It was horrifying just how fast everything happened. The ten-foot-tall scarecrow monstrosity's length of sharp, rusty, supernatural fencing collided with virtually everything on its way to the rear of the hall, bouncing from floor to ceiling, wall to wall, corkscrewing the whole way. There was no avoiding it without ducking into a side room.

Badge's raw speed carried him and Jack to (temporary) safety. Sheffer's pillar-like stance, however, did not work quite as intended. The four-foot-wide, seemingly infinitely-long ribbon of sharpened iron slammed into the hedgehog full force... and went out the other side.

It didn't just pass through him like a specter. It cut through. Sheffer would experience a surreal moment in which he saw his own torso separated diagonally amid a spray of crystal, and a foreboding coldness swept over him.

... But it didn't feel natural. There wasn't so much pain as there was a bewildering, anesthetized haze. His detached lower half looked too cleanly separated to have been realistically lopped off by a huge section of flying graveyard fencing. Meanwhile, he would also find that he was still able to move, at least in a limited fashion.

If it hadn't been unclear enough before, the lines of reality were then blurred immensely. Even the floor started looking like it was going to collapse, as splintering cracks shot through the concrete, pursuing the fence down the hall in its flight, which, in less than a couple seconds, would reach Ace, then Caz in the rec room. All the while, it appeared the very roof was beginning to lift off of the place.

How Dr. Henshin could actually sleep through that mess was... inexplicable at best, at least without knowing the old moth's peculiar sleep schedule, habits, and medications. Thus, it was in a completely despicable, sleepy haze that the withered insect opened his be-goggled eyes, and slowly sat up, his mouth hanging in a steep, drool-stained frown.

He looked at Juneau as if he didn't understand what the fellow bug-guy was saying. His head began to slowly, stiffly turn on his neck, as if he was trying to absorb what was happening.

"... Hngh."

His goggles suddenly lit up like a pair of headlights shooting blinding beams of light out wherever he cast his eyes. And, interestingly enough, everywhere the light landed, the reality of the house was visible—the floor undamaged, the ceiling normal height, the walls untouched, and so on, and so forth.

And so he wordlessly hovered into the air with a puttery few flaps from his glowing, semi-mechanized wings, and very crankily, slowly began making his way down the hall, all the while tapping buttons on his wrist computer, and scanning around as if searching for something. He looked as unenthused, unexcited, and unhappy about the situation as was physically possible, and lacked utterly any eccentricity or jolliness he normally had.

At some point, the flying fence lashed at him, but he just jigged under it with a marked absence of effort, gave it a severe frowning, then vanished into the nearby shower room.

Though relieved to find more people safe, Rock didn't have much time to show it besides an acknowledging glance at the shark, and a blurt of, "Try to stay close, okay?" as the last lock was removed from the door, and it swung open.

The basement stairway had cold, bare concrete walls, weak emergency lights, and worn, grated metal stairs. It was mercifully short, with only one flight down. Rock's boots clanked heavily and rapidly as he made his way down, letting his flashlight guide his way. The basement itself beyond the open doorway at the bottom was unremarkable, but large—larger than the upstairs. Pallets of crates were everywhere, and everything had a fine layer of dust and cobwebs. Some things had sheets thrown over them, but with the bulk of the ghosts gone, they didn't play any shenanigans. In fact, as fearsome as the basement's locks may have indicated it should have been, the downstairs was actually placid compared to the upstairs.

Rock jogged around a stack of crates, pausing only to ensure he left neither Jam nor Mako behind, then continued onward, stopping in front of a piece of peculiar machinery. The engine-like hulk of metal had numerous large, metal hoses running out of it, a glass panel with a glowing Chaos Drive clamped within, and numerous displays, which were at present blinking with errors. A large, yellow label was affixed directly beneath one of the panels, commanding attention for all the dangers of the equipment.

Rock tapped a couple buttons on the touch screen, then set to work, fishing around down in the shadows, dust, and spider-webs for the source of the problem. He ultimately came up with a heavy-duty, metal-tube-wrapped wire, which was somehow clean-cut with bare copper visible.

"Somethin' chopped the wire," he explained in a hasty, low tone, the steam of his breath visible in the air. "I had a whole box of extra crap for this, cables and everything right here."

There was a bare, dustless square about the size of a medium box right where he motioned. He was gritting his teeth too much to make further comment on the situation, though, and was reduced to clambering around in a harried search.

"Cardboard box!" he barked. "Yellow tape on it, look for it!"

Easier said than done in an underground warehouse.

