain from that as well. She had tried to touch her head a few times, only to cry out in pain before she even touched the wound. She was in obvious distress, rubbing the sides of her head in a futile attempt to relieve some pain. Rudy wouldn't doubt Bardot did this to make them weaker.

Bardot smirked at the two teenagers. Rudy could see, behind him, Draow was approaching. The bat wolf stood behind the yellow and red zoner. Those piercing teal eyes stared into the teenagers' eyes. The malice could practically be felt from where they were.

Bardot said, "It is a shame your parents aren't here to see this. I'm sure they would love to know what's going on with you two." His voice was light and calm, like he was merely talking about the weather. Rudy snarled at him. "But no matter..." Bardot raised a claw. "I can soon take care of that... A family reunion is in order, don't you think?"

Rudy's heart started to race. Was Bardot talking about capturing their parents...? No..he couldn't do that. Rudy wasn't going to allow him to hurt anyone else. His parents, Penny's mother..he was not going to allow this bastard torture them, too. His body shook in rage and he attempted to climb to his feet.

"You..." Rudy started to say.

But before Rudy had a chance to do anything, Penny had acted first. Ignoring the pain she was in, she had doved straight towards Bardot. She grabbed onto him and wrestled him into the ground. Rudy was amazed by this and watched as Penny grabbed Bardot's throat and held him down. Bardot just smiled at her, taking her sudden assault in stride.

"Don't you dare hurt my mother, you murderer!" Penny snarled, her voice filled with more menace than Rudy ever heard.

Bardot chuckled. "My, my..what a strong spirited girl you turned out to be. Maybe it's time I..rectified that..."

Rudy watched in horror as Draow came in from behind and knocked Penny from Bardot. He pressed his foot against the girl, pinning her to the ground. Penny struggled to get free, but it was no use. Her previous anger was replaced with fear as she stared up at the enraged and vengeful bat wolf. Bardot came over and grabbed Penny's left arm. He pressed it against the ground as hard as he could, immobilizing it. Then Draow raised his wing claw.

Rudy attempted to get up. "No! Don't do it!" He pleaded. He only got a step closer before pain wracked his side, causing his knees to buckle down. He hit the ground with great force, smashing against his right hand again. Tears of pain flowed down his face. He lifted up his head and reached a hand out to where Penny was pinned down. "No!"

But his pleas fell on deaf ears. Draow pressed the claw against Penny's arm, where the crook where the forearm and arm met at the elbow. Then he cut into her arm. Penny let out a yelp of pain. But Draow wasn't finished. He slowly cut downward, taking his time. Fresh blood flowed rapidly from the new wound. Tears of pain dripped from Penny's eyes as her agonizing screams filled the room.

Rudy watched in horror, his body shaking. "Penny! No!"

Seconds later, Penny passed out.

HE IS THE UNKILLABLE:





Judging from the outside of the rhino-shaked entrance, it doesn't seem, at a glance, that there would be too much inside of it. There was the room where Rudy and Penny were being held, which was a decent size itself, looking like it was "manmade" in a sense. However, looks are deceiving, as there was a lot more inside this structure that meets the eye.

There were some tunnels, twisting and winding that went further down. Each level had a thin floor made of stone and wood. Whoever had built the place sure knew what they were doing. The structure looked like it took years to built, but with the blue chalk, it might have only taken a few hours. There were multiple rooms that were well hidden. Most of them were empty, like it wasn't yet decided what they were going to be for.

In one particular room, it was completely dark with no source of light, unlike most of the other rooms. The room was half the size that Rudy and Penny were being held in. There were multiple machines stacked together, black in color with multiple colored lights. There was the steady hum of a machine, the whirring of machinery inside.

Lining the walls was a honeycomb of square domes with rounded edges. There looked to be at least twenty of them. And each one had a line down the middle, so technically there were fourty of these objects. There was a slight shine to them, reflecting the imagery of the cave. It was faint, yet anyone who took a closer look could see it. And when a certain yellow and red zoner would show up, the bright colors showed up very clearly.

In a matter of seconds, the objects flickered, revealing that they were screens. Monitors all lined up in multiple rows on the rocky wall. A few of them showed nothing but static; the cameras for them not activated. But a few in the center were on. Images of a section of ChalkZone came into full view, illuminating the dark room.

The room wasn't empty of occupants for very long. Slowly, Bardot walked up, his body partially hidden in shadow. The only bit of light shining on him were the monitors. His green eyes fixated on the center monitors. He narrowed his eyes a little, his pupils moving slightly as he studied what the monitor was showing him. Then, seconds later, his crest and ears pricked up. Something had caught his eye.

Bardot moved up to the monitor. He had a feeling that this system was going to come in handy for what his plans were. Keeping track of everything; that was an important aspect of any plan. And that was something that Mr. Cosmo never fully implimented. He was not going to make the same mistakes that man did. He would not underestimate anyone.

Bardot took notice of what the monitor was showing up. He could see his three game players on the ground. They didn't look like they had gone far from the golf course, yet there were no flames. Bardot simply shrugged it off. Some kid must have drawn a storm and erased it near this area or something. It wasn't against the rules, so he wasn't going to charge it against the trio. As he looked more closely, he could see that the trio weren't simply laying down; they were unconscious. His eyes widened just a tiny bit at this. He hoped they would wake up soon; he didn't want to have set up all these games for nothing.

All three of them looked as though they sustained some injuries. Just like he predicted, Snap was enduring most of the pain. He smiled at this. Just like how he had planned. All this...it was simply a test. A test to see just how good this guy really was. He knew that it was so easy to underestimate the blue boy. Indeed, looking at him, he doesn't seem like much. But Bardot wasn't stupid. He knew Rudy had designed him to be a hero, so Snap's competence must be pretty high.

He had been glad he gone through with this plan in the first place. He did have some doubts, an unfortunate side effect of being half white chalk. Recruiting Draow was a very smart choice. Though Draow couldn't possibly understand his entire line of thinking, the bat wolf was so determined to get revenge on Rudy, Penny, and Snap that he was willing to go along with anything. The bat wolf was impulsive, but his brute strength made this scheme all the easier to execute.

Revenge...what a silly concept. It was nothing more than a sucker's game. An infection of sorts that plagues white chalk drawings. It something that amused him. One would think that red chalk drawings were more vengeful. That wasn't so much the case, as they were just more vicious. White chalk drawings are the ones who are capable of choosing to get back at someone. Red chalk drawings are just nasty to everyone and have no sense of loyalty; revenge was far removed from their minds.

He would have told Draow that getting revenge on the three for what they did to his master, but then that would have lost him a valuable ally. Though Bardot didn't currently have interest in seeking revenge, or at least he never saw much of a reason for it, and never experienced a time when he felt vengeful, he knew how to exploit one's desire to seek revenge against another. It might be a silly idea, one that would bring about no real results, but it was useful in one way. It made it so much easier to recruit allies for whatever he himself had wanted.

Being half white chalk, Bardot is aware that he could start feeling vengeful at some point. In fact, there were a few times during his talk with his 'guests' that he did feel some anger. When Penny had knocked him down, that was when he was hit with it the worst. He had, luckily, managed to control himself. He wasn't going to allow his white chalk half to poison his motivations.

