Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Raz was going over notes in his nearly empty dorm room, door wide open. Despite how much he wanted to be like his hero, Agent Sasha Nein, the clean sterility of the dorm room set him off. At least with the door open, he could hear the shouting of Morris and Adam at what was probably a video game the two had gotten and were getting frustrated at. As well as Sam’s disastrous cooking.

It reminded him of home. The good parts of home. Spending time with a family that he…the memories were bitter now. It had only been a few weeks since he literally thought they would tear him limb from limb if they figured out what he loved.

Coupled with the fact that out of the corner of his eye he could see something floating-

Raz physically grabbed the toy out of the bright TK grip, clutching it to his chest.

“Was that an old Raggedy Andy doll?” Lizzie asked. “Man, I haven’t seen one of those in ages .”

“Looks more Raggedy than Andy.” Gisu added on.

Raz glared to the side, not showing his fellow Junior Agents how he felt as he carefully pushed the cotton back under some of the loose, patchy fabric. It used to be his father’s. Then Dion’s. Then Frazie’s. Mirtala had expressed disgust so Queepie would have been next if not for the current income that allowed him to get new toys. That being said, Raz did have a very soft spot for the once whole toy that he owned. He placed it back on the shelf right next to his still in package Sasha Nein action figure. 

Raz would probably never take it out of the packaging, he did have collectors pride…and he would literally die on the spot if any of the senior agents found out. Okay, maybe not literally, but the point was: he didn’t really buy it to play with. Heck, none of the toys that were in his dorm room were really to play with. The weird metal wind-up bunny that Coach had given him was so rusted, Raz was afraid it would break if he dared turn the key on it. And Ford’s little wooden doll, while made with care…Raz still had emotional baggage that he was dealing with, plenty about Ford.

His siblings used to mess with him the same way…kind of. Dion and Frazie had been caught putting things of his that they knew he didn’t have much of a connection with in awkward areas that he had to use his acrobatics to catch up and get the item back.

“Razputin, if you could come here for a moment.” Hollis called him over as the other Junior Agents were dispersing for their shadowing.

Raz knew from her tone that she was not angry with him, but still felt nervousness claw its way through his bones. Like crawling up his spine and weaving through his rib-cage.

“As you know, you’re in rotation for the next mental exploration of the Junior Agents.”

“Yes, I am aware.”

“I was trying to go through your files and found something very surprising.”

“That being?”

“The only things in your file are mission reports.”

“Okay…?”

“Agent Aquato, we are supposed to have received an NDA, and various forms regarding permission as well as mental and physical health. It occurs to me that you got into the Psychonauts…a less than practical way. I’ve gotten you the forms, and since your family is still in the Questionable Area, I require you to complete this form with them. Otherwise I cannot allow you to do any more official Psychonauts activities until those are completed.”

“I’ll get them completed as soon as I can, Second Head Forsythe.”

Raz jumped off of his Lev-ball as he finally got back to the campsite. His father was the first to greet him.

“Hey, son! Catch!”

Raz responded by his orange TK hand catching a slightly singed pinecone and tossing it back to his father.

Augustus’s laugh was so proud as he fumbled a bit with the pinecone. With a little bit of luck, Augustus would have enough ash to fill a pillow to sleep on. “What brings you over here to our neck of the woods? World needs to be saved again?” Augustus’s voice was warm, but Raz felt icy stares coming from Dion and Donatella.

They still weren’t happy. And Frazie was probably somewhere doing flips and running around with Queepie and Mirtala. Maybe the trio were even in Green Needle Gulch, visiting Nona and Ford.

“Uh, actually, it’s paperwork.”

“Hah! Paperboy.” Dion muttered.

“Paperwork?” Donatella walked over, towering over Razputin.

“Uh, yeah…an NDA (whatever that is), health forms, some permissions. Agent Forsythe said I needed to fill this out in order to do more official Psychonauts stuff.”

“Like what?” Donatella asked the papers as she began to read them. “LETTING PEOPLE GO INTO YOUR MIND!?”

“It’s fine. I’ve had to go into the other Junior Agents’ minds too.”

Dion sat straight up at that, and Raz did notice, biting back a retort that he wanted to ball up and throw at Dion like a confusion grenade- Raz relaxed his shoulders. He needed to be nice and loose in order to better keep his mind clear. Let things flow downwards, like a waterfall, into the bottom of a deep well.

“Anyways, I just need youーmom and dadーto sign these papers and I can go on ahead and have them come into my mind.”

“Go into your…” Donatella was dumbstruck, eyes wide and mouth agape.

Augustus was more than willing though. Probably because he’d already been in Razputin’s mind.

“Go on, Dona.” Augustus handed her the paper and pen.

“Actually, I would like to talk to whoever is currently in charge of you children about this.”

Raz bit his lip.

“Razputin, please.”

“That would be Agent Forsythe. The same woman that you…met when you first came to the Motherlobe…”

Donatella looked down at Razputin, and blinked slowly, twice. “Very well. I will discuss this with her.”

Raz opened his mouth to protest, but Donatella was already moving past him, the paper and pen in her hands.

“Agents.” Hollis began with a nod. It made Raz swell up with pride. He was a Psychonaut. A Psychonaut Agent now! It made him beam every time someone referred to him as such.

“As you know, in the rotation of Friday’s Mind Research we have Razputin Aquato up next. It has been…brought to my attention that while he’s been here, he has not signed anything.”

And now heat was creeping up on him. Whether from embarrassment or Norma’s glare, he wasn’t quite sure.

“We have contacted his family about the Mind Research and…The Aquatos, with some of them being psychic but others…not. Will be joining us on Friday’s Mind Research. The Non-Psychics will also be paired with Higher-up agents, so no. You cannot request to pair up with one of the Non-Psychics.”

With the way Gisu’s fingers curled and Morris looked over at her, Raz wasn’t sure if Gisu had asked the question mentally or not.

“Agent Forsythe, do we get to know which Agents will be joining us beforehand?”

“Currently, I do not have the list of Agents who are…ready to work with the Aquatos.”

Raz’s fingers tugged a bit at his jacket, hoping for just a few agents that he really liked would be willing to help.

Chapter Text

Donatella would be lying if she had said she had gotten over her psychic prejudice.

Maybe it was because there was a curse on the family, it was just turning their minds against them instead of water being actively malicious . Maybe it was because the moment her dear baby Pootie got here he was humiliated and there was downright malice against him. Maybe it was because the man who put the curse on their family expected things to be okay when he only made up with Nona Aquato. Maybe it was the fact that most psychics already had a mutual hatred of the Aquatos.

Regardless of her feelings to not want to be near the place, the Motherlobe was where her Pootie was, and she would be a fool to trust something as delicate as her child’s own mind near people when she was also right there to be with him. Over the course of the fall the Aquatos had been here, they eventually did get the story about Raz going to camp, mainly from Raz. And Dona did get a little more details from her husband.

Regards aside, she would be there for Razputin. She should be. Even if Psychics outside of her family still left her on edge even after pleasant conversations, they were still a part of Raz’s new life.

The Aquatos flipped onto the floating stones from the base area of the Psychoisolation chambers back up to the landing deck of the Motherlobe.

“Mother?” Dona turned to face Augustus and follow his eyes back to Lucrecia Aquato, who was standing with the other older psychics.

“Hello, Gussy.” Nona smiled, shaking a bit.

“Nona!” Mirtala hugged her.

Nona hugged back, able to take the child’s crushing grip pretty well.

“Are…” Augustus paused, still unsure. “Are you here to help with Razputin as well?”

“Of course.” A soft spoken man with a long, white beard nodded.

“Razputin helped us before, it’s only fair that we help him!” The man who looked significantly younger than the rest of his friends agreed.

Ford’s idea. Donatella assumed.

“Actually, it was Compton’s idea!” Cassie seemingly answered, putting a hand on the shortest member’s left shoulder.

Dona took a step back, sea blue eyes glaring at the older woman. Stay out of my mind. Donatella thought furiously.

Raz felt his fingernails dig into the ends of his gloves as he waited for everyone to get into the Think Tank classroom. He was sitting cross-legged on the bed he had designated as his as he took in a deep breath to calm his nerves. Closing his eyes, he remembered Milla’s musings about ripples. He tried to focus on himself. What nearby minds were coming towards him? Who was going to all be inside of his mind?

His eyelids twitched as he tried to recognize who all was there. Like a fly trying to merely tap itself against something to figure out what it was. He could tell the interns easily, having been in their minds, near them was Hollis. And next to her…Coach Oleander? Raz’s sense nearly reeled back into his mind.

He lost control of his breathing for a moment and he once again had to gulp to recalibrate himself. Moving his legs a bit to relax them, he swept past two opposing, yet synchronous energies. Milla and Sasha. A wave of relief hit him as he realized. That would mean… there would be enough for five of the Aquato family to get in. There had to be others, right?

He could feel several more ripples around that nearly threw him off, and reached out to a familiar anchor. At first, he thought he had gripped onto Sasha’s mind, but the mind reminded him of being near a fire, family, drinking soup that warmed his belly. A strange joy with a hint of wind that chilled him with fear.

Raz sat up straight and shook his head. Enough of that. He could try again some other time. He moved his leg from out of the crossed position and flopped onto his back, one leg in the air as his arm grabbed it to help stretch it out.

Maybe his family was right about his muscle tone. The stretch in his hamstrings came in a lot earlier than he expected. He let out an exhale that was almost a sigh and sat back up as he heard voices.

He felt the urge to keep his eyes closed and he tried to rub what little sleep may have been left from the morning.

A roll from his right shoulder helped relax him as he saw the…quite large group pack into the classroom, and he was starting to have doubts.

Raz swallowed as his eyes scanned the room, then landed back at Hollis. Which he regretted, as they immediately made eye contact. He was the focus in this room, but his own focus was on the leader of this expedition.

“Razputin,” Hollis began, “are you ready for this group to enter your mind?”

Raz glanced over the group again, feeling a lump in his throat. There were plenty of people he didn’t want in his head already there.

Dion, Frazie, his mom…pretty much the whole family except his father and possibly Nona.

Norma was also someone he didn’t want in his mind. Not after when the group of Junior Interns went into her mind and found it relatively safe to split up. Some of her thoughts still stuck with him and made it feel like ice covered his bones.

And Ford…

But on the other hand, the entire Psychic Seven had dealt with crazy mind things before…

And maybe his dad could coach the family about exploring his mind.

And the interns would have Hollis looking after them so-

“ Razputin .” Hollis’s voice broke Raz’s musings. Right, he didn’t give an answer yet…

Raz pulled his goggles over his head, only giving a small part of his head still exposed for the Psi-portal to be placed. “Ready.”

Chapter Text

The group all landed in what appeared to be a Rhombus-like dark space, big enough for anyone to really move around. The movement of feet around the area reminded them of glass, plinking tinny sounds from their heels as they all tried to get organized.

“Okay, let’s figure out the layout.” Hollis took the lead, moving to the North point of the Rhombus. To her left was something resembling the circus that the Aquatos had set up in the Questionable Area? but it was impossibly high, stretching on and on towards the top of Raz’s mind. To her right was an open dirt path that led to a heavy, dense forest, with a sign that could be barely made out.

Hollis turned around, seeing the south parts of the Rhombus now. To the southeast, there was a very rusted gate that looked like it opened to a meadow. To the southwest, there appeared to be steps that lead to a very foggy looking city, from the few buildings she could see.

This led to an issue. Of all the minds that Forsythe had been in, usually parts blended together…unless they were seriously fractured like Ford’s. Seeing an actual brain that was so…separated made her uneasy. Especially with the large group. 

She needed to get a hold on the group’s attention in order to keep them where she was able to work with them.

“Alright, so many of you have been in a mind before, but some have not. This brain has a unique…structure that we are not used to.”

“ We , the Aquatos, will head to the circus tent.” Donatella announced, interrupting Hollis.

“Excuse me?”

“We know the circus well enough. It would be fine.”

Hollis took the moment to make her thoughts blank. She needed to be deliberate when speaking. “This is Razputin’s mind. He is a ten-year-old secret agent-”

“And he is our son.” Dona made a sweeping gesture to bring attention to Augustus.

“He has been through a lot and you wanted to come along-”

“To make sure you would not do any damage.”

“I have been working for-”

“We have known Razputin all his life. And Augustus has already gone into his mind once before.”

“Dona…” Augustus muttered in embarrassment.

Right, Hollis read about Razputin’s father seemingly helping Raz detangle from Oleander’s mind, according to Sasha and Milla’s report from the Whispering Rock Incident. But then again, Sasha and Milla had been passed out and only able to go off of Augustus’s and Razputin’s recollection of whatever…helped Oleander.

“Even so, the mind is a dangerous-”

“Aw, let ‘em go, Hollis.” Ford spoke up.

“I do not need your assistance.” Donatella turned and glared at the retired Psychonaut.

The entire group was quiet. Eyes darting between Ford and the Aquatos, or between Hollis and Donatella.

Milla walked up and placed her right hand on Hollis’s left shoulder. “Hollis, it may be the safest place for them. They did grow up in a circus, after all. And they are still dealing with…complicated feelings about psychics.”

Hollis closed her eyes, processing Milla’s words. “Fine.”

Thus, the Aquatos moved to the Northwest area of the rhombus, towards the impossibly tall circus tent.

Hollis shook her head and sighed. This was the only way they could do the check-up on Agent Aquato’s mind. If the family allowed it. But she was really starting to regret letting Donatella have so many ways of being able to edit that contract. She must’ve been the reason that the Aquato circus stayed in funding for so long, especially lasting through winters.

“So, should we split up to cover more ground as well?” Gisu asked.

“It makes sense.” Norma said.

“I call the friendly bunny meadow.” Morris said.

“What, are you scared Pooter’s gonna have some scary enemies in his brain?” Lizzie chuckled.

“In all seriousness, have you read this sign?” Sam called the group over. “ Madness Meadow for the Protection of the Mind .”

“It says Mad less , Sam.” Adam corrected.

“There’s also a bunch of animals in there.” Sam reached out, as if trying to pet the creatures.

Lucrecia Aquato watched between the separating parties and then turned around.

“Lucy?” Ford asked as she began to walk into the foggy city.

“Ah, taking the reins, I see.” Otto commented.

“Phe! I just know there’s something my little turnip is worried about.”

“Do you think it’s in here?” Cassie began to walk alongside Lucrecia.

“I know it.”

The seven walked into the fog, awaiting to see what would occur.

Leaving just Hollis, the Junior Agents, and Agents Nein and Vodello, Hollis crossed her arms.

“It seems the Junior Agents have already decided. If you find anything, please let me know.”

“Of course.” Agent Nein nodded.

“Good luck, and stay safe.” Agent Vodello waved.

The two headed along the dirt path.

The only area that had a true and proper entrance was the Meadow, with a gate that had its name at the very top. “Madless Meadow for the Protection of the Mind.”

Hollis was the one to reach to push the gate open.

Creak , the Otto BON was pushed open by a stainless steel, three-pronged claw. Loboto jumped out, seemingly running for his life.

“Get back here you little sneak!” A gruff girl’s voice called out.

“I’m not getting set on fire again!” He shouted as he ran into the Think Tank. Loboto was momentarily puzzled by all the people sleeping in there, and then he looked to his little first mate.

Loboto took a few seconds, tilting his head from side to side as he approached. 

Raz’s goggles were glowing a brilliant orange and there was a tiny, purple crystal door on his forehead.

“Knock knock.” Loboto tapped the door and it opened.

“Dogen, do you see him?” Lili asked from the Otto B.O.N.

“He’s in the classroom.”

“He what!?”

“He’s on the floor of the classroom.”

Lili tapped Dogen on his ankle, and Dogen climbed out.

“Urgh! Why didn’t I burn his showercap sooner!?”

“I would have blown his head up if he didn’t have the shower cap. Or my helmet.”

“Come on, let’s see what he’s doing and try to get him back into Sasha’s lab.”

“Mmm-kay.”

Lili walked over to Loboto’s passed out body and kicked his shoulder. “Get up.”

“Raz has a door on him.” Dogen pointed out.

“WHAT!?” Lili looked in panic. “Oh…no… We’ve got to get in there before Loboto does any permanent damage.”

