Once the four had rested up fully, the Sound Stone took them away to their next destination the next morning. They had gone to sleep at Snow Wood, and woke up in an inn someplace completely different. Trying to explain the four’s situation to the innkeeper if they tried to just walk out would be too difficult, so instead, Tori suggested that they all climb out the window in their room. And that’s exactly what they did. The only one who had an easy time with that was Buzz Buzz. And he didn’t even climb, he just flew out.

Once everyone who wasn’t a beetle had rather ungracefully fell a storey, Buzz Buzz took his perch on Tori’s shoulder and everyone took in their surroundings. The most distinct thing was the smell of sea salt in the air. Hardly surprising, seeing as there was so much water around. The buildings visible from the back of the inn had started to fall apart and rust. Yet, the cheerful babbling of a crowd farther away was present. For such a dreary place, it didn’t seem like it should be possible. And the last time Tori and Buzz Buzz had hastily visited, there weren’t many people at all.

Tori led Gran and Leicra around the front of the inn to see about a dozen people walking about the roads, happily chatting to one another and going in and out of what appeared to be stores. The four gazed out at the unusually happy scene with confusion.

On the opposite side of the cracked road, a man wearing a black cloak walked out of what used to be a store, holding a round device under his arm. Tori and Buzz Buzz’s faces lit up when they saw him, but Leicra and Gran had no idea who this man was.

The man stared at the four with an eyebrow raised, then cupped his free hand to his mouth and asked, “What are you doing over there?”

“Uh. Looking! Hey Christoph!” Tori replied.

Christoph walked over to the four and hissed, “You look super weird just standing there by the inn. Kinda suspicious, too.”

He glanced up at Gran and Leicra. “And, uh… are these your new friends…?”

“Mhm!”

“Oh thank God.”

With a flick of his wings, Buzz Buzz asked, “So how’s the FCT?”

Christoph yelped and looked around wide-eyed. Leicra pointed to Buzz Buzz. Christoph stared at him for a couple of moments before he muttered, “Crap, right.”

“Well, it’s been going pretty well. Turns out it can be exploited to make it a weapon,” Christoph said.

The four gave him confused looks.

“We fiddled with the settings too much and long story short, Stormin’s been turned into a loaf of bread and the Starmen there are part of it.”

That didn’t really clarify much.

“…So why are you lot here, anyway?”

“We got teleported here by a stone infused with a prophet’s magic,” Tori said.

Christoph gave her a look of utter confusion and disbelief. “…Right. Well, you do you. I’ve gotta go give some more food to the folks here - you can just… explore a little! And try not to get your alien friends killed! Welcome to Coastcrash Town!”

With that, Christoph walked away a bit too fast to be considered normal walking speed.

As the four watched Christoph speedwalk away, Buzz Buzz said, “…Well that last sentence was one of the most informative things we got from that.”

“Try not to get us killed?” Leicra echoed.

“…That’s. Also important.”

Tori spun around to face Gran and Leicra. “Okay, so, here’s the plan. We’re just gonna say that you two… are… cosplayers! You’re cosplayers, yeah.”

“What’s a cosplayer?” Gran asked.

“Human person that dresses up as a fictional human person or other thing for fun.”

“Does that mean we’re going to have to eat, somehow?” Leicra asked.

“Nnnno. Because you’re cosplaying, and your cosplays don’t have mouths, annnnnd taking off the suits would be a pain.”

Leicra and Gran hesitantly nodded.

Tori spun back around as she declared, “Right! Let’s go explore Coastcrash!”

The town was more like a village in terms of size - but maybe once upon a time it had been bigger. All the townsfolk were smiling away and were completely unbothered by the fact that Giygas’ darkness was coating the sky. The people the four talked to talked about how wonderful the ferry trip to Coastcrash was. The old shops, due to the lack of money nowadays, were more like museums that showed the wonders of the old days before Giygas’ invasion. The roads were cracked, but not torn up. For the weary state the town was in, the people seemed to not notice. Or not care. Then again, most were only visiting.

As the four walked down a road, Buzz Buzz said, “You know what I think?”

“What do you think,” Tori asked.

“I was right about the ferry. All those people… being so happy…” Buzz Buzz shuddered.

Tori rolled her eyes. “Really? You still think that they’re being brainwashed or something? Well I think you’re just jealous.”

“I must admit, the people have been a bit too cheerful,” Gran commented, glancing to the side. “…Maybe the Pigmasks are up to something here?”

“Well, there was a pig nose painted on the side of the ferry me and Tori went on a little while ago,” Buzz Buzz said. “If they claimed the ferries, then they might be doing… who knows what on board!”

Tori came to a halt as she squinted at the ground in thought. “I mean, there’s the happy boxes back…”

None of the others knew what she was muttering about. Buzz Buzz glanced around - a crowd was starting to form.

“Tori, could you maybe hurry it up a little? People are looking,” he hissed.

“Oh! Right, right. Let’s go have a look at that ferry.”

The docks were only a short walk away. The same ferry that Tori and Buzz Buzz had taken to get to Winters just a couple of weeks ago was docked. The only difference Buzz Buzz could discern was that the Starman emblem was no longer visible.