Bardot had an excellent memory and he recalled what Barney had told him. He had paid him a visit not long after he was first erased, so he could have time to plan these games. The zoner was reluctant at first, but a little bit of torture and threats go a long way, and he was soon able to force the zoner to relinquish any information he could ever want. And as Bardot was not the kind of zoner to lie, he let the zoner go after he got all the information he wanted. But not before threatening him again if he dared tell anyone else about what he was going to do.

From what he was able to learn, Mr. Cosmo had lost against Rudy because he was foolish enough to let his anger get the better of him. Blinded by this emotion, he had attempted to murder Rudy, but only ended up killing himself. Bardot shook his head at this. The man might have won if he hadn't been such a fool. If he really wanted to kill Rudy, he should have just drawn a gun and blasted his brains out. But in the end, his pride did him in. How typical...

Yet, Bardot was no fool. Being part white chalk, again, he knew of the risks of being affected by that side. While having a white chalk half was beneficial, it still came with its own risks. And knowing how Mr. Cosmo was when he snapped and lost it, Bardot was well aware that he would be much worse if he finally snapped, if he was unable to control his anger.

His red chalk side, the natural viciousness he had, combined with vengefulness and anger, Bardot guessed that, if he had finally lost it, he was going to go into an animal-like state. A beastly mind replacing his intelluctual one, and he would behave a lot more like the pure red chalk drawings. Unable to stop, he would go on a rampage, trying in vain to kill whoever he was angry at. While this might be efficient if there was someone he really wanted to get rid of, it was not something he could afford happening now.

In that state, he would not be able to think properly. He would simply attack blindly. And with all the planning he had been doing, he just couldn't afford snapping like that. So far, he had been managing his anger quite well, keeping on an eerily calm mask and fighting back any urge to strike simply out of spite. If he wanted to remain in control of the situation, he first needed to learn to control himself.

Bardot grew bored of watching the monitor. Nothing had changed. Snap, Rapsheeba, and Blocky were still unconscious. If they didn't wake up soon, he would just have to contact them via radio and hope they would answer. If worse came to worse, he might even show up in person and shake them awake. They were wasting precious time, and he still wanted to have fun with them. He wasn't done torturing them or their human friends just yet.

He looked at some of the recorded footage. He needed to know exactly what happened in order to properly relay it to the teenagers. He didn't always catch everything, so the nano-cameras he created were designed to playback footage at his command. As the images flashed in front of him, a dark smile spread across his face. He was impressed by just how brave Snap was turning out to be.

Bardot headed down the tunnels. He decided it was time to check on the two human guests, as well as give them an update on their little blue friend. He smirked a little. This was one of his favorite parts. He liked seeing the looks on their faces as he described what had happened, especially all the bad things. Emotions can be a powerful thing, and it was his primary weapon in keeping Rudy and Penny in line. Their injuries helped with that, too.

After he checked on those two and made sure Snap and his two friends were awake, he might just decide to call his spy. He had little use for him now, though having him place the cards that he and Draow forgot to do was handy. And he still hadn't thanked him for his cooperation in helping him break into the jail. The children weren't aware of this, but it was also an inside job. He wondered how long it would take for Skrawl to realize he was working with an enemy.

Speaking of Skrawl, his investigation might cause some problems. He was certain that he would be aware of the sinkhole and the lava and fire that suddenly appeared and no doubt he would want those looked at. If Skrawl became a problem, Bardot would have him dealt with. No one was going to interfere with his plans. No one...

He stood in the entrance of the room where Rudy and Penny were held. He just stood there, looking around, studying the three occupants. Draow was asleep, or at least that was how he looked at a glance. A closer look revealed that he just had his head turned to the side. His eyes were open and he looked like he was staring intently at Rudy and Penny. This guy really was obsessed with those two.

Bardot turned his head to the two teenagers. He could see that Penny had woken up. She looked shaken from the pain she experienced, which was understandable. Draow did do quite a number on her. Not that it mattered. His time torturing, playing with, and killing those five other humans did teach him a bit on how durable the humans were, and he knew how to inflict the most pain and damage without outright killing them. If Penny thought what Draow did to her was bad, she hadn't seen anything yet. Soon...oh so very soon...she would experience a nightmare.

Rudy had spotted Bardot in the doorway. He responded by growling lowly and holding Penny closer to him with his left arm. Bardot smiled at his clear loyalty. He must really care for the female human if he is holding her protectively like that. But behind his determination, he could clearly see pain. His hand was broken badly by Draow. A blow that was meant to attack his mind, make him feel helpless. And yet, somehow, he still remains hopeful. Impressive...

He decided not to keep his two 'guests' waiting any longer. He started to make his way towards them. Rudy narrowed his eyes as he got closer. Though Penny still looked defiant, it was clear that Draow's attack did have some effect on her. There was a bit more fear in her eyes this time around.

Bardot continued to walk forward until he stopped five feet away from the teens. His tail swished around, much like an excited cat ready to pounce. "Your friend made it through the fire. I must admit, I am quite impressed by him. It...must have taken a lot of courage to jump through a wall of fire like that." He smirked at the shocked expressions on the humans' faces. "All that fire dancing around them, threatening to burn them alive... They did catch on fire, but no worries. They survived...though Snappy boy may have just made things worse for himself. Seems his open wound suffered some burns. That..is going to be a problem."

Though the two humans looked clearly angry at them, neither of them replied. They must have learned that responding to him won't do them any good. Bardot didn't mind. That just gave him more time talk about what happened.

"And infection is a likely problem. It's going to be worse now that his side injury is worse from being charred in the fire." Bardot paused for a moment. This reminded him of something. He looked over at Rudy. "Does this remind you of anything, boy? Oh yes..it should... Your friend suffered burns before, on his feet I believe. I wonder if this burn is going to slow him down much."

Rudy snarled in response. Penny glared at him hatefully, looking like she was ready to spring at him again. But a quick glare from Draow made the two humans abandon these plans. And a good thing, too. Bardot didn't want them dying on them just yet. They were already badly hurt, and they weren't yet ready to do more damage to them. Everything was spaced out. If they did everything to them at once, well, they'd be dying prematurely.

Bardot walked slowly around the two teenagers, keeping his distance so they wouldn't be able to strike at him. He studied their expressions. His eyes moved across their wounds, taking into account their severity. After circling them three times, he moved back and headed towards Draow. He sat in front of the bat wolf and cocked his head to the side.

They had lost quite a bit of blood already. Dehydration would soon start to settle in. He could tell that they were already thirsty and very hungry. Yet he was not going to allow them a bite to eat. Allowing them to die of dehydration wasn't his favorite methods as he really wanted to eat them right now. He loved the taste of humans. But for the purpose of these games he came up with, waiting around for them to die was something he was going to have to endure.

"Your friend is performing admirably..." Bardot said. "He must be really skilled to have survived three games so far. And there's still more left he must endure."

"Toying with lives..how despicable..." Penny muttered under her breath.

Bardot cast an eye on her. "I see the bit of torture you recieved has done little to put out your fire, little Penny. But don't worry. I'll have that taken care of soon enough. I don't think you'll have much fight left in you when Draow..."

He was cut off before he could finish.

"Bite me." Penny growled.

Bardot's eyes widened a little at this. Even Rudy looked surprised by what Penny said. So it seemed Penny still did have a lot of spirit left in her. Yes, something would need to be done about that soon. The more Penny was hurting, the more Rudy would hurt as well. And the more pain he was in, the easier it would be to control him, and keep him from fighting back. He wanted both him and Penny to be at their absolute worst when Snap arrived. He wanted to see the look on his face when he sees what condition his friends are in.