“Oh no…” Augustus’s voice was slightly hurt as he looked up to the ceiling of the tall circus. “Not this place again…”

It wasn’t as meaty as before, but clearly some things in Raz’s mind were still tainted by Oleander’s memories. The trapezes were meat hooks and the regular poles that came out of the wood were bones that had flecks of throbbing red meat and the scent was clearly rotten. Around them, twisted calliope music that was almost like their own family circus song they played blared.

“Oh great…” Lili let out a sigh at the sight of Camp Whispering Rock. “This place again…”

“Maybe there won’t be any mean squirrels.” Dogen mumbled as he walked into there.

“And maybe no adults, who would try to get us out of here. Come on, let’s find Loboto before he does any more damage to Raz’s psyche.”

“Oh…” Coach Oleander finally realized as Loboto was waving to the little clear frog with different colored eyes. “This place…the asylum…”

“This is that creepy asylum near camp, right?” Lizzie recalled. “Man, so many ghost stories from this place.”

“Kind of bright for a ‘creepy asylum.’” Morris pointed out.

“Oh,” the Psychic Seven were all on the same wavelength as they got to the entrance “why this place again!?”

Grulovia was twisted with plastic puppets and water stained streets. Giant, dead roly polys were tucked in corners, some still twitching.

Chapter Text

Sasha and Milla hadn’t made it too far in until they met up with Constructs in Raz’s mind.

“Hi! I’m Clerm!” A wooden doll resembling Clem greeted.

“And I’m Chloe!” A wooden doll resembling Crystal joined.

“Welcome to Camp Whispering Rock!” They cheered together.

“Hello children.” Milla smiled.

“Oh wow! Is it really you?” Chloe asked.

“Agents Nein and Vodello! Here! Come on! Our Best Friend is going to love seeing you guys!” Clerm grabbed Milla’s hand.

Oleander was wringing out his hands nervously as the group all stared at Loboto.

“What?” The dentist asked.

“How did you get in here!?” Hollis shouted.

“Oh. My first mate had a door on his forehead.”

“First mate?” Morris asked. “What are you, a pirate?”

“Says the guy running the pirate radio station.” Lizzie clicked her tongue.

“Lizzie, this is why you didn’t get to be my co-host.”

“I didn’t even want to be your co-host.”

“Shut up.”

Suddenly a goat rammed into Oleander’s side, causing pain to the older psychonaut as he was knocked down. 

“Hey. Don’t be mean.” Sam scolded.

The goat shook its head wildly. “I’m not the Milkman, I’m the GUAAARRRDD!” It bleated.

“On your guard, we don’t know what could be in his mind.” Ford said as he had his arm slightly outstretched.

The fog was dispersing and most of the Psychic Seven were still getting used to the looks of the drenched town that caused so much to be lost. Despite the fact that Raz had been here only once, that seemed to make the town look worse. The buildings were distorted, reaching up to impossible heights, and the snow was melting into saturated blue so bright that it could be paint rather than water.

As they went in deeper something landed about 10 feet in front of them. It was a loud, brattish cry. It was demanding attention as Helmut and Lucrecia pushed forwards towards it. It was a soft pink suitcase and smelled strongly of fish. 

Compton covered his nose as he got closer. “Of all the smells…”

Cassie followed, reaching down to pat his shoulder.

“I think there’s…a bigger issue…” Bob said as he and Ford moved forwards.

“Oh my…” Otto gasped as he looked up.

“This is not healthy.” Helmut shook his head as more crying emerged. A chorus of what sounded like a requiem came from all that emotional baggage crying out.

“Shh!” Mirtala broke through the music with a hiss.

“It’s just music, Tala.” Frazie reassured.

“No! I hear something! Something that’s not music.”

Queepie cupped his ear. “It sounds weird !”

The Aquatos all stopped, straining their ears.

Augustus’s eyebrows creased, eyes searching the ground, then he turned to where he thought the sound was coming from. “Razputin?” He questioned.

“Raz doesn’t cry.” Mirtala reminded her father.

Donatella stepped forwards to match where Augustus was, looking in the same direction.

“RAZPUTIN!” Augustus suddenly took off. He was only two steps in front of her before Donatella ran after him, and the family all followed.

Augustus reached for a curtain that blocked his way.

Branches were pulled past the two adults so they could see the stage that had more wooden dolls surrounding it. The dolls creaked slightly as they all clamoured to see what kind of show was being put on.

“Go on!” Clerm urged.

“Yeah, you’ve got front row seats reserved for you!” Chloe added, pushing against Sasha’s knee. 

He stifled a grunt and an urge to kick the construct. “I can walk on my own.”

The constructs seemed embarrassed and backed away a bit.

“Don’t be too hard on them, darling.” Milla reminded. “We are in Razputin’s mind. And he is just excited to see you.”

Sasha’s jaw clenched and he had to make a conscious decision to unclench it.

The duo took their seats at the front, with proper seating apparently for everyone instead of just the logs at camp.

Dolls that resembled Phoebe and Quentin took the stage. “We are ready for the speech to begin!” The Quentin doll announced. “I’m your host, Q-Bert!”

“And I’m your host, Fiona!”

“Fiona, if you’d please light the campfire.”

“As long as you play your instrument, Q-Bert!”

“You got it!”

The doll called Fiona focused, and the campfire sprung to life.

Sasha could smell the smoke as it entered his lungs.

He took another deep breath of the cigarette. The amount of crying that the baggage always created gave him headaches. This little back corner where the cigarette machine was located was his only solace. Trying to tune out the tears and fears as he inhaled. It tasted of Agent Nein’s own cigarette, from what little smoke Raz had been able to remember. He tapped the cigarette, as he saw Agent Nein do, and once again pulled on a bright white zip tie around his wrist. They were tight, stifling. And he couldn’t get them off.

He felt his breath quicken and brought the cigarette back up to his lips. Another deep drag and he was ready.

He stepped out of the alleyway, expecting the amount of baggage. What he wasn’t expecting were the others in this part of the mind. Specifically-

“Pootie?” His Nona called.

He let the cigarette drop and brought his foot to begin stomping on it.

Thumping came from a stump as a familiar high pitched laugh filled the air. “Hee hee hee hee hee!” Then his tongue clicked. “You deserve that for what you did to Boyd!”

The group turned to see a white Jackalope on a stump, with bright green eyes and goggles on the top of his head. His joints were covered in brown markings, or was it mud? He went back onto all fours, revealing a wind-up key jammed into his lower spine.

Norma raised an eyebrow. “You’re a construct. You probably-”

“Probably should be a mole, right?” He snapped back in a smug voice. “Well I hate to disappoint you. Oh wait, no I don’t. I’ve already disappointed so many people, what’s one more on the list?”

Adam’s eyebrows creased. “Are…are you okay-”

“Peachy!” The Jackalope responded with a smile. “I mean, I wasn’t expecting so many guests, but at least my place is organized.”

“Excuse me!?” Norma shouted. “You seemed to get through my mind just fine.”

“Oh…I got through your mind…” His key began to squeak as it turned a click , sounding as his joints twitched, creating more squeak against the rust that covered his body. “I’ve been to places that you wouldn’t want me to have been in. I’ve seen your little meeting room . I’ve seen your mole board.

“You’ve been through Norma’s mind?” Hollis asked.

“Oh yes.” click . “But you probably wouldn’t remember. It’s me , Hollis. Remember?” click click click . “The kid whose name you already forgot ?”

Hollis’s eyes widened as she took a step back. The clicking from his key was starting to become more consistent. Louder and louder.

“You probably forgot ,” klicklik , “a lot of the dismissive ,” klikliklik “Things you said, Agent Forsythe. ” Click . “But I. Sure. Didn’t-”

There was rustling coming from the brush behind him, taking the Jackalope’s attention off of the Agents.

His voice was soft, almost a whimper. “Friends?”

“HOW DID WE LOSE A 12 FOOT TALL, BLUE SKINNED DENTIST!?” Lili shouted to the world.

“He has really long legs.” Dogen reminded.

Lili rubbed just above her eyebrows, feeling a headache coming on. “Geez…if we don’t find him soon, who knows what kind of damage he could put on Raz’s psyche?”

“Maybe he’s not here?”

“He kidnapped children from the camp . It’s obvious he would go back to the scene of the crime.”

Lili continued to push forwards.

“We thought we heard your clicking.” Two new constructs came up. 

One resembled Dogen, albeit he had large fairy wings that looked like they came from children’s story books. He came over and cradled the Jackalope construct. “You need to calm down, Raz. Don’t let them rile you up.”

The other resembled Lili, but from her temples sprouted horns. As she walked, an imp like tail was held high and she held a fireball. “Are they bothering you? Need me to get rid of them?”

“No need to dementestrate them…” the Jackalope Raz reassured. “Just…they’ll be out of their own accord.”

The Imp Lili still glared at the group, fireball only seeming to glow brighter. “You leave him alone now. Got it!?”

“ This is what he wants?” Lizzie asked. “Raz isn’t one who wants to be coddled like a baby .”

“I don’t know, I think it looks sweet.” Sam shrugged.

“It’s your brother holding a rabbit, of course it looks sweet.” Oleander agreed with Sam.

“Razputin is probably just pretending. He likes thinking he’s so much better than us.” Norma pointed out. 

“I’m not the Raz who’s pretending around here.”

The other camper dolls cheered as a doll resembling Razputin came on stage. He was wearing the same outfit they all were, the camp shirt and some blue shorts, save for the fact he had his signature helmet and goggles on his head. Unlike the rest of the kids, he seemed to have more joints and fluid movement

“The human mind. Six hundred miles of synaptic fiber, five and a half ounces of cranial fluid, fifteen hundred grams of complex neural matter… A three pound pile of dreams. But I’ll tell you what it really is. Itis the ultimate battlefield. The wars of this Psychic Age-- the modern age-- are all fought somewhere-” he pointed to his own head, “between these damp, curves, undumations. From this day forwards, you are all: Psychonauts.”

There was an insurmountable amount of joy that shuddered through the rest of the dolls.

“Paranormal Paratroopers! Mental Marines! About to fly out on the adventure of a lifetime. THIS IS OUR BREACHHEAD! And this is your start on your path! You shall engage the enemy in his own mentality. You shall fight his brain. And those of you who want to continue, shall bloom into yourself. And become secret, international agents!”

“We’ll be Psychonauts!” The kids cheered together.

The doll Raz laughed with them. “Alright, let’s take a break, focus on what psychic power you were good at and try to learn from your fellow campers! Afterall, we’re all friends here!”

The dolls dispersed and Sasha and Milla were left with this Raz.

“Razputin??” Milla sounded so confused.

The wooden doll shrugged with a smile. “Kind of.”

Sasha looked over the doll again. “Well, if you’re not Razputin, then who are you?”

He giggled a bit. “The only other Raz I really talk to is Agent. I go by Camper! Come on, I’ll give you a tour!” He jumped off the stage.

Dion let out a light grunt as his feet hit the ground from off the stage.

“He’s around here somewhere. ” Donatella reassured.

“Like he’d want to be near the circus.” Queepie chimed.

“Queepie.” Donatella hissed.

“What? He stole Frazie’s horse to run away.”

The crying seemed to start again, softer. It struck Dion with fear and pain. He went onto his knees and lifted up a curtain that showed room under the stage. “Raz?” Dion asked as he looked in.

Looking back was a small little thing, with green skin and red eyes that looked like buttons. “NO! STOP! GET AWAY!” It curled into the fetal position.

“Hey, kid, we’re not going to hurt you-”

“LIES! ALL LIES! I CAN’T LIE! MOMMA GETS UPSET WHEN I LIE! IT HURTS MOMMA TO HEAR LIES!”

“Hey, uh, guys? There’s something here!” Dion called over to his family.

From the little area, the green-skinned child bolted, running into Dion’s legs and knocking him over. Dion grunted in pain and looked back.

The child was remarkably fast, running next to the tent walls, as if trying not to be noticed.

“Is that Razputin?” Mirtala asked.

“He looks weird.” Queepie added.

The kid kept running further and further until something that looked like a spider jumped down, pinning him. He yelped and cried out, struggling beneath the creature, and the rest of the Aquatos immediately ran to where the little kid was getting picked up.

“What the hell !” Dion shouted at the creature, only to see three heads turn towards him. The first were from the creature s that grabbed the little kid, and the third was from the kid himself. He was being stretched out by his wrists between the creatures, revealing himself as more of a plushie, with an exposed heart and chest cavity filled with fluff. He was already starting to rip from his left elbow, and it looked like he was wearing two socks, albeit, one was threatening to fall off.

The creatures gave chillingly familiar laughs. 

“Thanks for finding the little traitor.” One with Frazie’s voice told them.

“Yeah, we heard you call for us and what a lucky find indeed!” the other had Dion’s voice as he tugged the poor thing’s arm up higher.

“STOP IT! STOP!”

“You’re lacking on stretches, Pootie.” The Frazie zombie teased.

“Is… that how he sees us?” Frazie’s voice was quieter than she anticipated, and she couldn’t turn her head away from the display as the two zombie siblings climbed higher on their ropes, worse tears threatening to happen as they used the poor kid between them as a tool to assist them.

“Maybe mother oughta test him?” The Dion zombie looked to his sister.

“Oh she needs to.”

“NO NO NO NO NO NO NO! I’M FINE! I’M STRETCHED!”

“I don’t think so!” Another voice called.

“One.” The Zombie Frazie looked to her brother and began to swing the little child.

“Two.” The Zombie Dion’s voice raised with joy and joined in.

“NO NO NO NO NO!” The poor little plush zombie Raz tried to protest, his legs flailing.

“THREE!” They cheered and suddenly a spotlight was thrust onto the flying Raz, who only climbed higher and higher until was caught…by his hair.

He cried out loudly as a hand from the top part of the mental Aquato-dome grabbed him roughly.

“Well now. Here he is.” Stepping into the light was a lime-green Donatella, with the same cracked skin as her children and harsh blue eyes that looked half-dead, compared to the son she was holding.

“M-momma…”

“Ugh what are we to do with you? You betrayed us all!”

“No! No momma I-I didn’t I-”

“What have I said about lying?” She shook the child as she hissed like a snake, and the Aquatos could see other figures moving in the dark, moving closer towards where the two were.

“I’m not lying!”

“WHAT! HAVE I SAID! ABOUT! LYING!”

“E-everytime I lie I-”

“YOU TAKE A YEAR OFF YOUR MOTHER’S LIFE! THAT’S WHAT YOU’RE TRYING TO DO! ISN’T IT!?”

“No!”

“Don’t. Seems like maybe we need to have a check .”

“No momma, please-”

“COME ON AQUATOS, LET’S SEE IF THIS LITTLE SPOONBENDER HAS ANY INCH OF AN ACROBAT LEFT IN HIM!”

“Momma I am ! I am an acrobat! I didn’t bend the spoons, mommy!”

The poor little Raz was left dangling as twisted calliope music filled the air. It was the Aquato family theme.

Swinging in, his siblings all grabbed onto separate limbs. Zombie Dion and Frazie grabbing his arms again, and Zombie Mirtala and Queepie grabbing him at his ankles. From a set of trampoline that aimed towards one another, but also pushing higher, Zombie Nona and Augustus jumped up and grabbed hold of the front and back of Raz’s Torso.

“STRETCH HIM!” Zombie Dona ordered.

The rips of cloth were deafening, almost drowning out Raz’s own painful cries as he clenched his eyes and let tears slip out. It echoed throughout the Aquatodome, to the point where the Aquatos at ground level finally were able to tear their eyes away and cover their ears.

Chapter Text

Camper walked around with Sasha and Milla, reviewing how he saw the different areas of Camp Whispering Rock. Despite the size of the camp in the real world, this Camper Raz seemed to think things were a lot closer than originally they were. The bridge between a gorge that connected the Cabin area and the Lodge was gone, and the deep forest seemed near impenetrable. Almost as if it was a black wall that made sure the kids--the other wooden constructs--would not be able to get through it.

Milla could understand as to why Razputin would not want the kids to go out into the woods. His only interaction with Camp ended with- well she supposed that she and Sasha should have taken the “lake monster” more seriously. With the Pyrokinetic cougars and Telekinetic bears, it was now glaringly obvious that a mutated fish creature could easily have come from the Psitanium exposure.