‘The Pigmasks must have gone over it with white paint,’ he thought.

No one was there to take tickets, so Tori led Gran and Leicra up to the ferry’s entrance. It was open. Strange, but convenient.

The interior of the ferry was much different without the chattering crowds and the warm lights. The only person inside, apart from the four themself, was the clerk. The same clerk from those weeks ago. They had been slouched over at their desk, and seeing the four made them sit up.

“Uh… hi! You again?” they asked Tori.

“Yeah! Me again.”

As Tori, Gran and Leicra walked up to the desk, the clerk asked, “Soooo… What can I do for you now?”

“Well my friend thinks there’s something fishy going on here, and we were just about to investigate for ourselves, buuuut I don’t suppose you’ve noticed anything weird?”

The clerk hummed in thought for a moment, then replied, “I mean, well other than the weird rattling noises down in the hold, no.”

“What are the rattling noises like?” Gran asked.

“…Rattling. Happens every night. I’ll just be going around cleaning - they were too lazy to hire a janitor so I do that too - and then these loud rattling noises will come from the hold. They go on for like, 30 seconds, I swear. And then… silence. I tried asking the boss about it, but he said there was nothing to worry about. I’m pretty sure loud rattling coming from the hold is something to worry about.”

“…Right. Thanks!” Tori said as she headed off to the narrow hall behind the clerk.

The clerk watched for a moment before saying, “That’s not the way to the hold.”

Tori came to a halt.

“I’ll show you to it.” The clerk got up from the desk and walked in the opposite direction. Tori jogged up to them, and Gran and Leicra followed at a similar pace.

They soon arrived in the hold - it was dark down there, and the dingy lights barely did anything to help it. There was an assortment of wooden crates and cardboard boxes in the hold. All of them had the same pig snout painted in the side of the ship on their sides.

“Well, have fun, try not to die,” the clerk told the four before walking away.

Tori leaned into the room and ignited a small flame of PK Fire. The room was much better lit up by the flame. She led Gran and Leicra into the hold, and the three of them started looking around.

The crates contained strange pink boxes with a screen. They weren’t televisions, but they probably served a similar purpose. The cardboard boxes had something much different in them - bottles. Multiple glass bottles of some sort of liquid. The bottles were small, about half the size of a wine bottle, and had darkened glass. Since none of the boxes, or crates, for that matter, were labelled, nobody knew what it was.

“Tori, Buzz Buzz, do you recall seeing any of these pink boxes on the ferry when you were last here?” Leicra asked, closing a crate.

They both thought for a moment before Tori replied, “Nope.”

Buzz Buzz looked over his shoulder at one of the cardboard boxes and muttered, “Then it must be whatever’s in those bottles…”

He buzzed over to the box he was looking at and landed on it. The other three crouched down next to it, and Leicra opened it, careful not to hit Buzz Buzz or knock him off. They then took out one of the bottles and turned it over in their hands as they examined it.

“It’s certainly strange. Maybe the Pigmasks have been putting this in the-”

A rustle sounded. One of the other cardboard boxes opened. Then, rattling.

The four sat in wide-eyed silence. Once the rattling had ended, Tori whispered to the others, “It’s not midnight, is it?”

“No,” Leicra replied.

“Then what was that and why is it rattling about now?” Buzz Buzz asked.

A shadow was cast over Buzz Buzz. He raised an eyebrow at this, and looked to both sides. Tori, Gran and Leicra were all pointing up at something behind him, all with looks of fear on their faces. Buzz Buzz turned around to see a large, pitch-black, vaguely humanoid figure. You could say it was human in shape, if you used the term very loosely. It appeared to at least have the upper half of a human, but the rest was simply a shadowy mass that melted into the floor. Its fingers were sharp, and it had a pair of horns atop its head.

“What are you doing,” it growled.

Buzz Buzz glanced away as he mumbled, “We were just… um…”

“…Maaaaaking sure that all the cargo was here!” Tori finished.

The shadowy creature, despite having no discernable eyes, glared at Tori.

“And yet, you look exactly like one of the people who took the FCT from its place in the Stromin Food Lab. I was told all about the endeavour. And how that lesser version of myself failed to protect it.”

“Lesser… version…?” Leicra echoed.

“Oh boy! More Chimeras! Just what I need!” Tori laughed. It was a mixture of nervousness and sarcasm.

The shadowy Chimera bared its claws and lunged at Tori. The PK Fire Tori had to light up the room was extinguished as she was pinned to the ground. Buzz Buzz darted away from the Chimera, then cast Shield Sigma. Leicra fired a PK Beam Gamma at the Chimera. The Chimera hissed and recoiled from the pain. Tori sat up and reignited the PK Fire to light up the room, only to find that the Chimera had vanished. After a few moments, it dove up from the floor at Gran. She fired a PK Freeze Beta at it with an eep. That was enough to send the Chimera hiding back into the floor.

“So it tries to surprise attack us…?” Leicra thought aloud.

“What a coward,” Buzz Buzz said.