Rudy recovered from his shock and said, "If you hurt Penny again, I swear, I'll make you sorry."

Bardot turned to face him. "Oh really now? Well don't worry. You'll be in the same boat as her."

After that, the two humans stopped talking to him. They continued to glare hatefully at him. He just smiled back. These humans can be so amusing sometimes. He turned his attention over to Draow. The bat wolf stared at him. Judging from his expression, he was confused.

Bardot said, "What is it?"

"I just don't understand." Draow said, moving his tail to one side, curling it up. "I don't know why you can't just send me out to finish the job. The blue rodent is injured and weak. Now is the time to attack." His pupils shrank into dots. "I want to make him sorry for taking out my master's eye."

Bardot shook his head. "Oh my dear Draow, if I did that, then I won't know exactly what Snap is capable of. I won't know how far his reputation will go."

Draow tilted his head, confused. "Reputation? What reputation?" Even Rudy and Penny looked confused by this statement and were staring at Bardot, expecting him to explain further.

"You see, I have come up with my own nickname for Snap. The Unkillable." Bardot said, putting emphasis on the nickname. "And as I'm certain you want to know why...well..it's because of how he miraculously survived against the odds. The Dark Creator put him through so much pain, gave him so many injuries. He almost died...and yet he still stands. Alive. So I thought to myself..." Bardot glanced at Rudy and Penny, giving them the creepiest of smiles, his eyes glinting with malicious intent. He turned back to Draow. "...just how 'unkillable' is he? How much of a beatdown can he take before he finally falls? I want to see how far I can make him crawl before he dies..."

Draow picked his head up higher, his ears straight in the air. "So what you're telling me is that the primary purpose of these games is to..."

"These games are nothing more than an elaborate torture machine, designed to test his limits, and by the end, you or me will put him out of his misery." Bardot said, giving a dark laugh.

Draow chuckled in response. "You really are more twisted than my master." His eyes glinted. "I like that..."

Rudy and Penny clung to each other a little tighter, staring at the two in fear and horror at what they had just heard.

sss

Snap slowly opened up his eyes. Everything around him was a haze. For a moment, he had forgotten where he was. As he raised his head to look around, seeing nothing but a blur of colors, he realized he was feeling really whoozy and tired. His head was hurting him, and he reached up to rub it.

As his vision started to clear, he looked around and saw Blocky and Rapsheeba on the ground. They had just woken up as well, but they hadn't tried sitting up. It was like they were too dazed or in too much pain to move. He wondered why they were here with him. He didn't recall bringing them with anywhere, at least not at first.

He attempted to get up, but a horrible pain in his left leg caused him to fall back down. What the? What did he do to his leg? He held onto his left leg and looked at it. Pieces of what appeared to be cloth covered the leg. He gingerly pressed his hand on it. Seering pain forced him to pull his hand away. He then noticed that his left arm had cloth wrapped around it too, and he could now feel a dull pain eminating from it. Fear started to well up inside of him. How did this happen?

When he tried again to get up, a shooting, jabbing pain in his side forced him back down. He looked at his left side and was horrified by what he saw. There was a gaping hole in his side, a deep gash that ran along vertically. He could see a bit of his flesh was charred and it constantly stung him even when he wasn't touching it. Even just moving slightly sent an assault of pain throughout his body. He felt something warm drip from the wound.

Blood.

Snap looked at the ground he laid on and realized, trembling in horror, that he had lost a ton of blood. The entire ground was covered in blood, colored a deep red. And that was when memories came flooding back to him. Bardot, the games, the chocolate bunnies tearing him apart, the fire, jumping through the fiery flames...

The smoke...they must have been knocked out by the smoke. Oh no... His eyes widened in fear. Just how long had they been out? How much time did they waste just laying around here?

Snap looked over at Rapsheeba and Blocky. He saw that both of them were now sitting up. They groaned in pain, both of them having suffered a few minor burns on their bodies. "What...what time is it...?" Snap asked, his voice laced in fear.

Rapsheeba glanced down at her watch. "Six in the morning..."

Snap's body started to shake. A cold realization froze his heart. "Oh no..."

They had been out cold for two hours.

YOU ARE DOWN BY ONE, SNAP:





Skrawl sat down in his office, located on the highest level of his high security prison. He pulled his chair up to his dark-colored desk. Covering it were a few thick folders, filled with information that had been gathered regarding this mystery zoner that had broken Draow out of prison. Along with that, there were also photographs of the crime scene, as well as other things, such as blurs of yellow and red that had been spotted recently.

Skrawl still could not identify the zoner. It didn't look familiar to him. None of his wardens could come up with any answers either. More investigating was required, but things were getting really hectic lately. Investigating anything was becoming really hard. More and more zoners are taking notice to the strange occurrences lately, and were trying to figure things out for themselves. This complicated the investigations; his Beanie Boys often came back with little to no information because the panicked zoners would shove them aside so they could look for...well whatever was there.

Skrawl looked at the images strewn down before him. He picked up one. It was the clearest shot of the zoner. Red and yellow blurs, and a slight shape. It looked four-legged and he thought he spotted a tail. But that was all he could see. This zoner moved too quickly for cameras to catch him. He didn't know if it was because the zoner knew where the cameras were somehow and could zip by them, or if the zoner was always running really fast anyway and the camers were just lucky enough to get a shot of him.

But there was something else he was noticing about this zoner. He could see a bit of his outline. It was heavily blurred and distorted, but he could still make something out. And he noticed something off about it. Reddish markings it looked like. They adorned the outline, striping in random places. He had never seen this in a zoner before. Something was really off about this.

He couldn't think of why the outline would be striped. He narrowed his eyes and rested his head against his three digit hand. He thought for a while, trying to make some kind of connection. There had to be a good reason why it was striped like that. None of the other zoners he's seen had something like this. And even if there were, the striping would be based on the coloration of the zoner. This one, however, was random and erratic. There was no rhyme or reason for it.

Then something came to his mind. He thought about magic chalk. He was aware of the normal white type, the evil red type, and the corrupting black type. He also knew there were other types, such as orange, blue, green, and purple, but he had no idea what their powers were. What he did know is that those drawn with red chalk were always red in color, with a red outline. Black and white produced zoners of different colorations, not just red. But with red chalk, always red...

He looked back at the blurred picture, staring at the striped outline. He didn't think it was possible... He had never heard of such a thing before. But was it possible that this zoner was half white chalk, half red chalk? If that was so, maybe that would explain the striped outline. If it were a hybrid of white and black, there would be no striped outline. But because red chalk always produces red drawings, if it were paired up with white chalk, the outline would become striped like a candycane.

This revelation startled Skrawl. He was well aware of how vicious red chalk was. That was why, when he used to scheme, he never touched the stuff. He knew it always backfired on creators who dared to try to use it. He had never considered exploiting red chalk for his own personal use. And he couldn't fathom why someone would try to merge white and red chalk together.

Although he had never met any hybrid zoner, he already had his own ideas on what a hybrid zoner of white and red would be like. Traits of both mixed in together like that. A zoner who could think, decide for themselves, combined with the ruthlessness of red chalk, the willingness to attack completely unprovoked without sympathy or hesitation. Such a zoner would be very dangerous. He doubted even Draow would be able to face a hybrid zoner.