“Control is almost too tight.” Sasha whispered to Milla.

Agent fiddled with his right wrist’s zip tie as his Nona managed to walk over to him. “Nona, what are you…? I mean I expected Sasha and Milla but-”

“Oh Pootie, what are you doing?” His nona asked.

“Uh well. One of the main jobs of being a Psychonaut is sorting emotional baggage. I’ve been through plenty of different minds so, there’s lots of baggage to be sorted. The baggage is even catered to remind me of who belongs in whoever’s mind. It’s a bit hard to constantly be around…crying…but I know that doing this helps other people. And that’s what a Psychonaut is all about! Helping other people.”

Nona looked with her head shaking. “Is…this what you think of Grulovia?”

Agent gained a sympathetic light in his eyes. “Here, Nona, I’ll…show you around and…you can tell me about what Grulovia is really like.”

Shambling to the tower was long, and irritating. The guard animals didn’t make it any better. The guard peacock seemed to be one of the worst, but it gave enough of a warning before it attacked. “DO YOU NOT THINK I DESERVE IT!?”

Most of the group ducked down with their shields going up, letting the peacock uselessly claw at some of the shields before trying to attack Morceau. By the time Morry’s shield was exhausted the peacock gave up and dashed away towards some of the other guard animals, which began making their rounds once again.

The mental shields, the interns were actually thankful for learning now, as Raz’s mind seemed to have this area dedicated to them using it.

But finally they were at the tower. 

“Memory Morgue.” Morris mused.

“Ha! Nice.” A familiar voice cut in.

The group turned to see the fairy wing Dogen once again, holding Jackalope.

“Though you’ll want to get in quick!” A higher voice called.

The group knew without turning that Imp Lili was speaking.

“Edgar’s making his rounds soon and I don’t think you’ll want to take that bull by the horns.”

“You know, I say we go in.” Norma told them, surprisingly enough.

“Wait, should we really be taking advice from her?” Adam pointed to Lili.

The creature scowled.

“Well, do you have any better ideas?” Norma shot back.

“Agent N. Natividad.” Hollis said in a commanding tone. “While you are correct in that this could possibly help us, you do not need to be so aggressive with your fellow agents you are working with.”

Loboto was running through some 2D pictures that made neat little slurping noises as he went around. He was delighting like a kid in a candy store. No. A kid in a dentist’s office!

There were figments around here that resembled very thick, colorful dental floss, and the children with those all too nice brains that he had to throw out. 

Behind him, something lumbered. A creature wearing a business suit without the sleeves, showing large muscles. Its knuckles were brandished with “NO” on both of its fists as it glared at the showercapped menace. “No.” It said darkly. It wound up an attack and charged, only for Loboto to simply jump to another figment and steal it.

He glanced at the Heavy Censor, who was dazed, and then continued running and leaping and bounding away.

Camper cheered as he looped back to the cabin area, running to a trampoline and jumping up high, onto the cabin roof. “Look at me Milla! I can get up so high without my levitation!” He looked down and a few other wooden camper constructs resembling J.T. and Chops came out.

“Hey, Best friend!” They called.

“Hi T.J.! Hi Karate!”

“While you’re up there, can you do that cool trick?” T.J. asked.

Camper nodded and began to run along the tightrope. “Hey, any of you guys got something to juggle?”

The duo shook their head and Camper shrugged. “Ah, well, you like what you like.” He then jumped up and let himself catch the wire. He flipped himself over and let go, forming into a triple backflip and landing spectacularly.

“Did he just die?” Queepie asked as the spotlight remained on the Zombie Donatella and plushie Raz’s head. “Is Raz dead?”

“They didn’t…w-we…they…?” Frazie looked to her parents. “Raz doesn’t think we would do that to him, right?”

“I–I know I wouldn’t!” Dion insisted, but he sounded unsure with his voice cracking.

Augustus stayed silent and still, glaring up at the creature before closing his eyes. “Razputin isn’t dead . We tore him apart or–the way he sees us…tore him apart. If we get him back, maybe we can…piece him back together…”

“Dad, are you sure?”

“No, but what other choice do we have?”

Dogen shook his head. “I don’t wanna hurt Raz!”

“Dogen, they’re Enablers .” Lili told him. “If anything, he’d appreciate us taking them down.”

“But…but what about my blow up streak?”

“Dogen, you’re not blowing up an innocent squirrel, you’re blowing up a mental enemy. If anything, Raz would thank you for doing this.”

The creatures were marching in place, their sceptors were pulsing green and holding up a large, black dome.

Dogen shivered and tried to think of blowing them up. “I can’t do it, Lili!”

An Enabler turned to him and started to cheer. “Yes, you can! Yes, you can!”

Dogen nodded. “Mmkay.” And with that, three of the Enablers exploded.

“Huh.” Lili nodded and gave Dogen a thumbs up as the hole appeared. The two climbed on through to see Sasha and Milla with a construct that had Raz’s helmet and goggles.

Camper turned to see the hole. He muttered something under his breath and quickly ran to a tree. “Warden?” He looked around. “Warden!” He called.

“I’m sorry, Warden?” Milla asked, kneeling down to Camper’s eye level.

“H-He’s not here…” Camper’s glass eyes shined more as if getting worked up.

“I knew I would mess things up!” Dogen shook his head.

“I-I…Warden usually picks things up for me… and helps me… helps me feel safe…”

Loboto ran and leapt, placing a 2D little bug under his foot. It made another sucking musical sound that made him giggle with glee.

He barely paid attention to the one who came after him, nor the ones who were coming up the path.

Agent walked with Nona, keeping his hands behind his back as he watched her walk at her own pace. “This…statue… is broken?” She looked up at him.

“Right, well, uh, yes. It is broken because…I didn’t know what was there. And I…well I don’t know if it’s still a statue there now… I…” Agent readjusted his shoulders. “Was there… anyone important that you wanted to remember who lived in Grulovia?”

Lucy nodded. “Marona. And Lazarus.” She added.

“Tell me about them.” Agent said with a smile.

Cassie frowned and looked at Otto. “Do you see how tight those are on him?” She asked.

“The clothes? Or zip ties?”

“Latter.” Cassie frowned. “When Razputin helped me through my mind, part of myself was trying to… control my thoughts.”

“You think that’s happening here?”

“I mean, if we’ve met one surely there should be others in each area? It only makes sense.”

The crying of the poor plush Razputin only seemed to grow louder, making the younger kids uneasy.

"Dad... did Raz ever cry?" Mirtala ask.

"What?"

"Did Raz cry?" Queepie repeated.

"He... has not cried since he was a baby." Donatella recalled.

Agent picked up a piece of luggage quickly. "Hey! Sh!" He hissed to it as it sniveled and hiccupped. "I don't need Nona hearing me cry. She doesn't need to worry right now." Agent shoved the luggage between a dumpster and a wall. "I'll get to you later... Everyone else needs my help sorting their baggage first. I can't be selfish."

"Pootie? Who are you talking to?" Lucrecia asked.

"Just.. Just myself, Nona. But I really want to help you. I know you... probably don't feel comfortable in this fake Grulovia so... what differences should I add? Go on and tell me!"

The Memory Morgue looked more like a storage unit of old films. A projector, some sorted memory reels by name... "Woah! He's got some of Sasha Nein's memory reels?" Morris reached.

"We are learning about Agent Aquato, not Agent Nein." Hollis reminded.

"Oh, but Sasha's so mysterious!"

"Not as mysterious as this!" Sam dragged out a box covered in purple webs.

“Woah.” Lizzie said as she looked over the piece of media. “I haven’t seen one of these in forever.”

“VHS tapes?” Morris looked at her skeptically. “Looks weird.”

Sam pressed her arms into an X shape, and tried to twist them again, looking at the helix-like VHS tape that Lizzie pulled out.

“I didn’t see a lot of them in my childhood, unlike you.”

“Weird. Covered in purple spider webs?”

“Mental Cobwebs.” Oleander corrected as Hollis took the piece from her. Hollis pressed a button on what was thought to have been a watch, and it was quickly dusted. Still in the strange twisted shape, though.

“Well the tape’s still weird.” Gisu commented.

“Does it have a title?” Adam asked.

“It’s called ‘The Last Show.’” Hollis narrated.

“What, is it like the last time he had his family show?” Norma asked.

“Only one way to find out.” Hollis walked over to the VHS player and put it in.

The Aquatos walked through the circus following a sign for an elephant that was put onto the sign with pink paint.

“Pink elephants??” Dion looked to Frazie, who shrugged.

“I think Pink elephants would be cool to see!” Mirtala skipped a bit.

“You think? They’d be all sunburnt, white elephants if I were to guess.” Queepie piped up.

“Queepie, that’s gross!” Mirtala told him.

“Oh no. His majesty would not be so rude as to gift us a white elephant.” Another voice cut in.

“Dad?” Frazie looked to Augustus, who halted the troupe’s path.

“Reveal yourself!” Dona demanded.

“Oh, my beautiful wife. I could never hide from you.” A lump of flesh suddenly began to uncontort, revealing the scraggly looking Augustus. “Oh wait, you’re not my Dona. Oh well. Guess I’ll be juggling these all by myself.” He began to juggle the flaming pieces of wood that Augustus saw this creature once use, but now saw among them a lumpy, pink colored object.

“Is this how you treat your son!? Playing with his heart and trying to harm him!?”

“You seem to misunderstand. With him betraying the family, that little spoonbender-”

There was a gasp that ripped through the Memory Morgue as the memory of Augustus shouted as he dragged Razputin off of where he had been reading the pamphlet. “YOU’RE NO SON OF MINE!”

“THEN HE’S MINE!” Augustus lunged and tackled the other Augustus to the ground.

“You no good–” a rip to the pamphlet as the video Augustus started turning a sickly green.

“He’s the best middle child–” Augustus ripped at his other self, making the skin break and revealing wire held up with a tar like substance just underneath the skin to make the creatures move better.

“spoonbending–” another rip to the pamphlet as the video Augustus’s face cracked with red.

“the best psychonaut–”

“disappointment–”

“and I couldn’t be more proud–”

“of a lazy acrobat!”

“Of how great ” rip “a young man ” rip “my son ” rip “has become!” Augustus panted as he stood up from the creature’s old body. Now he was covered in tar that dripped back down onto the creature. Augustus grabbed the soft plush heart of the little Zombie Raz.

The Memory VCR made a sound like it was eating the tape and it spat out a copy of the pamphlet that advertised Camp Whispering Rock.

He looked back up to the Zombie, seeing that he was now crying less.

Chapter Text

Camper took a look out at the Enablers who were all there. Their green glow still cast on the bright blue of the dome that protected the camp he was in.

“Yay! He’s out!” One Enabler said.

“He can come play with us!” Another said.

“SHUT UP!” Lili shouted at them, but they didn’t listen.

They kept cheering Camper on, though strangely the green energy that they wielded never touched him. Even those whose focus was lost on the dome, the cheers never affected him.

A TK hand dragged out a box labeled “Whispering Rock.” Sam’s Aquamarine Psi Energy placed it in her lap. 

“Woah! I didn’t know Raz went to that old summer camp.” Morris mused.

“THE SUMMER CAMP!?” Oleander shouted.

Norma took out the tape on top. It was labeled “My first CAMPfire! At the Camp :)”

“Well, this is certainly an interesting development…”

“Are you kidding?” Lizzie asked. “Didn’t Sasha and Milla tell you they met Raz at camp?”

“Well, it’s obvious they would meet him at Camp, given his age.” Norma retorted.

“Mhmm. Says the person who thought he was the mole.” 

“The only other ten year olds that have been at the Motherlobe have been related to different members of the Psychic Six–”

“Psychic Seven.” Adam corrected.

“Six, seven, whatever.” Norma turned to Lizzie. “How were we supposed to know he was related to a missing seventh member!?” She asked as she pushed the tape in.

The tape showed a birds eye view tinted in red of the campers at the campfire. Coach Oleander was saying his usual speech about the brains that those who went to Camp Whispering Rock were now forced to relive. In vivid detail. Jeez, did Raz really have the entire speech memorized? It really seemed like that was the case.

The birds eye view was suddenly lost, as if someone had thrown a stone at the bird and it fell out of a tree. Raz landed on the ground, in the bushes, with an “oof!” 

Sam nodded sagely. “Autistic boy swag.”

On the video, her little brother’s voice screamed “LAKE MONSTER!”

Raz panted, trying to get up and way as something tried to grab at him. He was suddenly yanked up into the air and dragged forwards, seeing everything in a red hue. 

“What’s your name, darling?” Milla asked warmly.

He dropped to the ground in front of the agents. “Hi, just thought I’d drop in!” That earned some great laughs from the campers, diffusing the whole situation with them being afraid. “My name–” He pulled his goggles off of his eyes. “Is Razputin. But everybody calls me–Raz.”

“Compelling.” One voice behind Raz said.

“Armored like a tank!” Oleander cheered in the memory, making Morceau cringe.

“Sorry I’m late,” Raz said bravely.

“Woah. He had some serious guts to say that .”

“Looks like his timeliness is consistent.” Hollis muttered instinctively. 

“I don’t want to…disrupt your briefing Agent Oleander.”

Gisu turned to the man. “I haven’t heard someone call you that in ages .”

Morry shifted uneasily. “Well…”

“Probation tends to do that.” Hollis said out loud.

“Probation?” Sam asked. “If he’s on probation, why is he my mentor!?”

Norma let out a harsh “SHH!” to call people’s attention back to the tape.

“Where do you think you’re going!?” Memory Oleander asked as Raz found a place to sit.

“You’ve broken into a highly classified remote government training facility.”

“I KNOW!” Raz responded back excitedly. “Isn’t it great?”

“Raz, no.” Morris sighed.

“Razputin.” Adam shook his head.

“Listen. Why don’t I just,” he sat in between Dogen and another young camper, “sit over here quietly over here with my fellow Psi-cadets.”

“Oh my God I forgot that’s what we were called.” Morris gasped. “Man, this is bringing back some of my own memories.

“We need to have this young man taken from here immediately.” 

“Thank you Agent Nein!” Norma said.

“You realize Raz is still here, Norma.” Adam reminded. “Kind of why we’re in his mind in the first place.”

“Well, at the very least Agent Nein knows his procedures.” Norma scoffed.

“I’ll call his parents.” The memory Milla said.

Kind of hard to do that when my family doesn’t have anything to get the call from . A voice suddenly rang.

“WHAT WAS THAT!?”

“Most likely Agent Aquato’s own thoughts as he was faced with these challenges.” Hollis answered instinctively.

“Wh-what? But don’t you train Psychonauts here?” He sounded genuinely confused. As if he didn’t think this would need special permission if he had the powers that they were looking for. In his mind, the mental connections of Psychonauts wanting to help people and being Psychic himself was enough for them to want him. 

“Yes, darling–”

“To soar across the Astral Plane. To wage psychic war against the enemies of free thought.”

“He still remembers!” Coach Oleander blubbered. “He remembers what I wrote!”

“Get a hold of yourself, Oleander.” Gisu commanded.

Coach Oleander ignored her. “Razputin! You are a GREAT soldier and Psychonaut.” He continued through some tears. Which were very weird for everyone in the Memory Morgue to see. As Raz continued to recite the speeches back to the memory Oleander, Morceau just cried more.

Yes, I’ve been accepted by everyone at camp– The POV suddenly zoomed in at Agent Nein OH MY GOD IT’S AGENT SASHA NEIN! I CAME INTO THE CAMP AND AGENT SASHA FUCKING NEIN ALSO IS HERE! YOU IDIOT WHY DIDN’T YOU REALIZE IT BEFORE!?

Norma chuckled.

“Aww, does my big sister finally have a soft spot for him?” Lizzie asked.

“I–Hardly! I’m just… happy that I got Agent Nein as my mentor instead.”

Camper’s eyes darted to Agent Nein’s hand as the 5 walked through the dark woods. His own hands began to stim, picking at parts of his arms to create wood shavings to fall to the ground.

“Are you alright, darling?” Milla asked him.

“I–I’m just not used to this. Normally, Agent or Warden is here when things get… bad like this.” Off in the distance, they heard crying and Camper cringed. “Where’s Agent when you need him…?”