The Chimera dove out of the floor and attempted to catch Buzz Buzz in its claw. Buzz Buzz had darted out of the Chimera’s reach. It growled before it sank back into the floor.

“This guy is a pain in the ass to fight,” Tori muttered. The Chimera rose up out of the floor to attack Tori, who unleashed a PK Fire Beta before it swiped her.

The Chimera was hard to target and harder to deal a good amount of damage to. This was for a mixture of reasons - it was in the floor most of the time, and Leicra was the only one who had good enough offensive PSI to deal much damage to it. Tori had tried Paralysis on it multiple times while it lunged at one of the them, and that didn’t do a thing.

In the middle of all the fighting, Tori’s face visibly (as much as it could in the low light) distorted as some kind of pain threw off her focus. Buzz Buzz noticed this, and buzzed over to her.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

Tori simply tapped her forehead.

“Ah. That is… a really inopportune time to have migraine.”

Gran cast another PK Freeze Beta on the shadowy Chimera before it darted back into the ground. Tori’s migraine ended just after this. The Chimera re-emerged in front of her. It leapt up at her, claws bared. Tori fired a PK Fire at it instinctively, but this PK Fire was different. There were more flames, and it was all brighter. It was almost like watching a fireworks show. The sheer strength of the PK Fire had stunned the Chimera into stillness as it flopped to the ground, not bothering to melt back into it.

Buzz Buzz frowned as he buzzed closer to the Chimera. “So what are you doing here, anyway?”

“Protecting… the Happy Boxes… and the Joy Punch… They were mixing it in with all the drinks… don’t you know…?” the Chimera answered.

“And what’s your name, anyway?” Tori questioned.

The Chimera laughed. “Shadowman X, if you must know. My lesser self was simply Shadowman.”

“Cool, thanks.”

For a few moments it seemed like Shadowman X had given up. But then he enlarged his right hand and smacked Tori to the left wall. Gran, who had moved to her side, got caught in this, too. A faint sound like the shattering of glass sounded, filling Buzz Buzz’s eyes with fear.

Tori sat up with a grunt. Gran gave her a quick Lifeup Beta.

“Leicra, do you have any more PP for a PK Beam Gamma?” Tori called out to the Blue Starman.

Leicra turned their head to her. “Yes, just enough! Why do you ask?”

“You need to sink the ship.”

A collection of “what?!”s came from the rest of the four.

“We’re not gonna be able to beat him if we keep going like this! The only way to beat him is to sink the ship!”

Shadowman X stood higher. “I won’t be letting you do that.”

Leicra glanced around nervously.

“Come on, Leicra!”

They looked at the floor. They held up their hands, palms facing out, shaking a little. They squeezed their eye tight shut, then shot out a PK Beam Gamma. The beam hit the floor and punched a reasonable hole in it. Water started welling into the hold.

“No…! You wouldn’t…”

“Not usually, but this is definitely not a situation I ever expected myself to be in…!” Leicra told Shadowman X.

As Tori and Gran stood up, the former said, “Come on! Let’s go!”

All of the four dashed out of the hold, slamming the door behind them. They backtracked to the clerk’s desk, who gave them a raised eyebrow as they ran over in a panic.

“The ship’s sinking, we gotta get outta here NOW,” Tori explained.

“You… What happened down there?”

“No time to explain! Come ON!”

Tori grabbed the clerk’s arm and pulled them along as the four ran out of the ferry. They had to jump up onto the dock, but they made it back to safety regardless.

Christoph was there, standing on the dock, with a crowd of confused people standing not too far away. He simply stared as Buzz Buzz returned to Tori’s shoulder, and the four and the clerk caught their breaths. They then watched as the ferry slowly sank.

“…Well, we stopped that,” Buzz Buzz finally said.

“I learned a new level of PK Fire in the process, too,” Tori added.

Christoph warily took a single step closer to the four. “Okay, so, what the hell happened in there?”

The clerk looked at Tori, clearly wanting to know the story, too.

“Oh boy. Well, y’see…”

Tori, with the help of Buzz Buzz, Gran and Leicra, relayed the events of the ferry visit to the clerk and Christoph. Nobody knew what to think of the story, so Christoph just suggested that the four got some rest at the inn before walking off.

“That could have gone a lot worse,” Buzz Buzz commented as Tori, Gran and Leicra made their way back to the inn they woke up in that day.

Leicra looked up at the darkening sky. The red-tinted clouds that always covered the sky looked to be getting thicker. “I’m still not sure how that took the whole day… Not that you can really tell…”

Tori shrugged. “Well, we got it done, at least.”

Now the inn was right in front of them - Seasalt Inn. What a nice name.

“Come on, let’s try and get some rest before the Sound Stone takes us to who-knows-where again.”

---

The nap should have been peaceful. Maybe it was those clouds. Maybe the clouds were interfering with their sleep…? That sounded ridiculous, though.

There was static. Lots of static. No sights, just static. And from the static came a voice.

“…Leicra…

“…Leicra, can you hear me…?

“…The time is coming soon…

“…Darkness shall reign above all if you do not fight…

“…Only the smallest can go back… to reverse this…

“…Remember my… …Leicra…

“…Remember…”