He was certain that it was a hybrid zoner that freed Draow. It would explain why the zoner was so disproportionately vicious, why they were so intent on Draow, the most aggressive zoner locked up in that jail. But what it doesn't explain is why it so hard to find. It shouldn't be hard to spot a zoner that had a striped outline. They would stick out like a sour thumb. So this zoner...it must have a way of getting around without being seen. Maybe it knew when zoners would be out and about. And if that were the case, all Skrawl had to do was be somewhere the zoner did not expect him to be, and he could get it that way.

But wait...that might not work. How does this zoner know where everyone was going to be, and when to go to certain places? The more he thought about it, the more he realized there had to be cameras. They must be positioned in random places in ChalkZone. If that was how this zoner was figuring out when it can make moves without anyone knowing, Skrawl knew he was going to have to be very careful in how he handles the rest of this investigation.

Skrawl turned his attention to the strange occurrences going on. He had gotten reports from his Beanie Boys about a sinkhole destroying a playground, strange movement involving male chocolate rabbits, and, the strangest of all, the golf course erupting in fire and lava. All of them were really odd, out of place. The places were clearly tampered with. But why? What was the purpose? The only thing he could think of was that they must be death traps. But...just who were they for?

He didn't have to think about that long. One of his Beanie Boys reported that he spotted Snap somewhere in the Candycane Forest. So Snap was involved with this. Skrawl didn't think for a moment Snap was causing all of this, or whoever was with him. No, he was certain this hybrid zoner was behind it all. And Draow. He would have tried to contact Snap, but Skrawl wasn't stupid. If this zoner was watching many places in ChalkZone, then he would see him try to contact Snap and try to do something about it.

No, he had to be smart about this.

He was also certain that this hybrid zoner thought ahead and had at least one spy. Someone to scout ChalkZone, acting all innocent, ready to carry out orders when it was given to them. And Skrawl already had an idea on who it was. One of his own men...

Skrawl has his suspicions that one of his own wardens under his command wasn't who he seemed to be. His story involving how Draow escaped was the most confusing one, and didn't add up with the others. Skrawl didn't bother calling the warden out or say anything, though. If his suspicions proved to be right, then he had to act like he didn't know anything. That way, if the warden truly was a spy, he wouldn't be able to tell the hybrid zoner that he, Skrawl, knew anything. For now, Skrawl had to act oblivious.

There was something else that was cause for alarm. He hadn't seen Rudy or Penny for a while now. It was day two. He would have thought that they would be back here by now to tell him anything else they found out. It wasn't like Master Tabootie to sherk his responsibilities like that. The genius girl wouldn't be like that either. It didn't take long for Skrawl to know something was wrong with them.

He was able to put two and two together. The hybrid zoner that seemed to appear out of nowhere. The death traps that were set up, where Snap was forced to fight for his life. The disappearance of Rudy and Penny. They were all connected. He conclude that Rudy and Penny must have been captured. He had little proof. It wasn't like he could go find them and confirm it. But that was the only thing that made sense to him. That was the only reason why Rudy and Penny would vanish without a trace, without leaving behind anything, not even a message. And it would explain why Snap was running through these deathtraps. Whoever made the death traps...

...must have Rudy and Penny captured and held hostage somewhere. And he guessed it was in ChalkZone. His eyes widened in horror at the realization. They couldn't eat or drink chalk stuff. The two of them would die slowly and painfully if that were the case. Something had to be done...and fast.

The door suddenly flung open. Skrawl raised his head. He saw one of his Beanie Boys flying in, an uncharacteristically shocked expression on his face. Skrawl immediately straightened up in his seat, staring at the Beanie Boy expectantly.

"What is it?" Skrawl asked cautiously, worried about what the Beanie Boy was about to say.

The Beanie Boy stopped, hovering in the air. He panted heavily. He must have come a long way. Skrawl could see the sweat pouring down his face. He looked incredibly thirsty. Just how far had he gone? Where had he been? And what did he see that shocked him so much?

"Sir..I was...I was able to..." The Beanie Boy panted even more, swallowing in a futile attempt to hydrate himself. Skrawl handed the Beanie Boy a glass of water. He drank it up immediately and wiped his mouth. "Thanks, sir." Now his voice sounded less raspy and more clear.

"Now what are you going on about?" Skrawl said, his eyes slightly narrowed. He made a gesture with his arm for the Beanie Boy to continue. "Out with it!"

The Beanie Boy said, "Skrawl, I was searching around the jungle, trying to find evidence of more traps like you told me to."

"Did you find any?" Skrawl asked.

The Beanie Boy shook his head. "I didn't look too far. I...found something else."

"Something that made you fly all the way back here to report it?" Skrawl asked. The flying zoner nodded his head once to confirm. Whatever he had found, it must have been very important to cause him to abandon his duty and come back to report to him. "What did you find?"

"An injured zoner!" The Beanie Boy cried, his eyes wide.

Skrawl's eyes widened slightly. "An injured zoner? What happened to him or her..?"

"Him. I found him in the jungle. It looked like he sustained multiple injuries. Some of them looked to be treated, but there were others that weren't." The Beanie Boy explained, his voice saddened by the report. He paused for a moment, and then said in a remorseful tone. "Skrawl...this zoner has clearly been the victim of multiple attacks. Whoever was hurting him, they did it again and again. This zoner has been horrifically abused. I'm...surprised he is still alive..."

"Abused..?" Skrawl said. His mind flashed back to the horrible treatment Snap got from Mr. Cosmo. "Who is the zoner? Were you able to confirm his identity?"

"Yes, sir." The flying zoner nodded his head slowly. "It is Barney, that centipede zoner that has the entire history of ChalkZone inside of him."

At this, Skrawl's eyes widened in shock. He responded in a low voice. "Barney...?"

sss

Snap, Rapsheeba, and Blocky pressed their backs against the stone wall. There was nowhere for them to go. Nowhere to run. The horde was getting closer each second that passed. Snap looked around, his heart racing. If they didn't figure out a way out of here, they were going to be goners.

Some of the zombies had tried to attack them. They fought back. They worked together to get the horde to move back a little. But no matter how many punches, kicks, and throws they dished out, it was never good enough. There were too many zombies, and they found themselves the ones being pushed back. They were using up so much strength fighting off the zombies. Their muscles ached from the fatigue. Hunger started to settle in, becoming more prominent now that they were using up so much energy just trying to survive.

They had to do something to finish this game, and quickly. Snap thought back to the note. This game may require a sacrifice...His eyes widened at this. Could it be talking about one of his friends getting left behind? No..no he wouldn't allow that to happen. There had to be a way out of here that wouldn't involve him having to leave behind one of his friends. He couldn't let them get ripped apart. No, he wouldn't allow it.

He looked behind him and glared at the stone wall. If only this wasn't here. If only there was a path here. They could make a run for it. But no, someone had to put this stupid wall here, trapping him and his two friends while flesh-eating zombies were cornering them. They were running out of time. And so were Rudy and Penny.

A zombie lunged for Rapsheeba. He ran over and lifted up his walking stick. He swung it at the zombie, knocking it into the ground. Another one grabbed at Snap, pulling him away. Rapsheeba returned the favor with a kick to the zombie's chest, throwing them back into the horde approaching them. Blocky fought off another zombie, pushing them back. And yet still, more came, and the three were getting exhausted. They wouldn't be able to keep this up forever.