“Who is Agent?”

“Agent. Y-you know. Agent Aquato?”

Sasha and Milla exchanged a look. “No, we are unaware of an ‘Agent Aquato.’”

“How many other Razes are here?” Dogen asked, turning to Camper.

Lili also turned, her eyebrows raised.

Camper fidgited. “There’s me, Camper. There’s Agent. There’s Warden. Agent sometimes talks about Jackalope. And there’s also Zombie, but we don’t talk about Zombie.” He said it in a way as if Raz was trying to be smooth. Emulating almost the caricatures of other spies or agents in TPT.

“Why don’t you boys talk about… Zombie?” Milla asked, quite confused at the name.

“He’s scared of all of us. He’s scared of everything. He doesn’t have the courage that the rest of us have!” Camper said.

“Clearly you don’t either.” Lili blurted.

Camper flinched, one eye closing. “I knew my girlfriend hated me…” he mumbled.

She walked over and held his hand. “I don’t hate you I just… I’m sorry for saying that.”

As they were digging through the tapes, Morris gasped. “Check out what I just found!” He showed a tape up high, with it labled “My First Kiss <3.”

“Wait, what?” Lizzie asked as she took it. “Oh my GOD! HE KISSED SOMEONE!?”

Gisu looked at it. “Are you telling me the ten-year-old got a kiss before me!?”

“You’re just cranky cause Dion hasn’t kissed you yet.” Norma smirked.

“Shut up! You’re just cranky cause Frazie hasn’t kissed you yet!”

“I TOLD YOU THAT IN CONFIDENCE!”

“Everyone shut up! Pooter had a kiss!” Lizzie said as she put the tape in.

“Are we really sure we should be doing this?” Adam questioned.

“Agent Aquato wouldn’t have had his construct push us to explore if he didn’t want us to.” Hollis mused, “but even then I don’t know how this is going to assist us in getting any closer.”

The tape opened up to Raz’s perspective as he was let out of a mental shield. “The crib wasn’t even that clean!? When are they just going to… trust me–”

“ When are you gonna shut up and kiss me? ”

“WOAH! Who said that!?” Morris asked.

“Uhm… I can hear that–”

“I know.” The voice told him. Raz was suddenly turned around, and the group was faced with the Grand Head of the Psychonauts’s daughter, Lili Zanotto. She began to lean in, closing her eyes and puckering.

The whole lower area of the Projector Room blew up with people shouting.

“WAIT ARE WE ACTUALLY SEEING THIS!?”

“I AM UNCOMFORTABLE!”

“SOMEONE TURN IT OFF!”

“Gisu, I blame you.” Norma told her.

“WHAT!?” Gisu shouted. “I didn’t even meet this kid until she came from camp!”

“Calm down!” Hollis told them.

“HOW CAN YOU CALM DOWN!? THAT’S YOUR BOSS’S KID!”

“ OUR BOSS’S KID!” Oleander corrected.

“WHAT HE SAID!”

“Fae, the animals are getting upset…” The little Imp!Lili noticed as a large figure jumped and hooted and hollared. She looked back to Fae!Dogen watched him still pet their little Jackalope and look up.

“Mmkay. Can you hold him?” Fairy!Dogen asked as he gently picked up Jackalope.

“Of course.” Imp told him with pride. She took the Jackalope from Fae's arms, and his fairy wings carried him out into the field.

Imp was careful with her claws, petting Jackalope with her knuckles as he smiled a bit. “Impi?” He asked softly. “Can I get a kiss?” He was even softer now, as if not wanting to be heard.

Imp smiled and held Jackalope so his body was upright against her torso. She placed her lips to his muzzle. He flinched from the kiss to his nose, surprising both him and Imp.

“Still all wound up?” Imp asked as she stroked his cheek, just under his eye. The eye began to close a bit as his ear squeaked up.

“You’re using that ‘bunny magic.’” Jackalope said softly.

“You like it when I use ‘bunny magic.’” She said with a smirk.

“…yes.” Jackalope swooned.

She gave him another kiss as he calmed down, and he smiled again.

As the screaming continued a figment appeared in the middle of the room, showing Lili kissing Raz, with many hearts around them. 

“Someone has to grab that thing.” Gisu said with a cringe.

“Well said Gisu!” Adam said, patting her back.

“What, I’m not touching it!” Gisu said.

“You suggested it!” Norma pointed out.

“I think Norma should take it.” Morris said.

“Hey! No!”

“I’LL TAKE IT!” Some new voice broke in.

“A Dentist?” Morris asked.

“A Nine Foot tall dentist?”

“A Nine Foot tall blue skinned dentist!?”

“A Nine foot tall blue skinned dentist in a shower cap!?!”

“The Nine foot tall blue skinned dentist in a shower cap who stole my brother’s brain!?!?”

“Cal?” Oleander asked.

Loboto giggled with glee and leapt over the group, enjoying the sound the figment made as he sucked it up. Then he leapt out again, over a Heavy Censor that was panting. Strangely, the Censor had goggles instead of sunglasses, and even a full head of hair that looked like Raz’s… It soon took up the chase with Loboto again.

Hollis paused and then looked back. “Does anyone have any idea if that was a construct or not?”

The woods were vast and branches reached like claws to try to snag at the clothes the group was wearing. Trying to rip off pieces or chunks of cloth. The branches couldn’t reach Camper though, as he stayed in between the two taller agents. Lili ran up ahead a bit, as crying began to fill Camper’s sense of hearing. Oh he hated this part. He wanted to drag whatever was existing and bring it to the drop off that was by the entrance.

“Has anyone seen a Purse tag around here?” Lili asked.

Camper shook his head. “Agent takes care of ALL the Emotional baggage. If he sorts enough, he ranks up!”

Milla and Sasha exchanged a look.

“Whatever. I’m going to find that purse tag!” Lili announced and broke off from the group.

“Lili!” The two adults called.

Sasha shook his head. “Always so eager. Just like you Raz…Camper.” He corrected himself.

“We’ll go find her and the tag.” Milla told the two boys.

“Okay, we’ll stay put.” Camper agreed.

Camper and Dogen both sat down on a nearby log, staying in comfortable silence. Camper looked down to the fallen log beneath them, feeling the grain of it against his own. He looked back at his own arms. They looked… too fat. Too confining of… something. He reached into his pocket where he carried that… gift he was sure T.J. got him. He turned his arm over to its side, and frowned at the imperfections.

He took the whittling knife and began to scrape off long strides of wood that just… did not need to be on him any more. He tried to keep his winces of fear down, but clearly the sound the wood was making caught the attention of his company.

“What are you doing?” Dogen asked as he watched Camper scrape the tool against the wood that made him up.

“I’m… making myself more presentable…”

“By doing that?” Dogen asked.

Camper nodded. “Thinner, prettier arms to… you know get clothes on or… put friendship bracelets on…”

“Doesn’t it hurt?”

“I mean…I-I’m wood so… I guess not really.” Camper flinched. “I-I’m just… wood… but…” 

“I swear, that purse tag is a very troubling thing to find.” He heard Milla’s voice.

“O-Oh shoot! A-agent Vodello’s coming!” He fumbled with his tool and it landed in the ground. He knelt to the ground, trying to pick it up and repocket it. He got a hold on the handle only for Agent Vodello to come out from the woodwork.

“The forest is like a maze in there–RAZPUTIN!”

Camper once again fumbled with the whittling knife, and Milla picked it up with a TK hand. He jerked the arm that was being whittled closer to his body.

“What’s wrong?” 

“Nothing. Fuck off.” Camper growled. “I-I’m sorry Agent Vodello.” He said immediately after, shaking.

“What have you been doing?” Milla asked.

“He’s been like… taking the wood off of himself.” Dogen answered.

“Dogen!” Camper squeaked.

She grabbed the wrist of the arm to inspect the damage. “Oh darling…”

Camper bit his wooden lip, trying to keep himself from tearing up. He was not emotional baggage. He was not a baby.

The cries of the Zombie Raz still rang around the Circus tent, his hair being tugged at. “Ugh, what are these even!?” The Zombie Donatella crowed. “If I knew any better, I’d think you weren’t an Aquato at all! Some sort of Psychic Changeling!”

“N-No! I’m not Psychic!”

“STOP LYING!”

On the bottom area, Augustus held the little cloth heart to his own, staring up hatefully at the creature that held his son.

“ Mio Caro? ” Donatella asked.

Augustus closed his eyes. He didn’t want to give his wife the same glare he gave that creature. “Dona… we’ve hurt him so much…” His fist uncurled around the heart, seeing it already lost a bit of its stitching and now stuffing was starting to show.

Dona gently placed her hand over the heart. She could almost feel herself tearing up. 

The other kids on the other hand were looking up, watching the figures dart around the higher areas.

Frazie looked to her parents. “Mom and Dad, can you keep an eye on the others? I’m going to go after these creeps .”

Augustus and Dona seemed frightened.

“I’m going with you.” Dion said.

“ Why ?” Frazie asked.

“Are you kidding? If they did that all together to Raz, what makes you think you could take them when they’re moving like that?” Dion glared.

“Ugh. Fine.”

Augustus blinked. “No stopping you, is there?”

“We’re going to help Raz.” Frazie insisted.

“Be careful.” Dona reminded.

“Please.” Frazie smirked and brought out a Psi-pop. “Pooter couldn’t stop yammering to me about this.” She handed it to Dion. “Try to keep up!”

The Junior Agents kept trying to dig through Raz’s labeled memories of Whispering Rock.

“Hey, these have Dogen in them.” Sam mentioned as she began to take out all the tapes that mentioned her brother in the name.

Gisu found another and immediately shoved it to the bottom. “No thank you I do not need to see Lili again for a LONG time.”

Adam took one out from the bottom and was surprised by the bolded letters. “ The Meat Circus ”

“The fucking WHAT. ” Lizzie snatched the tape out of Adam’s hands.

“What the fuck is a Meat circus?” Morris asked.

“A Circus delicacy.” Sam answered

Oleander shuddered. “Oh… not that again.”

“What do you mean again!?” Gisu shouted. “Were you in Raz’s brain or something!?”

Oleander paused. “The way Augustus described it was that our… ‘psyches were melded together.’ Blech. Sounds like something Sasha would say.”

“Raz’s Dad? The one he thinks of as a zombie who tore up the flyer!?” Lizzie’s eyes widened.

“Yes.”

“He was able to get into both your minds?” Adam asked with scrutiny. “Even though you BOTH have extremely well created Mental shields?”

“Yes.”

“…I knew his psychic powers were strong but damn .” Norma gasped.

Hollis looked back to Oleander. “Why didn’t this come up in the reports?”

“It was in the reports! Raz went into my mind and helped me get over some things. We just… didn’t want to relive all the details.”

“Well, that’s too bad.” Lizzie told him as she shoved the tape in.

Immediately, the group was hit with blaring Violin or Calliope notes that welcomed them to Raz looking at a twisted version of the circus he grew up around, only this time, it was made with raw meat. Steaks hung from hooks and ribs made up parts of the tent.

“Oh, that’s a Meat Circus.” Gisu said with awe.

“Oh that looks nasty .” Sam shook her head. “Definitely not a delicacy.”

“Yeah it… smelled nasty, too.” Oleander grumbled.

“No! No!” The younger Oleander protested. “Little bunny, don’t go in there! That’s a bad place! That’s a bad place for bunnies!”

Frazie was following Dion up to one of the lower tightropes. “This is really weird.” Dion said, trying to keep himself from gulping.

“We saw Pooter get ripped apart by Zombie versions of ourselves and now you’re saying that?”

“Well, I mean just look at what’s going on in his brain!” Dion pointed to the tightrope, now decorated with 2D pictures of T-bone steaks and bunnies. “I thought Raz was terrified of these things now.”

Frazie frowned. “He’s terrified of us.”

Dion flinched. “So, what? This is like… his fear area?”

“Maybe! I’ve never been in someone else’s brain before!”

Dion sighed. “Well what are we supposed to do with these things?” Dion gestured to the pictures.

Frazie shrugged. “It’s not like standing here is doing anything better! We need to get those things and get our brother back.”

Dion steeled himself, and then began to quickly walk along the tightrope. Strangely enough, the pictures, as he ran into them, shrunk and made little sounds as they disappeared. They weren’t dangerous after all! Frazie followed Dion on the tightrope as well, the two used to sibling balancing acts with themselves, and Raz. Dion looked upwards as a shadow leapt across. “There.” He growled, now having a target in his sights.

Chapter Text

Agent continued wandering with Nona, watching her reaction throughout all of this. “Are you feeling okay?” His eyebrows creased.

“Of course I am. But what about you?” Lucy asked.

“O-Oh me!? I-I’m fine! Absolutely peachy!” He smiled, showing his teeth.

Lucy’s own eyebrows creased. 

“C-come on. Maybe I can… Uh…” Agent fiddled with something in his pocket. “Was this place always so small? Maybe if I…” He grit his teeth. An alleyway opened up to another part as he was trying to remember what he knew.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, music started to blare “ GRULOVIA! GRULOVIA! FOREVER SHINING BRIGHT! ” Agent jumped a meter into the air and quickly did a flip to make the landing a bit smoother. 

“Oh, those damn EARWORMS!” Agent snarled.

“ GRULOVIA GRULOVIA YOU’RE ALWAYS RIGHT!”

Helmut nodded his head. “Yeah, they can be real buggers eh?” He asked, hoping for a laugh from the pun loving kid.

Agent gave him a scowl then turned away. He took a deep breath to recuperate. “Good joke.” He nodded, though there was no emphasis in it. “I’ll… I’ll get rid of this stupid thing.” He told them, rubbing his temples with two fingers on each side. In his right hand, his pointer and middle finger pinched another cigarette as he got more and more irritated. “That stupid Gristol Malik and his stupid song!” He shouted loud enough for the Psychic Seven to hear.

“ Land of sorrow and dismay. Our Fatherland has washed away! ”

Agent brought the cigarette to his lips and inhaled deeply. As he exhaled, the smog looked dark, almost thunderous as it lingered and floated higher into the air.

Compton’s eyes widened and then he looked back to Agent. “That’s… quite a bit of anger.” Compton said gently.

“Yeah, you would know all about that, wouldn’t you Ford .” He spat. “Of course it goes against the mission right now.” Agent kept pressing forwards, the smoke of the cigarette worrying both Otto and Compton.

In a dumpster, a sniveling piece of baggage’s tears turned black and thick. Suddenly gushing out of the baggage’s eyes was a tar-like substance that dripped out of a hole in the dumpster and was absorbed into the ground.

Digging through the other Whispering Rock memories were strange. Many of the Junior Agents weren’t too sure if they wanted to see tapes labeled: “Boathouse Makeout!?” or “Boyd’s Twisted Mind.”

And plus, the look of the Meat Circus on the projector screen was giving them all the heebie jeebies. Especially that Tunnel of Love sequence that one of them would have thought Lili would have appeared, but it turned out to be full of rib bones that Raz had to navigate through. Even thinking about it sent shivers through their core.

Norma was feeling around the other shelves for miscellaneous tapes. When she finally found one that caught her eye, they all heard a familiar voice with no warmth attached to it. The Agents all looked at the screen, surprised to see the strange version of Augustus. “What is going on here?” His body turned and turned, contorting in ways that weren’t humanly possible with his emaciated body. “What have you done to our circus!?”

“Dad!” They heard Raz’s voice cry. It was almost as if everyone in the Memory Morgue were suddenly kicked in the chest. His voice was masking pain as he stared up at his father.

“Polluted! Perverted! This looks like the work of MENTALISTS!”

“He knows slurs!?” Lizzie looked to Adam. “The ten-year-old knows slurs!?”

“Anti-Psychic slurs, to be exact.” Hollis confirmed.

“I can explain!” Raz’s voice was desperate.

“Have you been associating with PSYCHICS!?”

“Dad, I–”

“Psychics! Fortune Tellers! They killed your grandparents! They cursed our entire family to die in water!”

“Dad, the curse–”

“Including you, Razputin, and me. But I’m going to live. You know why? Because I’m still an acrobat.”

“Let’s see if you are.”