Just around the time it took to see Jam and Sheff up and about, quickly followed by a ghastly apparition popping itself in front of Ace's face, the alley cat took notice: Something was very off. The 'Boo scare' wasn't so much terrifying as it was completely and utterly startling. Nontheless, Ace's patented 'don't sneak up on me' instinct took over, and with a shout, drove a terror-powered straight directly through the Boo's forehead.

It promptly poofed out of existence, but the results were of little consequence. Ace still didn't know what the hell was going on (although he could probably give a guess as to the cause), and when he looked behind him, it seemed readily apparent that the whole world was going to Hell regardless. "What the F**K!?" he shouted, most likely out of simple frustration as the front door burst open.

With the front door not his initial destination, and not wanting to take on whatever the Hell thing just walked out of it, he silently prayed that Caz was indeed down in the rec room, he turned tail and hauled ass.

Sure enough, the doors flung themselves open, and there she was, in the middle of frantically swatting away a horde of ghosts. Hit feet hit the floor like nobody's business, but he wasn't getting any closer at all. In fact, he seemed to be falling farther away, even as he ran... He looked down at his feet, teeth bared in outrage and confusion, and then looked behind him. What he saw was not comforting.

He pushed himself to the very limits of his capabilities, but ultimately, it wasn't enough to get him where he wanted. "CAZ!" he bellowed. She turned her head. "GET DOWN!" And with that, Ace cringed in frustration and hurled himself shoulder-first to the left into Rock's room, narrowly avoiding the fence screaming behind him. Likewise on Caz's side, only she actually got to see the thing hurled inches past her eyes before stumbling over a leg of the pool table... and back on the ground.

While Rock, Jam, and Mako frantically searched for the vital component needed for safety and sanctuary, Dr. Henshin drowsily, frowningly weaved his way down the stairs to the basement, occasionally dipping and dropping, threatening to lose altitude altogether, but ultimately staying mostly upright, mostly in the air, and mostly on track.

***

Above, the chaos looked far from ending. Though the fence whipped about, slashing clear through the pool table with an explosion of splinters, and lashing the floor with sprays of concrete bits and dust, the whirling metal flail was ultimately called back by a huge, dynamic yank from the pumpkin-headed menace, to which it retracted with a series of metallic clinks.

The spindly giant began moving forward, step by step. Each footfall looked precarious, as if his frame should not have been able to support his sheer height as thin as he was, yet each also came with a resounding thud, and quake of the ground, as if his weight was just that immense.

As he strode into the hall, he passed the mantis completely without much more than an icy glare; perhaps it was because the bug was not as face-meltingly frightened as the others, making them the more interesting targets. Whatever the case was, the monstrosity continued on its path, while the fence it dragged began to wind its way around its body, snaking up its tall, lanky frame, surrounding its head, and punching through its coat, deforming itself until sharp, spear-like metal fence posts jutted from all over its body.


***

Henshin bumped into Mako from behind, and grunted at him unintelligibly. He sounded something like an angry bear as he passed by, flitted droopily to the generator, and paused in front of its screen.

He poked buttons. He nodded to himself. He grunted.

He moved to the other side and poked more buttons. He grumbled and grunted some more, ranting in indistinct words.

He sank to the floor and grabbed the loose cable. An array of tiny, mechanized arms jutted from his wrist gauntlet and flayed the metal tubing in about a second flat. With the use of a small tool, he had both ends of the severed wire stripped back in another two seconds; another metal arm popped up from over his back and deposited a pen-sized soldering iron in his hand, as well as some solder, then some sort of adhesive tape.

*Fizzzap.*

The old moth successfully repaired and wrapped the cable in about five seconds total. He then hovered up to the control panel, jabbed at the touchscreen with a flurry of quick taps, flipped open a panel, flipped several switches, knocked another metal panel open with a kick, spun, and slammed a large red button with an exaggerated aerial palm strike worthy of Wild Badge himself.

"Dokaaa."

There was a heavy clunk of a switch falling, then a joyous hum. The generator was spinning and humming in no time, the spotlights were on outside, and all of the concealed LEDs behind the curtains on the walls were blazing just like before. And, down in the basement, the entire ceiling lit bright-white, revealing a web of similar LEDs that covered the entire floorspace beneath the first floor of the tower above.



The pumpkin horror stopped mid-stride and looked around; its illusory effects on the structure instantly vanished, leaving an undamaged, unmarred building through and through. Even Sheffer's legs were back! (And the pool table, too.) However, it was still dark inside... but that could be easily fixed.