"It's no use. They keep coming..." Blocky said, his body trembling. He already sustained a pretty bad bite mark on his arm. And he knew that wasn't going to be the last one. "We need a way out of here."

"But the only way out is through the zombies." Rapsheeba said, staring in horror as the zombies got closer. More and more of them just kept showing up, and quickly the passageway they were in was getting smaller and smaller, feeling more like a prison. "How are we going to get past them? There's too many! They'll rip us apart if we get close!"

Snap looked around frantically. No cheating was allowed. They could go through the hedges. And even if they were allowed, the hedges were thorny here. Going through them would tear into them. And they were thick. They wouldn't be able to make it to the other side without wasting considerable time.

"Well...we have to think of something, and fast." Snap said, clenching his teeth in fear.

Once again, he looked behind him. The stone wall seemed to be mocking them. He could picture Bardot's face on it, laughing at their pitiful progress. He could practically hear Bardot's voice now, taunting them on how they would never make it out alive. He could hear him flaunting on how much pain and misery he put Rudy and Penny through. The wall..it was laughing at them...

Snap walked up to the wall and scowled at it. He pulled his right foot back and kicked the wall. He winced a little at the pain, but the scowl remained on his face. He stared back at his friends. They were looking at him, shocked.

"Rudy and Penny are in trouble. They need our help." Snap said through clenched teeth. His body shook in anger. "But how can we save them if we can't even save ourselves? And it's all because of this stupid wall!"

"Snap...we'll find a way out." Rapsheeba said. She went over and put her hands on his shoulders. "We'll think of something."

"Stupid wall...?" Blocky whispered. He stared at the wall.

"Blocky...?"

Snap and Rapsheeba watched in confusion as Blocky went over to the wall. He stared at it intently. He put his hand on it, feeling it up and down. He formed a fist and pounded on it a little. He stood there for a few minutes, pondering something. His two friends looked at each other in confusion. What was Blocky up to?

Slowly, Blocky looked back at them. He had an expression like he knew something that they didn't. He rushed back over towards them, his eyes wide with realization.

"This is a secret exit!" Blocky cried.

"What?" Snap asked. "A secret exit?"

Blocky nodded his head. "Yeah! The stone wall opens! Well it should..it seems to be locked in place." He looked back at the wall. "From what I read, Jacko usually has a second exit to the maze. It's all part of a game he used to hold. Prizes were given to anyone who could find the randomnly placed secret exit."

Snap and Rapsheeba were surprised Blocky knew this. They didn't think he was a fan of Jacko. Or maybe he just heard from a fan or something. They stared at the wall. If this was a secret exit, then why wasn't it opening? It's almost as if Bardot purposely blocked it off. Of course Bardot wouldn't make things easy for them.

So they were still back to square one. The horde was getting closer. They were getting tired of fighting back at them. It was only a matter of time before the zombies tore into their flesh. This secret exit was going to do them no good. They had to think of something else.

"Blocky, that was interesting information and all but..." Snap stared at the wall and shook his head. "It's not going to help us."

"Oh yes it will." Blocky said.

"What do you mean?" Snap asked, confused.

Blocky stared at Rapsheeba and Snap. His eyes were narrowed yet wide at the same time. They were filled with determination, intent. He looked back over at the wall. His hands formed into fists, shaking from emotion. He then looked back at his friends. And he gave the most knowing smile he could ever give. It took seconds for his two friends to realize just what he was suggesting.

"What...?" Snap cried in horror. He shook his head. "Blocky..no...you can't!"

"There's got to be another way!" Rapsheeba cried.

Blocky shook his head slowly. "No. There isn't." He glanced at the wall. "This is the only way." He stared at his two friends. Tears formed in his eyes. "I'll...miss you guys."

That hit Snap like a ton of bricks. His body shook. He couldn't let it happen. No, the sacrifice wouldn't take place. He rushed over to Blocky and grabbed him. He shook him, hoping to knock sense into him.

"No! You're not going to do it, Blocky! I won't let you!" Snap cried.

Blocky stared at his blue friend. He said, "I'm sorry Snap..."

With that, Blocky grabbed Snap in his arms. He rushed over to the wall. Before Snap could protest, he was flung over with as much force as Blocky could muster. Snap landed just outside of the hedge maze. He rolled across the ground, his walking stick still gripped tightly in his hand. He skidded to a stop and coughed, mud and dirt covering his costume. He shook his head and looked back towards the maze, his eyes wide in horror.

Seconds later, he saw Rapsheeba being thrown over the edge. She landed a foot in front of him. She hit against her back into the ground. She grunted in pain as a rock scraped against her back. She sat up, hissing in pain and rubbing where she was hit. She then looked over at the maze in in fear. She looked at Snap, thinking the same thing he was.

The two rushed over to the maze. They pounded against the wall, attempted to climb up, anything to get back to Blocky. But it was no use. The only way back in was through the entrance, and that might be against the rules. And even if it weren't, they quickly realized they would not have been able to make it in time.

Blocky's pain-filled cries echoed through the air, filling their hearts with dread. For the next few minutes, all they heard was Blocky's blood-curdling screams, his pleas for mercy. They heard him get ripped apart, claws tearing into flesh. And then, nothing. There was silence. No wait..not silence. Blocky was whimpering in misery and pain now. There was still time. If they could just get over the wall...

Just then, there was a shadow casted over them. Something flew in real low, causing air to rush past Snap and Rapsheeba, almost knocking them to their feet. Dead lives were kicked up into the air, swirling around like they were just dancing. The two zoners coughed and looked up to see who it was.

Snap's eyes widened. "Draow...? What's he doing here?"

Draow flew into the maze. He landed on the ground. Snap and Rapsheeba could feel the thud as he hit the dirty floor.

"Off him!" Came Draow's dark voice.

For a few seconds, Snap and Rapsheeba could hear the gnashing of jaws, crunching of bone, and the throwing of bodies. This only lasted a brief time before Draow suddenly surfaced again, flapping his wings, steadily rising. And in his talons, he held a badly injured Blocky.

Rapsheeba rushed forward. "Blocky!"

Draow took a moment to sneer at the two remaining zoners before taking off. The two zoners wanted to rush after him, but Draow was moving too fast. They watched as they carried their friend away. And soon, they were completely out of sight.

The full weight of what happened hit them heavily. The impact crashed down on them like a broken house. They continued to stare at where Blocky had been taken. No, it couldn't be, no... They had lost Blocky... He was still alive, but...for how long? What did Draow plan on doing with him? What did Bardot want to do to him?

Their bodies shook. Tears filled their eyes. They turned to each other. They were the remainders. They were what was left. They hugged each other and cried. They couldn't believe they had just lost one of their own. And they had no idea what was going to happen to him. They don't know what was to become of their fallen comrade. Would he be alive for much longer? What was in store for him?

They had little time to grieve. The radio beeped, signalling Bardot contacting them. Snap gritted his teeth hatefully. Of all the zoners to talk to right now, he was the last one he wanted to hear right now.

"What do you want?" Snap asked, mustering as much hostility in his voice as he could.

"It looks like you are down by one, Snap." Bardot chortled in an amused tone. "It's a shame your dear friend Blocky had to take the fall. That was...pretty brave of him though. To give himself up so you two could continue. He must be really brave...or really foolish." Snap and Rapsheeba snarled at this. "But now that you have lost a party member, Snap, it is down to just you and Rapsheeba. You must be careful with the remainder of the games. You never know when you will lose Rapsheeba and you will be all alone."