The shadows darted and cheered above the older Aquatos, and they were left with the sort of… acrobatic gauntlet. Meat hooks and knife boards and trapezes led the way. “Frazie… did he have to go through this at summer camp?”

“How should I know!?” Frazie shouted.

“ You’re the one he’s closest to!” Dion insisted.

“ I’m the one!? ”

“You guys did all those… well you called them brain games, didn’t you?”

“W-well… I stopped doing that.”

Dion frowned. “All I know is that he can’t tell me his secrets. I’ve… not been the best to him. I was just hoping… maybe he still trusted you.”

Frazie smacked the back of his head. “Less feeling sorry for yourself, more saving Pooter. C’mon!” Frazie jumped and grabbed onto what she thought was a full handle only for her right hand to feel pain. Frazie hissed and jumped onto another ledge where a tightrope was. She looked and found her hand to have cut skin thanks to the blade. “Dion be careful!” 

He had already jumped onto one and was preparing to dismount. He landed next to her. “You need one of these?” He offered her one of the two Psi-pops she gave him.

“Save it. You’re not psychic.”

Dion blew a raspberry. “You’re barely psychic.”

“Good thing we’re acrobats!” Frazie said and began to cartwheel across the tightrope. 

“Showoff.” Dion growled and waited for her to get off. He then decided to one up her, running and doing flips, making the rope bounce. As he landed, the two realized the platform they were on was a trampoline, and they’d need to use it to get up to one of the Meat Hook Trapezes. Dion kept bouncing and Frazie nodded. The two siblings jumped at the same time, sending Frazie upwards.

She caught the hook and then Dion jumped and grabbed her ankles. Dion swung forwards and leapt onto the other meat hook, and then gripped harder as he felt Frazie’s hands grip onto him. They both leapt to the platform and looked up. The shadows were still laughing but they were closer now.

Zombie Frazie landed on the higher cross ropes, looking at them upside down, clinging onto the poor plush Raz’s arm and twisting it. Almost giving it a burn.

“Dad! I made it!” He sounded proud of himself. On the verge of tears almost.

“You cheated!”

“No! I used the acrobatics you taught me!” He stepped forward, breathing heavily.

“Don’t lie to me, cheater! You crystal ball readers always cheat.” He towered over Razputin. “You’re no son of mine.”

“This is not a DILF moment.” Morris grumbled.

“No. No. This isn’t right.” Frazie said. “There must be a mistake or something… we shouldn’t look like this at all–”

“A MISTAKE I MADE!” Zombie Frazie hissed. “Just like him!”

Dion looked to Frazie.

“Okay, I have no idea where he got that from. I don’t ever recall calling him ‘a mistake.’”

The separation of Raz’s and Coach’s minds made the Junior Agents all feel calmer. The fact that Augustus helped Raz and reassured them also made them feel reassured. Maybe… maybe these memories were… tainted in some way. Making him… fearful. But what would even cause this?

Hollis looked back to the ground where the cards had once been, now looking like it was a small puddle of doubt sludge… but much too dark.

Norma looked over the tape’s name again. “SPECIAL.” “I think this will yield some… interesting results.” She floated the tape into place with her TK and it was taken just fine after a figment of some ribs showed up.

The memory was bright with yellows and deep browns, with natural greens popping up as Raz followed his sister, Frazie. “Come on! You can carry more with your telekinesis!”

“Shut up, Razputin.” Frazie’s voice was crackly and icy.

“I don’t know why you’re acting like this. I mean, we play these brain games all the time!”

“I don’t know why you’re acting like this. Psychics cursed our family.”

“Come on, don’t be like that.”

“Like what ?”

“Being mean!”

“I’m trying to keep us safe, Raz.”

“But we can keep each other safe.”

“Urgh! There’s no we unless there’s the family.”

“But- there is a we. You’re my best friend Frazie. Cause-cause you’re special. And I’m special-”

“We’re not special!” Frazie turned and the colors around her started to mute as she glared at Raz, looking to where the camera was supposed to be. “Don’t you get it!? We can’t ever be one of them .” Her skin was starting to crack with red, and turn green as she stomped closer to Raz. “We’re freaks . We’re not special, Razputin. That’s just something that they say about themselves because-”

“HE CAME OUT WRONG!” Zombie Frazie shouted at the other version of herself.

Frazie stepped back, hearing those words strung together again. 

Dion’s hand landed on Frazie’s shoulder. “She’s just trying to get under your skin.”

“B-but I said that…” Frazie hiccuped.

“It was deserved!” Zombie Frazie jumped up onto her tip toes on the cross wires. “Afterall, he did come out wrong.” She began to fidget with some of the fingers on the arm. “A stupid little mentalist doesn’t deserve to be in our family.”

“Don’t you dare.” Frazie growled, tears still in her eyes.

“This little piggy…” Zombie Frazie began to sang. “Needs to go to market.” She pulled it harder.

From above, another cry came from their little brother.

“A little piggy who doesn’t want to leave its pen. It’s too afwaid~ ” Fluff began to show as Raz cried harder.

“STOP IT!” Frazie shouted as she stepped forwards. She felt a sudden pushback from her forehead as a searing shot hit her other self in the left eye.

The Zombie Frazie glared down, eye now falling out and tar leaking around it. “YOU BRING SHAME TO THE AQUATO NAME!”

“You come down here and fight me yourself if you dare have anything to say about my sister!”

“Siding with the mentalist?” The Dion zombie jumped down next to his sister. “You really are trying to be the family disappointment, aren’t you?”

Those last tapes weren’t the best… There truly was a dreary-ness to this Memory Morgue.

“I want to see Raz as a dinosaur.” Gisu mumbled as she pressed in the hopeful palette cleansing tape of Lungfishopolis.

Hollis took a glance around and then her eyes widened. “Where is Agent Boole?”

Sam watched the construct of her little brother flutter around. “So… why a fairy?” Sam asked.

“I think cuz Raz thinks they’re pretty. And good with animals. I wanna be good at ‘em and so does he.” Fae answered.

Sam nodded sagely. “He really does know you, huh?” Suddenly a yo-yo wrapped around Sam. “Well, gotta get back to the grind.”

Fae nodded. “I should go see Jackalope now that the others are calmed. Imp wants to make some more plans for… well the others… And she can get Jackalope all riled up.”

Sam was dragged back in as Raz came into the mind of the Lungfish. He towered over the city and Coach brought his hand to his face. “Of all the things to watch now…”

Hollis looked at him. “Morry, did you have something to do with this?”

“Kind of? I watched it get mutated.”

Hollis blinked. “What do you mean you watched it!?”

“I was out of my mind, Forsythe! So was Loboto!”

“Bold of you to assume the dentist is in his right mind.” Norma snarked.

“Insanity of a manatee, that one.” Adam agreed.

“That’s offensive to manatees.” Sam argued. “If anything belugas are insane.”

“He’s got raptor arms!” Gisu squealed as she saw Raz tearing up the city. “Oh, he’s just a little boy.”

“You sound like Milla from that second tape we watched.” Morris joked

“No, shut up, she’s right.” Lizzie told him.

“Now who’s got a soft spot for him?” Norma teased.

“Me, and I’m proud of it!” Lizzie thought out loud. “Damn these stupid astral projections.”

Camper held his arms close to him so Sasha and Lili couldn’t see his arms. He felt so small. His eyes clenched until suddenly he got an idea that had to deal with his little issue. Figments of whittling knives and bird houses suddenly filled the trees. “Oh, it’s–it’s Arts and Crafts time back at the camp!” He insisted. “C-come on let's get out of these… dark… dangerous woods. Yeah?”

Sasha and Milla exchanged a look, and Camper could almost feel the fact they were telepathically communicating. “Alright.” Sasha told him.

“Great! I know a shortcut!” Camper suddenly took off, running on foot.

Milla immediately chased after him, not wanting to lose sight of the boy. When the group came up to him, he was in front of a very rare creature. 

“Everyone, meet Oatmeal!” Camper cheered.

“What?” Sasha looked dumbstruck and also grossed out.

“Oatmeal! That’s his name!” Camper opened his arms as if presenting a fabulous prize. “He’s my friend!”

Oatmeal responded by blowing a green bubble that made both Lili and Sasha grossed out. “Your friend , Raz?” Lili asked, looking between them. “That’s another mental construct.”

“Hey, don’t make fun of him just because he’s a little weird.” Camper harrumphed. “So what if he’s small? And a-annoying… a-and a little gross?”

Dogen shrugged. “I’ve met some animals that are like that too. But sometimes they help.”

“SEE!?” Camper pointed to Dogen. “Oatmeal’s no different! He wants to help us! Get back to camp! So we can… make Arts N Crafts!”

Dogen waddled up to Oatmeal. “Hello.” He waved.

“Doot doot!” Oatmeal responded.

“He likes you!” Camper cheered. He then felt a knot in his tummy area and he made a face like he licked a lemon (remarkably expressive, this little wooden doll was). “O-Oatmeal, can you take Dogen to the campground?”

“Wait, don’t–” Sasha protested as a bubble formed around Dogen.

And just like that he was gone.

“Razputin!” Sasha shouted.

Camper flinched.

“What exactly have you been doing with the heuristics!?”

“W-well Oatmeal takes me to wherever I ask him to. H-he’s nice to me like that…”

“How… how have you been doing that?”

“Well, lotsa people have Oatmeal in their minds, Sasha.”

Milla stood next to Sasha and suddenly Camper wished he hadn’t asked Dogen to leave. Now he was left with glares. It reminded him of… the place he ran from. “Darling, the heuristic creatures are fickle things. Tell me, how did you manage to work with it?”

“I just… I just asked.” Camper resisted the urge to rub his cheeks. He was NOT crying. Because he WASN’T a baby.

Sasha frowned. “I’ve never been able to work with a heuristic before…”

“Probably cause your brain is so small.” Camper mentioned.

Lili covered her mouth from giggles.

Camper smiled and felt… like a warm blanket was being draped on his shoulders.

“Small?” Sasha repeated.

“O-Oh I meant… meant Organized! You have an organized, square brain!”

Lili burst out laughing with that, and Camper felt the warmth spread down his back, feeling good and pleasant. He gulped down words that he wanted to say towards her and looked back at Sasha.

“He’s right darling, your brain is very… compact.” Milla told him.

Oatmeal blew out another bubble.

“Hm? Oh yeah, we’re ALL going to the Campground.”

Sasha backed up a bit. “Do we really have to use the heuristic? I mean, the creatures are known to be very fickle.”

Lili smirked. “Aw, come on Uncle Square Brain. It’s for science!” She hit him on the back of his knee, causing Sasha to lose his balance. With him being so close, Oatmeal blew its bubble and Sasha was gone.

Milla stepped forwards. “I will go in after him. Now, dearie.” She looked to Oatmeal itself. “Could you help take me to where Sasha went?”

Oatmeal blew another bubble and now it was left to just Camper and Lili. He felt the blanket’s warmth against shoulders get worse and he began to rub it. “You okay?”

“Uh…” Camper gulped. “Being around you kind of makes me… warm? I guess?”

Lili’s hands were suddenly feeling each other, and it occurred to Camper that just moments ago she was reaching out to him. “Oh Uh… s-sorry about that.” She shook her head, hating the feeling of her mouth stuttering. She stepped over to Oatmeal. “Please take me to the campgrounds.” She asked it. And in a flash of green, she was gone.

Camper stood in front of Oatmeal now… and he could swear he heard the hisses. run coward… that’s all you’re good at…

“Take me to the Campgrounds, please.” He mumbled. And Oatmeal whisked him away from the dark forest.

Agent kept pressing forwards. “Where’s that damn Earworm!?” He snarled. He took in another drag of the cigarette, and it was nearly at the filter part. The song had looped about 3 times at this point, and even the older people were almost tempted to ask the construct for the fake cigarettes. Lord knows that Lucy would have been the first.

But her face was so worried and terrified for her little turnip. It seemed he had the weight of the world–no, multiple worlds–on his shoulders. And it seemed he just wanted to keep trudging on. 

“You sure you’re going the right way?” Helmut asked.

“I DON’T NEED HELP MAPPING MY OWN MIND, FORD!”

Ford put up his hands in confusion.

“JUST BECAUSE YOU WERE IN HERE FOR ONE DAY DOESN’T MEAN YOU KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT IT!”

“Ford you what!?” Cassie asked.

“He needed the extra help–”

“CAN IT, OLD MAN!” Agent finally turned the moment he was positive Ford said something.

“Pootie…” Nona grabbed his hand.

Agent suddenly turned solemn. “I-I’m sorry Nona I’m… I’m trying to calm down.” He wrapped his arms around her. “I just… once I find this Earworm I should be able to get back to work a-and I’ll tell you about my adventures. Does that sound good? It’ll be like… like when you told stories around the fire only… I’ll be doing it.”

“Turnip… you do not need to do that. You do not need to do everything.”

Agent smiled sadly. “It’s my mind Nona, a-and I can still work on it. S-so it’s better if I do. I helped you when you needed help, but I have no need to burden others with my work.”

Helmut frowned. “Okay but… what if I told you I think I know where the Earworm is?”

Agent perked up and his green eyes shifted, following different paths of cracks in the ground. 

Cassie frowned a bit as he noticed something… very off with Agent’s eyes. While Raz’s were naturally very shiny, scelra almost having a hue of glass, Agent’s eyes were pale white. Even though… it felt like there was something he needed to let out behind them. She looked to Bob. “I have to ask… has Razputin… shown off his emotions well around you?”

Bob shrugged. “I mean, he’s dating Lili but I haven’t really seen that from him.” 

“Yeah… I haven’t either.”

Bob and Cassie exchanged a look, then glanced back to Agent as he approached Helmut.

“Can you point me in the direction of the Earworm, sir?”

Helmut frowned. “It’s over there, a-and you know Raz, you can just call me–”

“Thank you, sir.” Agent said, beginning to walk through another, more narrow alleyway. “There you are.”

That damn little bug was causing all these dark thoughts to bubble up from inside of him. And Agent felt only one way to get rid of them.

“Cassie, can you see what’s going on in there?” Otto asked. 

“The ceiling’s a lot lower than it appears, Mentallis. You give it a try!” She urged.

“Well, I’m no good at sidestepping.” Otto told her.

The rest of the group glanced around, to see who else may fit.

Agent stepped out of the alleyway, sighing. “I could use a Tumble in the Net right now…” he grumbled.

“A WHAT!?” Lecrecia shrieked

“It’s a drink, right? Drinks can help people calm down.”

Compton frowned. “Like cigarettes?”

“Yes, Ford, just like how Sasha uses cigarettes.”

Ford shrugged his shoulders, looking between Helmut and Otto. “What did I even do?”

“You did his Great Aunt, Ford.” Otto said immediately.

Helmut began to laugh hysterically. A big boisterous laugh that could make the group of old friends laugh easily. 

Agent paused with the cigarette not quite to his lips again and saw the smoke curl into white instead of near black. A stray thought that sounded so similar to… another laugh that made him feel better. Like right after he heard a pun. He looked back to the group and then looked down. “Focus on the mission…”

He needed to get back to that mountain of baggage, and find all the tags that were scattered along the beach. If he could sort them, things would get better. Things would get better for people and they would be happier. And that would make him happy. He just… needed to do his job as a Psychonaut. Be the BEST Psychonaut.

Dion glared up at his Zombie self. “I don’t care about being a disappointment to some… family curse! I care more about being a disappointment to my brother! So I’m not going to be one!”

“You’ll die like those mentalists then.”

“Not if we kill you first!” Frazie fired off another Psi-blast out of anger.

The Zombie Dion did the splits to avoid the shot. 

“You piece of shit!” Frazie shot out another and Zombie Frazie landed on the same platform.

“You’re the one who’s gonna get it . And won’t his majesty be pleased when we’re through with you and can get rid of this little monster once and for all.”

Dion’s eyes shifted between Frazie and the Zombies who were now ready to fight.

They couldn’t go at this like their dad did. They weren’t as strong as he was. But they knew each other’s weaknesses.

“I take the Frazie, you take the–” Dion was punched in the gut by his Zombie counterpart.

Frazie responded with a kick to the Zombie Dion, who grabbed Frazie’s ankle. With a wicked grin he threw Frazie towards herself who landed her fists to knock Frazie down.