Snap growled. "You're a monster..."

Bardot chuckled at this. "Perhaps you are right..."

Rapsheeba spoke up. "What are you going to do with Blocky?!"

"Temper, temper..." Bardot scolded her almost like he was her father. She hissed at this. Bardot said, "He is fine...for now. Draow was just retrieving him for me. He will be locked in one of my chambers until the games are over. After that, his fate will be decided by you, Snap. Defeat me, and he'll go free. Lose, and he'll be killed off."

"That's sick and twisted..." Rapsheeba growled, her eyes narrowed hatefully.

"What kind of monster gets kicks out of messing with, endangering, and taking lives for no reason?" Snap snarled at the radio. He was so tempted to smash it, but that wouldn't be a smart move.

Bardot chuckled darkly. He didn't bother answering Snap's question. Instead, he apparently decided to taunt Snap some more. "I hope you plan on picking up the pace..because time is running out for your little friends."

Snap's eyes widened a little as he said that. "Rudy...Penny..."

"You better hurry up, Snap. I hope you are truly confident you can save them from me. Because they are going to need all the help they can get soon enough. Even if you beat me, they will still be in trouble. By the time I am done with them, they will be barely alive..."

As he said that, there was a striking sound. Screams from Rudy and Penny could be heard. Snap and Rapsheeba took a startled step back, their eyes wide in horror. Another strike, another couple of screams filled their hearts with dread and fear. Rudy and Penny sounded like they were in a lot of pain. Then whimpers...just what had Bardot done to them?

Then Bardot apparently struck them again. Louder, sharper screams...Snap and Rapsheeba were horrified by this.

"Leave them alone!" Snap cried, tears filling his eyes. "Please..leave them alone!"

"Stop it!" Rapsheeba joined in, just as emotional about this as Snap. "They're just kids!"

Surprisingly, Bardot did stop. They heard their friends' ragged breathing. They sounded almost relieved, thankful that Bardot was leaving them alone.

"That is just a taste of what they've been through here... and what they will endure soon." Bardot said in a threatening tone. "And if you don't speed things up, Snappy boy...their blood will be on your hands." After that, the radio cut off.

Snap stared at Rapsheeba in horror, the full weight of what happened crashing in all around him. He had lost one of his friends, taken away by Draow, and now Rudy and Penny had been tortured right in front of him, in a sense. Bardot's threat was terrifying. There...there wasn't much time to spare.

Urgency filling his heart, he turned to Rapsheeba. "We've got to hurry!"

Rapsheeba nodded in agreement. "We'll get to them. Don't worry, Snap."

Snap gave a small smile. "I know..."

With that, the two went over to locate the note so they could locate the next game.

I WILL STOP YOU:





Although it didn't rain constantly, although there were some breaks, that didn't do much to stop the water from filling up the abandoned home. The rain dripped in from the window. The puddle that had started to form when Terry left had grown by now. Much of the bedroom was now covered in five inches of water. With so little breaks between the rain, the water didn't have much time to evaporate before more rain came crashing in, adding to the liquid mass on the ground.

Terry had made a mistake when she had put the cloth over the chalkboard. A mistake that she would soon learn to regret. She had been so intent on proving ChalkZone's existence...she had failed to take into consideration what her actions might cause.

The cloth would make it hard for anyone on the other side to erase the portal. It would leave it open. That would make things easier for her when she came back with a reporter to reveal her discovery. She may have thought that this was a good idea. She may have not realized any negative side effects of forcing the portal to remain open.

But there was something she didn't take into account. And that was the weather.

Almost constantly, there had been rain. Few breaks in between. The hole in the window allowed for the water to get into the bedroom. The water was spreading, getting higher. And water washes away chalk. Normally, this wasn't a problem as water erased the portal, like it had the time when there was a small portal in ChalkZone via the playground, from when Reggie smashed the magic chalk into the ground. But now...something was different.

The heavy cloth blocked the chalk outline. Which meant that the water could not touch it. And if it could not touch it, then the portal would not be erased when the water washed over it, or if the chalkboard fell to the ground. And if the portal could not be erased...

...then ChalkZone was about to get a very nasty surprise.

sss

Snap paced back and forth. He hadn't bothered reading the next clue just yet. His mind was plagued with all sorts of questions. He was filled with anxiety. Rapsheeba looked at him sadly. She had tried to cheer him up, tried to encourage him, but Snap was too distressed to listen to her. They were standing on the edge of the icy region, looking down on the green, rolling hills that came after it. He would have admired the beautiful view if it weren't for the sense of urgency rising inside of him.

What if his suspicions were right? What if Bardot was just leading him in circles? He had thought, when he started the 'games', that Bardot was slowly leading him to where his friends were. But instead, they've gone off in completely different directions. At least one of the games involved a total backtrack from where they were headed.

Snap was worried. What if his friends were located much further away in an opposite direction of where the final game was? What if Bardot set up the games this way to waste his time? What if he did things this way so that he would use up more energy, use up more time, and to make it harder for him to get to his friends before it was too late? Those were real possibilities. It was possible that Bardot did the games like this just to mess with his head and body.

Snap knew he couldn't spend that much time pacing, though. He was wasting enough time as it was. But with this revelation, he was really worried that he was being thrown for a loop. He wondered if Bardot was hiding some things from him. What hasn't he told him? Were his friends as 'okay' as Bardot indicated, or were they much worse than the screams let on?

He looked at the radio. He had never done this before since the games began. He wasn't sure if it was possible. For all he knew, Bardot made it a one-way radio so only he could contact him. But it was worth a try, wasn't it? He glanced over at Rapsheeba, who seemed to understand what he was about to do.

Rapsheeba looked at him sympathetically. "It's worth a try." She said softly. "Maybe he'll answer you."

Snap nodded his head. "Keyword there is maybe." He glanced down at the radio. "But it's about time he gave me some more answers. I have to know how long I have left to find our friends... And I have to know if he is just leading us in circles."

"I don't know if he'll answer those questions." Rapsheeba said, shaking her head sadly.

"But I've still got to try." Snap said, glaring at the radio.

"Yeah." Rapsheeba said, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I know."

Snap smiled at this, feeling a little better knowing he has Rapsheeba's support. He continued to stare at the radio. He looked around on its sides, looking for a button he could press that he felt would do something. He found one such button, the red one which he usually used to answer Bardot. He put his hand on it, and hesitated. He had no idea if this would work, but he was still going to try.

Slowly, he pressed his hand on it. He didn't talk right away. He hesitated, licking his lips in anticipation. What could he say? He tried to think of something he could say that wouldn't backfire on him. He had a feeling if he sounded too demanding, Bardot would really hurt his friends.

Finally, he spoke.

"Are you there?" Snap asked.

At first, there was just silence. He could only hear static feedback in return. He groaned and shook his head. Of course it wouldn't work. Why would Bardot make this radio two-way? He may have done it like this so that he couldn't accidentally overhear any of his planning.

"Hello?" Snap tried again, just in case.

But like before, there was nothing. The only sound he could hear that wasn't static was breathing. He thought it was Bardot at first, but he recognized the sounds as coming from him and Rapsheeba. It was pretty quiet where they were. Not many zoners were nearby, and the ones that were, well they were silent. And they paid him and her no mind.