“Now you’re gonna be taken apart, filthy mentalist!” The Zombie Frazie gripped Frazie hard.

Frazie felt another surge of rage at the creature, and it in the leaking eye again. Tar that had been leaking splattered all over Frazie’s cheeks and the creature let out a roar.

Dion, meanwhile, had gotten to recover long enough to make a kick to the knee, causing the brittle creature’s attacked knee to bend backwards.

It gripped the knee, growling as it tried to replace it back, and the arm it was holding of the little Zombie Raz was starting to go slack. Dion rushed to try to grab it and the Zombie Dion shoved his elbow into Dion’s gut again. A bad move as Dion went slack against the Zombie and his knees went in two ways. He let out another shout and Dion grabbed the arm from the Zombie. Dion stood up and then stamped on the Zombie’s back. “Don’t! You! Dare! Hurt! My! Middle! Brother!” He punctuated each word with another stomp until the goopy creature was left a mess.

Dion looked to Frazie, who had been making the blasts at the creature. She crowed and tried charging, only for more of her limbs to be destroyed and eventually, she was nothing but a useless head and torso. “You can’t! You can’t!”

“Can, and will!” Frazie told her other self. She ripped the arm out from the Zombie and felt another pulse of power around her fist as she punched the Zombie’s head so hard, the rest of it when toppling down below.

Dion and Frazie were now out of breath, and Dion brought out his extra Psi-pop again. Frazie actually took it, and Dion popped his own into his mouth. The candies melted quickly, especially with the two biting down and feeling their mental energy come back into their bodies.

Frazie felt the small tear that was in the thumb of the plushie’s arm. “Does he… really think I would do that to him…?”

Dion exhaled. “I know he thinks I would do it, but after this, we’ll know better. But just like you said. We can’t sit here and mope about ourselves.” He interlocked his own fingers with the Zombie’s hands. “We’ve got Raz here. And he needs us now more than ever.”

Frazie nodded. “Come on. Let’s get back to mom and dad.”

Chapter Text

Sasha was left a shuddering mess from taking the shortcut that “Oatmeal” had provided. An absolutely disgusting journey that he swore he had some snot in from his trip.

Camper kept marching on, starting to clap his hands. “Guys, Arts n Crafts time!”

Sasha looked over to Milla. “You told him we did ‘arts and crafts’ at Whispering Rock?”

Milla shook her head. “No. I would never lie to Razputin about that.”

“Where would he even get that idea?” Lili asked. “I mean, it’s not like Whispering Rock is a normal summer camp with those… things…”

Dogen began to shuffle over to where Camper was starting to set up shop, pressing fingers to his temples so he could start moving tables and chairs that were conveniently stored from below the cabins. Maybe he was manifesting some of his figments into tangible constructs? Quite possible, given how advanced Razputin’s psychic abilities were.

The different camper constructs were starting to move over, and Lili cringed a bit at their movements. Like little… well she didn’t want to say puppets considering… but more like wooden creatures who had finally learned how to walk. Some of them were more abstract than others or more plain looking. Lili could barely tell who was supposed to be who.

Camper sat at the head of the table and he patted the left seat near him. “Dogen? Dogen you’re my friend right? S-so you’ll sit here?”

Dogen nodded. “Mmkay, Raz.”

Camper made a face. “Camper. I’m Camper.”

“Mmkay, Camper.” 

Camper then smiled widely. “It’s okay, Dogen. I forgive you.”

Hollis was searching through the memories on the higher shelves, looking through the mental connections that each higher shelves had brought up. Many had seemed to be hidden, related to people that were in Razputin’s mind. She glanced through, seeing some related to the interns, and came across some tapes that were wedged between the boxes. She grabbed the boxes down and grabbed the two tapes as she levitated back down.

The two tapes were labeled “To Be A True Psychonaut (Intern)” and “She Was Right All Along.”

Hollis seemed puzzled with this. But where were they supposed to go in order to complete the mission? They had to keep looking through. Find all the pieces.

Hollis used her TK Hand and pushed in the tape labeled “To Be A True Psychonaut (Intern)”

The tape opened up to Raz approaching the Think Tank hallway, and immediately, the other interns started to glance at each other in fear.

On screen, Adam’s yo-yo suddenly launched in front of Raz’s face. “Hey, look out!” Adam said a bit too late as Raz’s nose was grazed.

He backed up saying, “Oh, sorry, I didn-” he slipped and was suddenly staring at the ceiling before clenching his eyes from the impact.

“Ow! That’s mean!” Sam winced.

“Did he hurt you baby?” Gisu asked as Raz got up, almost surprised to see her caring more for the skateboard than the two other hurt people that were near her.

“I’m not a baby!”

“Yeah, you are.” Lizzie said, walking up. “Question is, who’s the new kid?”

“My name is Raz. And I’m… the new intern.” He seemed still bitter about the demotion that Hollis had done to him, which was… fair to say the least.

Morris began to roll up. “That’s ridiculous. I didn’t ask for a new intern.”

Hollis looked at Morris. “Oh, you didn’t ask for a new intern.”

Morris shrunk in his chair.

“Intern program’s full. Sorry, kid.” Memory Adam towered over Razputin.

Adam pulled his hat in front of his face in embarrassment.

“He IS clumsy. He’d probably get us all killed.” Memory Lizzie agreed.

I’m an acrobat! I just didn’t see the weird board! Raz’s own mind bit back.

“AND he’s MEAN.”

Sam looked down. “How could I say that to Dogen’s friend…?”

Morris rolled back around to Raz’s other side. “Well, kid, we gave it a fair shot, and it looks like it just didn’t work out. Better luck next year.”

Next year!? I’m already a Psychonaut! His mind cried. Just ask Sasha, or Milla! OR OLEANDER!

Morceau coughed awkwardly at the sound of his name.

“Guys,” a voice made them part away, letting Norma stare down at Razputin, “quit picking on the new kid. That’s my job. ”

“Hollis I did not say that to him, I promise.” Norma told her.

Hollis put a hand up and then the memory stopped. “You’re right. His memories are tainted.”

“How so?” Morris asked.

“Well, emotions and retroactive fillers can mess with memories. Sort of like mental cobwebs. Think back to the way his sister changed in that memory we saw. Frazie didn’t really turn into that monster, but that is how Razputin remembers it. If you want to know more, just ask Morceau.”

Coach Oleander flinched.

Hollis put her hand back down and the memory stayed paused for a few seconds before continuing. “I think the new kid will fit in just fine. Especially fit in our uniforms!”

“Did he just make you say a pun?” Lizzie asked.

Norma was practically fuming. “Oh I’m going to give that little rodent a piece of my mind!” She was about to stamp out of the Memory Morgue when Sam and Morry quickly said: “Rabbits aren’t rodents.”

“Whatever!”

“Agent N. Natividad.” Hollis called. “Do not leave.”

Norma huffed and shook her head.

The memory went by quickly, and suddenly Raz was in his acrobat uniform. “Are you okay in there Raz? What’s the hold up?”

Raz clutched his clothes tightly to his chest. They’re my nice clothes…

Everyone felt like their hearts were suddenly struck when they heard that.

“I was just… thinking… If there’s an intern uniform, how come you guys aren’t wearing it?”

“Oh well, we’re level Two.” Norma said smoothly. “Now just hand out your clothes and we’ll get you that uniform.”

“Can’t you hand me the uniform?”

“No, silly. We need to take your clothes and measure them so we can get a uniform that fits.”

An image flashed in Raz’s head of trying on the Psychonaut uniform that Ford had given him. The Whispering Rock bathrooms were grungy, including the mirrors, but he remembered feeling so happy when wearing it. Maybe there was a new version of it?

“Unless you want us to come in there and measure you?”

Raz flinched and felt like he wanted to curl into a ball. He didn’t want to be vulnerable like that… “No no!” He hid from the door and gave them his nice clothes. “Here you go. Just hurry up, okay? It’s cold in here and I’m practically naked–”

The locks were loud behind him.

He began to mess with the door handle and found it would barely budge. “Guys? Oh, come on!” He turned back, facing the poster of Cassie O’Peia and his face went aflame. “This is embarrassing in so many ways.”

“Is this why Agent Aquato was late?” Hollis asked.

The rest of the Junior Agents looked anywhere but at Hollis.

Jackalope thumped a bit among the brambles, catching the attention of Imp and Fae. 

“Funnybunny?” Imp asked.

Jackalope began to bite down on the brambles growling and feeling a pulling sensation in his mouth as his rusted body squeaked with force.

Fae was immediate to gently holding and petting Jackalope, who was still grunting and growling. As he let go he fought against the feeling of tears.

“I WAS TRUSTING THEM! WHY DID I EVEN DO THAT!?”

Imp also began to pet Jackalope, putting her hand near his mouth as he tried to bite again. He flinched as his teeth came in contact with her, and began to groom where he’d bitten. “Sorry, fireflower…”

“I don’t know the code. Rats!” Raz cursed.

Squeaking came from behind him. 

He turned to see his friend in the little bomber jacket. One of Lili’s pets. “Oh, you’re absolutely right Harold, I should think about how I’m using that word.”

“I didn’t know Raz had zoolepathy?” Adam said.

“I couldn’t understand it.” Lizzie claimed.

“I understood it.” Sam told her. “Animals just speak differently.”

“But we’re seeing this from Raz’s point of view.” Gisu pointed out.

“And he got the words right!”

“What is it, Harold? Do you know the code?”

Harold began to jump.

“Is the code in there, Harold? I’m too big to go in there!”

“I dunno, he’s pretty scrawny.” Adam mused.

“You’re just a giant.” Gisu told him.

“If only I could see what you see in– that’s it!” Raz began to focus and suddenly he was seeing from someone else’s perspective. Harold’s perspective.

“Wait, he was screened to use Clairvoyance!?” Norma shouted.

“He wasn’t .” Hollis insisted. “But then again, I hadn’t highlighted those parts of powers to him yet. He had yet to sign the papers. For quite a while too . It wouldn’t have surprised me if he had used the other things Ford or others may have taught him at camp.”

“Like what–”

“RATZPUTIN!” Morris suddenly shouted, seeing Harold look back to Raz, and seeing Raz dressed up in a giant rat suit.

Gisu began to snort laugh out of surprise. “Ratzputin… oh that’s amazing.”

As soon as they had seen Ratzputin, he was gone, replaced with Raz inputting the code and beginning to shimmy over to a vent opening just passed… “oh no…” his heart dropped and the Junior agents let out a gasp.

“Oh no.” Lizzie groaned. “That’s his girlfriend!”

“Oh geez oh…” Sam looked away.

“I can’t watch.” Adam said, pulling his hat over his head.

Raz finally got over to a vent and ran through. He jumped down and landed hard on the ground, which would have sent a jolt through any non-acrobat’s body. Instead he grabbed a nearby Psi-card, then tried to see what exactly Agent Mentallis and Agent Nein were up to.

He slipped and then tried to get up and cover himself.

“Not a word, Razputin, until I find you some new clothes.” Sasha stopped everything, and Raz followed him into his office, where he stood by the chair. “You can sit down if you need to.”

Right. Sit down in my acrobat’s uniform. In your chair. Not happening. Raz’s mind oozed with embarrassment.

Sasha eventually managed to get some old clothes and TKed them to Raz’s arms. “Here, put these on.”

Raz began to do so, the clothes being almost too big until he rolled up the sleeves and legs.

“Sorry if the fit is a little off. They’re the smallest clothes I have.”

I am wearing THE Sasha Nein’s old clothes. This is almost better than having my own clothes. Well… I still want them back…

“Now, tell us, how did you end up outside in your underwear?”

“Oh, uh…I was going undercover since this is a spy organization and all. And you know… I gotta find the mole… Just like you did, Agent Mentallis, in True Psychic Tales #62 when you used your Defibru-lober to hypnotize sixteen Trance Troopers at once!”

“It was actually 17. Well, I’ve got to make like a brain and bounce.”

Raz nodded. “I know how that feels.”

Otto paused. “If you ever need the right tool for the job, just come down to my workshop.”

Raz began to walk out after Agent Mentallis. “Oh, and don’t worry about the other interns, Razputin. Initiation rituals are a common method for a specialized social group to integrate foreign elements while preserving the social exclusivity of that group. Understand?”

Raz frowned. “Yeah… I understand.”

Adam shifted awkwardly. “I think we’ve seen enough here–”

“No. I don’t think we have.” Hollis turned to the Junior Agents. “So, you stole the clothes of a ten-year-old, making him late to intern orientation, and when did he get his clothes back?”

Norma’s lips curled in.

“I ask because for a majority of his time at the Motherlobe that day, he was in the clothes that Agent Nein got him. So again . When did he get his clothes back?”

“He hasn’t.” Adam said under his breath.

“What was that Agent Joseph-Gette?”

“He… hasn’t gotten his clothes back.”

“ Really ? Why is that ?”

“He needs to complete the scavenger hunt.” Sam admitted.

“Scavenger hunt? You mean you hid his clothes around the motherlobe?”

“We’re… kind of holding the clothes hostage?” Lizzie murmured.

“So Scavenger…” Hollis looked to Norma. “You mean the Scavenger Hunt I gave to you Agent N. Natividad?”

“Well…

“When we get back, we are returning Agent Aquato’s clothes to him.”

“Yes Agent Forsythe…” The Junior Agents mumbled.

The tape continued with Raz's first day. He was using his clairvoyance to expose where different agents knew where caches of psitanium was, and Hollis sighed deeply. "That young man Is going to need to reread the documents he was supposed to sign."

He talked with Norma about getting his clothes back and she gave him the scavenger hunt.

Then he found himself getting "Nick Johnsmith" as his mentor, though the Hollis in the memory said "Gristol Malik."

"Another one of the warps in the memory?" Hollis and Oleander looked at one another.

"It's common enough," Oleander nodded. "This one doesn't seem to be that big of a deal, there's no adverse reaction to it yet.

"Adverse reaction?"

"Well, we saw with his family that their words made them transform into monsters, but hearing Gristol's name hasn't sent us any flash forwards. Raz may have just forgotten what Gristol's fake name was."

"Why are the kids pressing foreheads together!?" Adam brought the attention back to the memory and it was met with darkness, only for Raz's eyes to open again and seeing Lili lean away from him.

She quickly punched him with a glare. "Tell anyone you got it from me, and you're dead." She then began to run down the hall, waving to him with a sweet "bye!"

And then suddenly everyone jumped with the sound of the Otto B.O.N. closing. Raz quickly opened it up again, and used it to go to the Atrium to his job at the mailroom. He only had to throw a few sorted boxes until one began to make the pipes clang and sputter. "Let's see, addressed to... Truman Zanotto. Hey, I better get this to him right away!" Raz began to drag the box, not caring about the fact that he dragged it up one stair at a time, making it go cthunk cthunk cthunk cthunk up each stair as well as dragging it and bagging it against the walls when he could.

Morris nodded. "Yeah, I'd want to do the same thing to him."

The memory continued with Raz's memory of Gristol falling out of the box, finding the key, Hollis insisting on keeping the children safe, and... Raz being late to class because he was checking on his mentor. The group watched in silence as Raz found Gristol tied up and he helped him out of it. "Okay, how's that feeling?" Raz asked as Gristol meandered.

"Egg..."

"Well, better than the campers, it seems." Raz quipped. "Now, off to my first class."

"First class..." Gristol repeated as Raz got onto his Lev-ball and began to run to the Think Tank. He got into the classroom and looked up to Agent Forsythe.

"Are you ready, kid?"

Raz gave a defeated agreement as he put on his goggles.

"And what are you ready for?"

"Safety..." Raz growled.

"Oh, you think the human mind is safe?" Flashes began to overtake the memory of things that no one was aware that he had gone through. A giant bloated Censor crushing both Razputin and Sasha, Nightmares trying to claw at him through bars of fire as Milla's voice was barely heard, Loboto stealing Dogen's brain that was sneezed into a Brain tank that fired at Raz, an arsonist blowing up a bunch of Rainbow Squirts and censors, cannon balls through the rare cannon censors being lobbed at him, a bull that looked similar to the one outside the Memory Morgue charging through, A giant two headed monster with stitches and a giant butcher's knife. 