Snap sighed in disappointment. Well there goes that idea. Rapsheeba looked at him sympathetically.

"It's okay. It didn't hurt to try. "Rapsheeba said.

"Yeah, I know. But I wish that..." Snap started to say.

There was a quick crackle from the radio. It sounded like something was scraping against the speakers. They looked at the radio. At first, it went silent again. But then they heard a few more scrapes. It almost sounded like someone took the radio and was dragging it along the ground attached to a string.

"I really hope you weren't using this radio to call for help." Bardot's cold voice came through the radio. "Because that would be against the rules."

Snap narrowed his eyes. "No. I wanted to contact you."

"Of course you did." Bardot said in an almost dismissive tone. "And let me guess. You have some questions for me?" A low chuckle. "About your friends I take it?"

Snap snarled at this. "How many more games do I have left?"

Bardot didn't reply. There was a laugh, but that was it.

Snap said, "Why won't you answer my question?"

And again, Bardot didn't answer. There was a 'hmm' sound, but that was it. Nothing else. Just silence. Snap growled at this. He wasn't sure if Bardot really had no answer or if he was doing this just to mess with his head. He almost gripped the radio tightly and shake it, but he refrained from doing so.

Rapsheeba didn't look much happier, either. She glared at the radio. From the way her hands were clenched, Snap guessed that she wanted nothing more than to grab the radio and toss it away. They were both sick of hearing Bardot's taunting, his laughter, his cold nature in general. Bardot's refusal to answer when he'll get to his friends irritated them both. They could practically see that bastard with his smug smile staring at them now.

"Are you taking us in circles?!" Snap cried. He froze, realizing that sounded a little too demanding. After what happened to Rudy and Penny the last time Bardot talked to them via radio, Snap knew he had to be extra cautious when speaking to Bardot on this contraption. What if he decided to hurt them just to 'teach him a lesson'?

But instead of the screaming of his friends, he was greeted with the cold laughter of Bardot. That didn't mean that he hadn't been approaching his friends, though. Snap and Rapsheeba tensed up, awaiting to see what would happen.

Bardot replied after a minute. "The order of the games are...random."

Snap and Rapsheeba looked at each other. Rapsheeba looked at the radio and asked, "Random?"

"Why yes. They are not in an any particular order. I just randomnly chose the order via...well..rolling the dice more or less. I did it this way so the difficulty of the games doesn't steadily get tougher, but instead, you are left to guess how much skill you'll need to survive. It was to..keep you on your toes." Bardot sneered at them. "It would have been too boring if I just let the games get steadily and progressively worse, now wouldn't it?"

Snap's eyes widened at this. The games were randomized so that he could easily jump from a relatively easy game to one that was insanely hard, then to one that was a tad easier, all just to mess with him? To make him and his friends worry constantly about how they were going to make it through the next game?

That was twisted. Snap and Rapsheeba were already on edge every time they came to a new game, unsure of what the death trap would be. Bardot's words just made them feel even worse. That meant that, any time, they would have to deal with Bardot's toughest death trap to date. And they weren't even sure when that would be, or if they already finished the hardest death trap.

Snap would have asked about that, but he doubted Bardot would answer. He glared at the radio. It was just like Bardot to mess with them like that. He couldn't wait until he reached this guy and made him eat his own words. If Bardot didn't understand the meaning of regret, he was going to learn it as soon as he got his hands on the bastard.

"And as for your friends..."

Snap and Rapsheeba stared at the radio expectantly. They heard Bardot laugh coldly. Then he cleared his throat and began to speak.

"Perhaps...I will be a little generous. I cannot tell you how long it will take to get to them... It all depends on how fast you move through the remainder of the games." Bardot said. He paused and then said, "You are at the halfway mark. But do not take that into comfort. As I said, how fast you move determines when you will get here, not the number of games left to play."

Okay that answered one of their questions. Five games left to play. It was a sense of comfort that the nightmare was halfway done. But as much as they hated to admit it, Bardot was right. They couldn't celebrate, not yet. They still had to complete these five remaining games to take care of. And if they wasted too much time, then they would be too late to save their friends.

"Of course, I hope you don't finish the games too fast... I'm not done testing you, Snap." Bardot said.

"Testing me?" Snap growled. "What am I to you? A test subject?!"

A cold, menacing chortle, and then came Bardot's answer. "Yes. You are...nothing more than an experiment, Snap. And I am your tester."

Snap hissed at this. "I am not your experiment!"

Bardot laughed, but he ignored that outburst. Instead, he said something else that took Snap by surprise. "The reason I chose you, Snap, is because you are...well...The Unkillable."

Snap's angered face was replaced with one of confusion. "What?"

Rapsheeba asked, "The Unkillable?"

"Yes. After all, you did survive the odds against the Dark Creator...what was his name...ah yes. Teddison Cosmo. Or just known as Mr. Cosmo or even just Cosmo. I was amazed to hear all that had happened to you and yet you survived. So...I have to wonder... Just how 'unkillable' are you?"

Snap's body started to shake. Was this the reason for the 'games'? Was this why he kidnapped his friends? Just for some sick experimentation where he wanted to test his limitations? Bardot really did think lowly of other zoners. The way he brutally killed Jacko for no reason other than to display a message... And now knowing that he saw him as just a mere test subject... Not that he would have put it past him, but it was chilling hearing it from him.

He stared at Rapsheeba. She looked at him with worry, her eyes widened. She looked visibly insulted that Bardot saw him as nothing more than an experiment to be tested and messed with. She slowly glanced at the radio, her face contorting in disgust. She looked like she wanted to say something, but she chose to be quiet. Snap had a feeling that was the smartest thing to do at this moment.

"Soon or later...you will go down." Bardot said. "The question is...just how long will it be, before you do fall? How far can I make you drag yourself before death overcomes you? I would love to see that."

"You asshole!" Rapsheeba snarled, mustering as much hostility as she could.

Snap stared at her in shock. Rapsheeba wasn't the type to curse like that. Bardot must be really getting under her skin to make her snap like that.

But Bardot pretended like her curse had never taken place. "I know what you may be thinking. I kidnapped your friends just to force you to run a giant, torturous maze. Well...not entirely. You see, I have my own plans for your friends. Unlike Draow, who is motivated by revenge...I am motivated by something else entirely." He went quiet for a moment. Snap and Rapsheeba stared the radio, their hearts clenching in anxiety. They were dreading what he would say, and when he did speak, they realized quickly they were right to be worred. "I am motivated by hunger."

Hunger? Snap's eyes slowly widened in horror. Rapsheeba looked just as shocked. Was Bardot going to...did he just say he was going to...?

"Yeah, that's right. After the games are complete, fail to stop me...I am going to eat your friends." They could hear Bardot lick his lips in anticipation. "I love the taste of humans. The other humans I had were good.. I can't wait to see what your two friends will taste like after they're all nice and dehydrated."

"S-Sicko..." Rapsheeba said through clenched teeth, her body shaking in anger.

Snap's body was shaking as well, strong emotion overwhelming him. He glared at the radio, his eyes narrowed into slits. He clenched the radio tighter. He was tempted to smash it against the ground, crush it under his feet. But if he did that, there may be consequences afterwards. As hard as it was, he had to refrain from smashing the device.

Rage and anger filled his body. He felt his head get hot. It was warm to the touch. His teeth were clenched so tightly he thought they would break off. He hadn't spoken a word, and he could hear Bardot's cold laughter on the other line. He was clearly enjoying this.

This monster...he was going to eat his friends... He had kidnapped them...just to put them on the menu. And those other humans that disappeared, the ones Mr. Wilter mentioned...they had also been killed. Bardot had been going into the real world and kidnapping humans and eating them. He was truly despicable... Now he knew just how important it was to stop him. If he didn't stop him, then not only would he lose his friends, but other humans would be brutally and painfully murdered and devoured by this creature.

Stopping Bardot had become an even bigger priority. He was not going to allow him to get away with this. He was not going to let him kill his friends. He was not going to let him make any other innocent humans suffer at his claws. He would stop him. Somehow, someway, he would stop him.

"I will stop you..." Snap finally said. His voice was strained, laced in hatred. "Not only will I stop you..." His body shook in anger. "...I will make sure you regret everything you've done. You will pay for everything you did."

"I look forward to it." Bardot sneered before hanging up.

sss

Skrawl walked into the hospital. He was alone. He told his Beanie Boys to wait for him. He thought it would be better if he went in alone as he felt he would look less suspicious to this mystery zoner if he went in on his own. At least this way, it looked like he was just paying respects to an injured zoner. If his Beanie Boys came with him as he went to the hospital, the mystery zoner, if he truly had cameras all around, would get suspicious.

At least he would be able to talk in peace in the hospital. Cameras didn't work in this particular hospital. It seemed counterintuitive. But this hospital cared a lot about privacy, so there no cameras. It still remained pretty secure. In place of cameras were sensors that would alert the hospital people if someone had past a certain point and use a digital map to reveal their location. This did allow for a lot more privacy in comparison to cameras as they wouldn't be able to see exactly what the people are doing in this locations.

He had chosen this particular hospital for Barney to be sent to. He needed to speak to him. If Barney had been attacked by the mystery zoner, he may be able to provide valuable information. He did know that he would have to be careful getting the information from him. When he was found in the jungle, he was in horrible shape. Asking for information while he was in that state wouldn't be a good idea, not unless he took great care in doing so.

Barney's mental state was a concern. When the Beanie Boys returned, carrying Barney with them and placing him on the stretcher provided for him, Skrawl could see he had suffered many injuries. Some were pretty old and had healed up. A few were treated. Then the remaining ones, which looked to be very recent, were left untreated and looked like they started to get infected. The most startling injury Skrawl could see were his eyes. They were..destroyed more or less, and his eyelids had long swollen shut. He wasn't sure how long ago this injury had occurred, but losing one's eyesight did a lot of psychological damage. What state would Barney be in when he woke up?

It was clear that Barney really had been attacked more than once. It was hard to tell how many times, but whoever did this, and he guessed it was the hybrid zoner, they had come back multiple times and beat him up. If he were still a bad guy, he would find amusement in that. But since turning over a new leaf, all it did was disgust him.

Skrawl went up to the receptionist's desk. "What floor is Barney the Encyclocentipedia on?"

The receptionist looked at him with a perplexed look. Skrawl forgot that some people in ChalkZone were still wary of him. Understandable. He had done a lot of bad things in the past.

"He's on the second floor. Room D24." The receptionist said, narrowing their eyes at Skrawl like they expect him to strike them.

Skrawl immediately left to go locate the room. It didn't take him long to reach it. There was a sign on the door that explained how critical Barney's condition was. It seemed that he was going to need surgery to try to fix some of the wounds that were really bad. There were a few deep gashes in his back and underside. And a few of his legs looked like they almost ripped off entirely, from what he recalled. Slowly, he opened the door and shut it behind him.

Barney was laying on his side, his body lined across multiple beds to accomodate his long body. His wings were ripped to shreds, no doubt by the hybrid zoner. There were many more scratches on him than just the ones he saw initially. His face looked a little bruised and his face was contorted in pain. Skrawl could only imagine what he had gone through before he finally passed out.

With Barney's eyelids permanently swollen shut like that, it was hard to tell if he was asleep or not. The steady beeping of the hard monitor suggested that he was sleeping, but he could just be relaxed, feeling safe to be out of that jungle and somewhere far away. There were multiple IVs attached to him, keeping him hydrated. His wounds were not yet treated, but Skrawl knew that they were going to be here soon to treat them. They had to go get the supplies first.

They wouldn't be back for a while, so he wanted to take this time and talk to Barney. He had to know as soon as possible about what this hybrid zoner did to him, why, as well as the zoner's name. Barney might know more of what was going on. If this hybrid zoner kept coming after him, there had to be a reason. He just hoped that Barney would be able to tell him without getting too scared.

Skrawl moved over to Barney's side, staring at his face. When he reached over to touch his face to see if he was awake or not, the centipede zoner instantly stirred. Barney lifted his face up a little, like he was desperately trying to see. His legs wriggled nervously and he started to move back, or at least he tried to. He was clearly in too much pain to move, and soon he laid back on the beds, his body shivering violently.

"N-No..please..not again..." Barney whimpered, putting his hands in front of his face in a desperate attempt to protect himself. "..leave me alone..I told you everything you wanted to know...why won't you leave me alone? Why?" Tears managed to stream down the little space left open from his eyelids, staining his face.

"Whoa there, calm down!" Skrawl said. "I'm not the one who hurt you!"

Barney froze, his fearful expression replaced with one of shock. "You're..you're not Bardot...?"

Skrawl shook his head. "No, I'm not." He paused for a moment, taking into consideration what Barney had just said. "Bardot...was that the name of the zoner who hurt you?"

Barney's lower lip quivered. He nodded his head up and down slowly. "Yeah...A hybrid zoner..." Skrawl's eyes snapped wide open at this. So he had been right. "He..he kept coming after me for information... I thought it would just be one visit...no, he came again and again. And every time...he hurt me..."

Skrawl asked, "Why did he hurt you?"

Barney said in a shaky voice, "At...at first it was just because I wouldn't tell him what he wanted... I-I wasn't going to betray Rudy, so I resisted, but...he was persistant and he..tortured me..."

Skrawl's eyes widened in horror at this. "He tortured you?"

"Y-Yes..." Barney said, whimpering at the memory. "But even after I...gave in...everytime he came back, he would torture me again..just for the 'fun' of it, as he said."

Skrawl was shocked by this. What kind of sick zoner would keep torturing another even long after they had submitted? Even when he was villain, he wouldn't have thought of such a thing.

"How long has he been doing this?" Skrawl asked, afraid to know the answer.

Barney's body shook with emotion. His eyebrows narrowed and he clenched his teeth. More tears came strolling down his face. He spoke in a feeble, terrified voice. "It's been going on for over a year..."

Skrawl gasped at this. This has been going on this long? Suddenly, Barney's absense was starting to make sense. Master Tabootie and his friends thought that Barney was just busy. Whenever they had tried to visit him, he would keep saying he was working on something. None of them knew how he could be busy for that long on the same project. Something else was going on, and now Skrawl knew what it was.

The true reason why Barney had been busy, why he hadn't been seeing Rudy or Penny or Snap or anyone...it wasn't because he was actually busy. It wasn't because he started a new project and was just caught up in it. It wasn't because he decided to take a trip somewhere, or because he was busy exploring new places. No, the actual reason he had been 'busy', why he hadn't been able to contact Rudy or Penny in all this time...

...was because, for the past year, he had been constantly abused by Bardot...