And suddenly Raz was Hollis's mind and tried to take a seat, only for every light to go out except spotlights on him. He felt like a constriction formed around his neck.

Agent let out a painful cough as he felt the ziptie on his neck tighten. Oh no. One of those memories again. Concentrate. Concentrate! He needed this to be lit up already. Calm his nerves, fight the tightness that seemed to never stop.

"Wait so... he does that pose for everything?" Oleander asked.

The Junior Agents looked to him. 

"Look as soon as Razputin got done with his Basic Braining, he did that pose as I gave him the badge. I thought it was a neat little thing and wished more people actually appreciated the Psychonauts like that. I just... I'm glad he does it."

"Now... how do I explain Mental Connection extremely simply?" Memory Norma began with a snarky tone.

"Lemme guess." Raz matched her tone. "We focus on an idea in someone's mind until we make a tangible connection with it?" 

"Oh, I didn't realize you were a Mental Connection expert!" Norma looked back to the other ideas. "By all means, give us a demo...Professor."

Raz jumped down and then felt a connection with the idea, a solid line forming between him and the idea. He gave a bit of a tug and flung himself towards it like a bungee cord. 

The entire class gasped and Hollis took a step back. "That's how he uses Mental Connection!?"

"Sorry. Old habit from the circus, I guess." Memory Raz responded. He then flung himself into the other idea, creating a solid line. 

"That's..." Hollis blinked. "No wonder the chain reaction was so strong when it occurred!"

"Chain reaction?" Oleander asked.

The memory had them look back as the idea of disgust formed in Hollis's mind.

"Well, it's probably not the first time Raz created that thought in someone's mind." Memory Morris quipped as Morris himself cringed.

Raz shot himself up to the idea, connecting it and forming the idea of "Risk."

The Junior Agents knew they were in trouble the moment Memory Lizzie started to talk about changing Agent Forsythe's mind.

"You set him up to that?" She glared at the Junior Agents.

"W-we weren't the ones to change your mind-" Norma immediately defended.

"Believe me, Agent N. Natividad, Agent Aquato has already received his punishment from myself. Though now that this new information has come to light about you not only hazing, and stealing, but you encouraged a young member of the Psychonauts to go against everything we stand for." Agent Forsythe looked to Adam and Sam. "Anyone care to remind us all what the Psychonauts stand for?"

She was met with silence.

"To defend the free-thinking world."

"Hollis this gets worse." Oleander pointed out.

Sounds of Psi-blasts shattering a wall left Hollis completely out of her depth. Things she should have known were fact were now being tossed out of the window.

"What? What about him shattering one of those walls?" Adam asked.

"He just shot through one of Hollis's Mental Shields." Oleander explained.

"THAT'S WHAT THAT WAS!?" Adam cried.

"Just how angry is he?" Gisu looked between everyone. "I-I mean Razputin is... he's just a little guy."

"A little guy who's clothes we stole." Sam reminded.

Raz landed in what looked to be a hospital hallway and the door slammed behind him. "Oh wait... this was a terrible idea..." Raz winced. And even still, he pressed onwards. Fighting mental enemies in the parking lot, being humiliated again but by Hollis's mental constructs, hearing some awfully private stories that the people in the room were only mildly aware about, and he found himself in... a familiar...

"Oh God, Razputin..." The group looked around, seeing that this morgue in Hollis's mind was...

"Did he subsume this into his consciousness?" Norma looked to Hollis.

"It wouldn't be surprising." Oleander agreed. "Raz's mental shields are a no way street. Things can't get in, but those he lets in won't get out, either."

"So, those constructs outside of here. We know he's got Lili and Dogen, but what about the others?"

"The asylum patients of Thorny Towers." Oleander answered. "Before they... We didn't find anyone in the wreckage aside from Raz's and my wandering bodies. I didn't tell Vodello and Nein. Almost forgot about all those guys until I came in here."

"Oh my God." Hollis instinctively went to her pocket and then she balked. She was not in here alone. Who knows what damage could be done if she interrupted other people's work with Razputin's mind? There was no emotional baggage in here, no half-minds, no nuggets of wisdom, and all the figments seemed to be picked clean... if there were any to begin with. Just these memory tapes no memory vaults. The best way to do this was to go through it. Couldn't go over or under it.

Raz got to Hollis's quiet place and saw the different connections. It didn't take long for him to begin to run through the stray thoughts to connect Risk and Money.

And the casino mission was quite similar to how they remembered it. Hollis's weird antics as Raz felt guilt eating away at him. And suddenly, in the closed space, weights began to fall with high pitched, whining buzzes. Oleander responded with trying to tear the weights from the Regrets to throw at them while the Junior Agents let out Psi-blasts to the critters.

By the time they were done, Raz had already gotten into one of Hollis's areas in her mind and met up with Norma and Morris. As the two talked with Raz, Hollis looked like she was about to blow a blood vessel. "You claimed solving my newly acquired gambling addiction was extra credit!?"

Norma flinched. "Oh my... Oleander. Oleander can you write a list? Because I am sure that by the time I get out of here, I'm going to forget some things that the Junior Agents have done to Agent Aquato."

Morceau rolled his eyes but brought up a pen and pad of paper that he was forced to carry around now as part of his therapy.

It turned out they all had gone into Hollis's mind, trying to follow Raz, and all got captured by Hollis's embodiment of her gambling addiction, Lady Lucktopus. Raz seemed to hold himself just fine against the creature and saved the Junior Agents, insisting that they save themselves instead of helping him.

"And this is part of why that Jackelope is so weird." Lizzie began to make some mental connections for herself. "Raz is constantly trying to do things on his own whenever something important is going on. I haven't seen him enjoy a hug once."

"Well, we did see him kiss Lili. Maybe he only likes her touching him?" Gisu amended.

"You know what they say about rabbits-" Morris blurted.

The Morgue erupted with unexpected laughter. "MORRIS HE'S TEN!" "LITTLE GUYS SHOULD NOT KNOW ABOUT THAT!" "WELL, HE KNOWS ABOUT CURSING!"

As the Lady Lucktopus was defeated, Raz landed in the bushes of the parking lot of the Hospital Casino. "Who put this here?" Hollis asked. "It's all wrong! It's ALL WRONG! Tear it all down!" She caught eyes with Raz, who began to feel licks of fear around himself, showing of in the moldy corners of the towering morgue. "Wait, what are YOU doing here? You can't see this!"

"Agent Forsythe! Hold on! I can explain! This is actually... all my fault." Raz admitted. "I used Mental Connection to... to change your mind. I did something horrible. J-just like with Boyd's mind."

Boyd. There was that name again. And Oleander flinched all the same.

"You did WHAT!?"

"I-I'm sorry. I'm sorry I did it! I-I keep messing up! I keep thinking I need to fix people!" Flashes of unfamiliar, almost crazed faces, showed before focus was back on Agent Forsythe, who was now breaking a skull with her bare hands. "I shouldn't even be here! I should get kicked out of the Psychonauts!" 

Suddenly, she was very gentle with him, staring at him with warm eyes and grounding him. "You're right, you should. But... we all make mistakes. And I did this once, as well." She crouched down to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Promise me you'll never do this again."

Raz nodded. "Promise."

Hollis in the morgue frowned. "That wasn't... exactly what I told him... That wasn't even what I wanted him to take away from it. I wanted him to just realize that... there's trust with us. and that... Oh this boy. Oleander, write on the list that I'm going to need to have some conversations about the Psychonauts with Razputin."

The mission went well, with Raz finally getting into the high roller's lounge and suddenly, people were gagging. The smell of rotten caviar filled the room and they were thrown for a loop. Raz usually had things to cover his eyes, hands, and ears, so those were muted. But the stench was pungent and Raz had no way of stopping himself from smelling it nor was it a smell someone forgot. He searched through the high roller's lounge and found the alcove with the connections to Maligula and the books. He gathered up everything into his bag... apart from one card that had Lili on it. "Pros: Free run of the Psychonauts HQ. Rebellious against father. Disillusioned with the Psychonauts. Could be turned? 
"Cons: ?"

"That's the boss's daughter!"

"That's Raz's girlfriend!" Gisu shouted.

"That's my little cousin!" Sam insisted.

"What?"

"What? Grampa was friends with Bob Zanotto. I've known Lili since she was a baby." Sam explained.

"Did he tell you about that?" Norma asked.

"No... no he... he didn't."

"Protective of her." Adam mused.

Raz looked back at the card, seemingly confirming what Adam said by thinking: I need to tell her first. I need to make sure she's okay. He ran into the Nerve center, only for Sasha to stop him.

"Razputin. May I speak to you for a minute?"

Raz seemed unsure, about to speak against Sasha, but looking back he gulped. "Okay." Raz was suddenly in front of the brain tumbler, Sasha most likely staying quiet during their walk. "Is this about what happened in Hollis's mind?

"Yes." Sasha finally spoke.

"I can explain!"

"No need."

The brain tumbler turned on and the memory brought him to the collective unconscious, and Sasha walked in front of him. "Do you remember this place, Razputin?"

He answered it sadly, citing the dictionary definition as if he was taking a test.

"I thought this might be a good place to talk about the incredible access we Psychonauts have, and the trust that goes with it."

"I know!" Raz said quickly. "I really messed up. I thought I could fix it-"

"You thought you could manipulate another person's mind, to bend their will to your own!" Sasha looked to Raz, shaking his head. "There are few things worse, Razputin."

Raz looked down to the imaginary brain that they were standing on. 

"Agent Forsythe seems to think that you've learned your lesson, and that no further consequences are needed. I think she's being too lenient."

"Agent Oleander, remind me to have a conversation with Agent Nein as well about what we've seen here today." Agent Forsythe was now glaring up at the memory Sasha.

"Oh, yes ma'am!" Oleander declared.

"Next time you find yourself in someone else's mind, and it occurs to you to overreach your boundaries, use this." Sasha brought out an ovular capsule in front of Raz.

"Smelling salts?" Raz's voice hid a crack.

"These will cause you to exit the brain immediately, before any damage is done."

"Thanks Sasha, and I'm sor-" Raz was left alone as the tape ended.

The tape then spat out Raz’s Intern File.

Hollis then looked at the second tape she had found wedged. “She Was Right All Along.”

Agent stared at the cigarette’s lit end again and snuffed it out. Agent took in a breath of the smog filled air and looked upwards. “Oh no…” He had to get control of his breathing. He didn’t want… He couldn’t let That Beast speak to him. And with the amount of dark thoughts… it would be so easy .

Agent stamped suddenly, feeling like Raz’s Jackalope construct. “Welp, back to the grind!” He declared.

He needed to help others sort their baggage. That would help him. The less crying he could hear, the less work and less stress. And that meant the less dark thoughts. And to do that, he needed to find tags. Maybe he still had a few in his pockets. He checked one. Just his cigarette pack. The other was empty.

Otto came up next to him. “Back to the grind, you say?” Agent barely looked his direction. “Want some help from a fellow Psychonaut?”

Agent looked to him with wide eyes. “Fellow?” He looked absolutely star struck until he shook his head and began tightening a zip tie on his arm. “I-I mean… I suppose that would get the work done faster. Agent Mentallis, it would be… good to work with you.”

Agent and Otto walked out of the alleyway to the pier which also had an area that led to a beach. Agent’s face contorted a bit as the salt water air hit him. He moved the other arm that he hadn’t been messing with, almost feeling mold in his joints.

“Not a fan of the air here?”

Agent shook his head slowly, trying to make his face go back to normal. He looked to his Nona who came out of the alley and she smiled. He smiled back at her. “It’s good that she’s feeling better now.”

Otto raised an eyebrow. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Are you feeling any better?”

“We don’t need to worry about that.”

Camper looked at all of his friends. “Today, why don’t we make some bird houses! It’ll be fun and neat!”

From above, logs of wood landed in front of each wooden camper construct, and they began to pick up their whittling knives on the table.

Camper turned to Milla. “Agent Vodello… I know you picked up my whittling knife earlier. Could I have it back so I can work on this?”

Milla frowned deeply while looking at Camper in his shiny eyes.

“It’s just for wood!” Camper simply smiled up at her.

Milla? Sasha asked through their link.

I think Razputin has some… thoughts he’d rather not talk about that are deeply affecting him.

Like…? Oh… Sasha seemed to catch on quickly, and Milla could feel ripples of fear and concern as well as pain through their mental link.

Camper then seemed to spot something down the way. “You can place the knife next to the log I need to… do something real quick.”

He stood up and Lili finally spotted what Camper was walking towards. “Cattie? Bracy? Whatcha… whatcha working on?”

Clearly, they weren’t working on the birdhouse activity, instead opting to twist ropes together in bright, almost gaudy… friendship bracelets.

“Hello? Friends? Are you making those for all of us?”

The constructs still stayed silent and Camper’s smile faltered a bit. A wisp of blue flickered in the corner of his eye.

“Can you… can you please talk? Is something wrong?”

“You heard that monster again, didn’t you?” One of them said loud enough so the whole group could hear.

“Wh-what are you talking about? There’s no monster!”

“You’re lying. Liar liar pants on fire!” The other construct teased.

“My pants are NOT!” Camper insisted. “I’m telling you, there is no monster!”

“But there is…” the Chloe construct said, staring at Camper and accidentally cutting a bit off her own thumb.

“The monster will get to us all…” Clerm nodded. “It always does… eventually.”

“THERE IS NO MONSTER!” Camper snapped, his fists slammed on the table, making another construct’s little birdhouse fall down. “THERE ARE NO NIGHTMARES!” He slammed his fist again. “AND THERE IS NO GZAR OF GRULOVIA!” His shiny eyes flickered between the constructs as his breath heaved. “Let’s… stop calling Linda that, okay? Friends?”

Milla floated over to him. “Darling–”

“Milla…” Camper shook his head. “Sorry. Agent Vodello, did you put my knife back?”

“Well. No darling I did not but maybe you need to… relax?”

“Relax? I-I’m plenty relaxed! I’m at camp! I’m with my friends! Nothing more fun and relaxing than fun in the sun! Right guys!?”

The constructs all nodded without saying anything. 

“See!” Camper jumped up. “I’m fine! I just need them to stop telling ghost stories that will scare the younger campers!”

“Al…right darling. How about… you have someone else come up with what they would like to do?”

“I want to make birdhouses!” Clerm exclaimed. “Hey Camper, Catch!” and he threw his knife.

The blade promptly landed in Camper’s palm, spearing through it with a thwok . “Thanks Clerm!”

Milla brought her palms to her temples as Camper began to tug at the knife’s handle and Lili ran over to the Clerm construct. “HOW DARE YOU!” The Clerm construct’s neck was limp as she shook him. “YOU ARE SO LUCKY I DON’T BURN YOU RIGHT NOW!!”

“Lili! Stop! I’m okay!” Camper told her as he finally got the knife out. “I’m just…” He looked and saw flashes of blue. “I’m just going to go to the first aid!” He began to run away from the group. “WARDEN!”

The Heavy Censor had never been so out of breath before. The thing that should not be in Razputin’s mind was still running around, but so far, it seemed to be fruitless in tracking the creature.

It trudged into the Grulovia area, hardening its knuckles as it saw the others of the Psychic Seven in the mind. Lucy, Otto, and Compton, the Heavy Censor knew Raz had agreed to letting into his mind. Otto and Compton were supposed to help Raz’s family get in, but that was it. Bob, Helmut, Cassie, and especially Cruller were not supposed to be here. “ No.” It lumbered in as it growled.

Agent perked up hearing the Heavy Censor come in. “Warden?” He asked.

Helmut turned to Cassie. “Is he really that lonely?”

Cassie hummed and then slowly nodded. “That would explain his archetype.”

“NOBODY FUCKING ASKED YOU, FORD! ” 

Warden tilted his head, looking back to the others who had been talking and then shook his head. “No.”

“ What the heck are you doing here? ” He whispered.

“No.”

“ You’re supposed to be over with Camper! ”

“No.”

Agent rubbed his eyes and tried to bring out a cigarette with TK, only for his concentration to break and for them to fall. “Dammit.”

“No.” Warden stepped closer, stopping Agent from getting the cigarettes.

“Warden, we don’t want to do this song and dance again.” Agent told him sternly. “I have my ways of working and you’re supposed to have yours.”

“…No.”

Agent sighed. “Ugh, this is stupid –”

“WARDEN!” The shriek rang. 

Agent glared at the Heavy Censor. “See what happens when you’re not there to protect him! Go! Now! Do your job before another person gets hurt.”

The shriek had caught the attention of all the Psychic Seven. They watched Agent shout at the censor and watched the Censor start to sprint away. Agent grabbed up the cigarettes and tried to focus his mind on lighting another, only for his Nona to appear in his peripheral. “My little turnip, are you–”

“I’m fine, Nona. I just… I really do need to get back to work. Because this is what happens. When one person doesn’t do their job, everyone gets hurt.”

The others looked to each other, and Compton frowned. “No matter what, when I tried to… do my job, there was a lot–”

“Fuck you, Ford.” With that, he walked off.

Chapter Text

Dion and Frazie landed down on the ground, the arms of the little zombie being held close as they tried to make sure none of the fluff fell out.

Donatella was immediately checking up on them. “Are you two okay? H-how did you–”

“They’re gone, mom.” Frazie reassured her.

“We got him back,” Dion claimed. “At least… a part of him.” He looked back down to the hand that was still holding onto him. It looked so itty bitty, still trying to interlace with Dion’s fingers and just barely making it past Dion’s knuckles. Had he really been that small at one point? He remembered seeing Raz as sure, smaller than him but… this tiny?

Frazie jabbed him in the side. “Knock it off!” 

“What?”

“You look like you’re about to start crying.” 

“Put your hand up to his.” He looked to the arm that Frazie was holding.

“What?”

“Do it and see!”

Frazie did so, and the fingers locked in between hers. “Oh…”

“See!?”

“See what?” A new voice they didn’t recognize asked.

The family turned to see a blue-skinned figure crouching, who soon stood up to full height. Towering over even Donatella.

Augustus looked incredulously at the dentist. “Who are you?”

“Me? I’m the Captain! Though I’m currently helping my first mate with his own ship.”

“The Captain?” Tala asked. “But why do you have a claw instead of a hook?”

Loboto flexed his claw. “Well, you can’t do too much with a hook, but you can with a claw! So it’s even better!”

“How did you even get into our child’s mind!?” Donatella asked.

“I knocked on the door.”

“And it just… let you in?” Frazie raised an eyebrow. 

“Uh-huh! I’ve been collecting the scavenger hunt!”

“…The what?”

Loboto brought out a piece of paper with different colored scribbles on it. Though a closer inspection showed some familiar looking pictures. The things that they had seen in the Motherlobe like potted plants, or some what may have been chunks of that weird psychic rock that Raz collected.

“I’ve already checked 2 areas!” Loboto told them proudly.

“Uh… okay.”

“And I have yet to see my little first mate.”

Queepie looked and pointed upwards. “You mean Raz?”

Loboto looked up as well, seeing the head of the little zombie being held up by his mombie. 

“You bent the spoons, didn’t you!? You little monster!” She shouted.

“No, no! I didn’t bend the spoons mommy!”

Loboto stared at the zombie, utterly baffled.

“We never had spoons he bended…” Donatella glanced at Augustus.

“Why is he talking about me !?” Loboto asked.

“He’s clearly just trying to deny that crazy bitch’s claim!” Frazie shouted. “N-not you mom the–”

“I get it Frazie.” Donatella reassured, though her face was blank towards her daughter.

Queepie, meanwhile, was starting to scooch away from his family, and Mirtala noticed. The two had a bit of a staring contest before Queepie decided to bolt. Tala chased after him, angry at her little brother always trying to wander. And he did it at this time of all times?

“Queepie!” She whisper-shouted after him. “What is your problem!?”

Queepie turned to his sister and shushed her. “Them.” He pointed around a corner and Mirtala finally looked.

There the other zombies were. Themselves and that evil looking Nona, who looked more like that woman that their dad told stories about than their Nona. And the ropes were their poor zombie brother’s legs. With the stitches being stretched and ripped more, some fluff starting to fall out of them and one of the socks was already gone.

Mirtala looked at Queepie.
Queepie looked at Mirtala.

“Well, what are we supposed to do?” Tala asked.

“I dunno. Dad was able to beat up those guys.”

“Dad is super strong! And so is Frazie and Dion!”

“Well, I’m the world’s strongest baby!”

“No, I am.” Queepie’s voice told him. The two siblings turned, seeing the taller Nona zombie jump away like a flea while the other two zombies had halted their skip rope, looking the children right in the eyes.

Hollis looked at the tape in her hand. “She was right all along…”

Who was this: She?

Hollis put the tape into the player.

Raz’s feet dragged along, tightly gripping the card from the casino mission to his chest. He looked up to the other Agents, who all seemed to be glaring down on him. Impossibly tall standards that he couldn’t hope to fill.

The wrist that was barely in view seemed to have…

“Is that a fucking ziptie?” Lizzie’s voice was a whisper that gradually got louder. “Why the fuck does the kid have a ziptie on his wrist?”

“That looks painful, man.” Morris agreed with creased brows.

“Agent Forsythe?” Memory Raz asked.

Hollis barely gave him a glance. “I just wanted to say…” He felt weighed down by the smelling salts in his pocket. “I’m sorry–”

“What’s done is done, Agent Aquato.”

Hollis staggered a bit. Okay, reading through the lines, she could see how her words could have come across that way… especially with the fact that Agent Nein was completely out of line with lecturing another intern that was not his own, still she remembered a bit of this conversation with Razputin. It was overall positive, she would say.

The Junior Agents leaned in, however, seeing something… off about Hollis. Her pinstripes and shoulder pads were… stranger and she appeared much taller. Even taller than how Raz may see her.

“Uhm… any updates on the mole?”

“Here’s something interesting: Did you know that Maligula was Grulovian?”

“Uh…No, I didn’t–”

“And Aquato is also a Grulovian name.”

“Uh… right well I’m half–”

“And you’re related to her, aren’t you?” Hollis’s neck snapped as the room went dark. It was just Hollis and Razputin in the room now.

“I-I… what ?” Raz began to back away, with the rest of the group doing so.

“Don’t deny your heritage, Razputin.”

“I did not say this!” Hollis shouted. 

The monster kept lumbering towards Raz, showing a twisted face of Norma showing on its side. Its mangled limbs and claws looked similar towards a-a… 

“Nightmare.” Sam said outloud.

“That’s what a nightmare looks like?”

Agent felt his zipties getting tighter without his tugging. It felt like his air was being pushed out of him forcefully. His coughs were raspy and painful. His hand gripped one of the poles that had cords of rope to make sure people didn’t fall in and he felt like something was trying to rush passed his windpipe as he heaved.

“Razputin?” Compton reached for Agent’s other hand, only for him to flinch away. 

Agent finally managed to get something out and it fell into the murky waters. Sinking deeper, deeper just like… “I’m fine. Just a… just little… allergies.” He lied. His thumb tried and failed to get underneath his zipties, making his skin turn a bit of an off-color. “I just… need to wait until this passes… I promise.”

Morceau looked at Hollis. “Well, you know what to do with something like this, right?”

Hollis shook her head, the second-head looking downright terrified at the soldier with the blind eye.

“Dammit Forsythe, you’ve dealt with warps before!”

“Those were minor warps to clear up misunderstandings with stubborn cases! Not something of this magnitude! I don’t even remember what I said to him!”

“Well, you better soon!” Oleander shouted as the floor burst with one of the Nightmare claws.

Warden was wrapping a bandage around Camper’s injured hand as his knuckles clenched. “W-warden?”

The heavy censor looked up, eyebrows creasing.

“Can’t you stay?” Camper pleaded.

The heavy censor shook his head, somewhat swaying. “No…”

Camper frowned and looked off into the distance, and Warden knew he was looking towards where Agent was. “You won’t get in trouble cus of me, right?”

Warden patted Camper’s shoulder with the best smile it could muster. “No.”

“A-and you’ll come back when you’re done, right?”

Warden looked to his hands, weighing its options.

“It’s alright. I-I’ve got my friends here. They may be acting just a… a bit weird and off, but I’m sure that I can cheer ‘em right up? I’ll be fine.”

Warden was about to speak, then thought better of it. He gave Camper another pat on the back of his bandages, then left the area through his Censor door.

Hollis did her best to grip onto the tape as it was stuck in the player. The group were all on their lev-balls as tiny nightmare claws tried to worm their ways inside of the morgue. 

“HOLLIS!” Oleander shouted.

“I’m trying! Think Forsythe… what was Intern Aquato trying to ask you about… It was in the nerve center… It was about Maligula…”

The picture began to rewind from the monster trying to reach through the screen and being tugged back. It kept rewinding until finally, finally, the darkness was replaced with the midmorning sunlight of the Nerve Center on Raz’s second day. “Any leads on the mole?”

Oh… Oh that. Hollis gulped as the tape switched between that scene of herself and Razputin alone in the dark, to the nerve center. Hollis began to speak, with the Hollis in the memory speaking with her. “Here’s something–Did you know that Maligula was from the nation of… Grulovia?”

Raz hummed with a bit of happiness and fondness for the word, despite never being to the country itself.

Hollis took another shaky breath. “Isn’t that the same country that your family, the Aquatos, come from?”

Adam choked a bit of a gasp and looked to Agent Forsythe, who didn’t look up from the tape as she heard Razputin speaking.

“Yes, but–”

“Oh, don’t worry. Many families fled Grulovia during the war and after. It’s just…interesting is all.” Hollis’s breaths were heavy as the tape came out finally, looking like it had been cut in half.

“Agent Forsythe .” Adam began, looking righteously angry at her. “You told him that !?”

Hollis turned to look Adam in the eyes, but found no willpower to speak. Instead, she merely nodded.

“We shouldn’t be talking like that! To anyone ! You… we may have done some rotten things to him but you. You told… You told him…”

“Yes, Adam. I did . And…”

“Like. I. Said.” A voice from above cut in. On the shelves, something dark red and white came squeaking down. 

“Oh, it’s you .” Norma glared at Razalope as he jumped.

He ignored her, side eyeing Agent Forsythe. “I didn’t forget those dismissive things you said. Hollis. ”

His claws scratched the shelves as he looked through. “Oh so you’re looking through those memories all out of order, huh?”

“The hell do you mean!? These aren’t exactly labeled in order!”

Jackalope ignored them again, watching the little holes in the floor. “He should be here any minute…”

A few seconds later, a censor door appeared and out jumped one Heavy censor with two shouting censors by its sides.

“I’ll get you a shortcut.” Jackalope told them, ignoring the Agents in his realm. He patted the wall with his right foot and a hole opened up, revealing a nightmare that had tried to grab hold of them. “Get it back to where it belongs.” He ordered. The two shouting censors jumped down, and the Heavy Censor seemed to try to steady itself before jumping in. 

“Now that should get everything back into place.” Jackalope patted the wall again.

“Wait.” Gisu asked him.

“ What? ” Jackalope twitched. 

“You… you wanted us to be in this room and see Raz’s memories, yeah?”

“Come out when you’re ready.” He said cryptically and then hopped through another hole.

Queepie glanced at Mirtala. “Come on, if Frazie and Dion beat the other them, we can–” He was met with a swift kick… by his zombie self hitting him with Raz’s leg.

Tala jumped back to avoid a kick from her own zombie. “Queepie we should get dad–”

Queepie stood back up and lunged at his zombie self. He grabbed the leg in the zombie Queepie’s arms and began to stomp on its chest.

Tala’s zombie began to try to hit her on the head, but she did a cartwheel to avoid it. She lunged for the zombie’s leg and began to drag her to try to pull her towards a wall. The zombies both let out ear piercing screams of “MOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!”

Tala and Queepie covered their ears, and the zombies began to run off. It took them a bit to recover, and by the time they realized what had happened, the two were already bolting through the weird maze of stage seating. Tala and Queepie charged after them, ready to help their big brother.

Camper was left to walk towards the group of wooden dolls and Psychonauts Agents alone. He gripped the bandages and felt his chest heave. He was fine .

Even though his friends were ignoring him. Even if his girlfriend probably hated him. Even if Dogen didn’t know how to keep a secret. Even though Agent Vodello was disappointed in him.

He. Was. Fine.

The ones who had come into Raz’s mind were still waiting by the table where the arts and crafts activity was supposed to have taken place. Lili was borderline growling while she was held by Sasha’s mental connection like a dog with a harness. Dogen was watching the other kids still quietly mess with the logs, making different things that were supposed to be birdhouses, but ended up not being that.

Like whoever the puppet that was replacing Nils was. He was making a wooden doll that looked like it was wearing a dress.

The Elka puppet was staring at Nils and occasionally trying to pose like how he was making the doll.

And T.J. seemed to be making a cow. Quite skillfully.

Karate was making a hockey stick.

Fiona and Q-Bert were instead making music, with Fiona having both of the knives and hitting the back end of the knives on the table while Q-Bert tried to sing in a… not good voice.

The puppets of Maloof and Mikhail were making Wooden Block Glocks.

John was making a fish.

Milk was just… her log was absolutely shredded.

Crystal (who was standing in for Chloe) was making a spaceship with the bird house hole. So technically, her’s could be called a birdhouse.

Vernon’s puppet was starting to mumble a bit to himself, telling stories that no one was listening to, as usual.

The only ones who seemed to be doing what Camper had asked were Clerm and Chloe.

“Birdies come and birdies go, Birdies are gonna have a new home!” Chloe rhymed.

“When you swim in the lake, the sun will have you baked!” Clerm swayed a bit.

Camper came up to see that no one was following his idea, completely ignoring him. He tried to think back on how to get people’s attention. And possibly get them to listen to you. But the only memories he had were of– Camper clapped his hands, bandage coming slightly undone. “Alright! Arts and Crafts time over!” 

The dolls began to collect their things and go off to their own devices as Camper pressed his hands together in front of his mouth. He seemed to take in a breath, with his shoulders moving upwards. “It’s fine! Everything’s a-okay!”

Sasha frowned and even as Milla tried to step forwards he held a hand up. “If I may?”

Milla nodded. “By all means.”

Sasha began to walk towards Camper, Lili still being dragged by the mental connection, but only Dogen seemed to notice. “Razputin.” Sasha began.

“Camper. My name is Camper!” He insisted.

Sasha gulped down a breath. “Camper.”

“Y-yes Agent Nein?” Camper’s eyes were remarkably shining, as if he was about to cry at any moment.

“Do you remember what I told Razputin about control?”

“Oh! You said that: ‘once you lose control, it’s very hard to get back.’”

“Do you remember what Raz and I discussed after that?”

“But… you told me not to talk about your giant censor, Sasha. D-do we get to talk about it now?”

Sasha sighed. “Have you been,” Sasha glanced back to some of the abandoned wooden creations, “trying to control these specific constructs?”

“I-I mean… n-no!” Camper lied, his eyes shifting left and right. “Wh-why would I want to control anyone?”

“Camper, you… Razputin himself has been subject to some other people trying to take advantage of him in some way, shape, or form. A cycle that usually exists is that people who suffer try to do that to others–”

“But I’m NOT! I DON’T!” Camper insisted. “E-Even if I was doing what you say, it-it’s my mind! It’s my thoughts! An-and they get to do things all on their own! Just like they’re doing right now!”

Sasha didn’t seem convinced, but this little Razputin construct seemed to have excuses and explanations for days, which probably had to do with the Enablers that were keeping up this dome.

“I could burn some.” Lili grumbled.

“No!” Camper told her.

“Not yet.” Sasha agreed.

Agent, meanwhile, was scouring the beach to find some tags that may have washed up on the sand. Emotional baggage tags tended to stay near the salt water. Maybe because it reminded them of tears. Of course, others of the Psychic Seven were helping, as Psychonauts do. It was their job to help others.

Agent’s big toe felt something underneath his shoe and he lifted his foot to see a blue tag belonging to a duffle bag. He leaned down to pick it up, and saw the scratched out name of “Edgar Teglee.”

The wave’s roar got louder as he remembered seeing Edgar making a new masterpiece, and the fire on the tower. It had taken a few days for the fact to catch up with Razputin that… they hadn’t been able to be found. 

More crying began to take up the beach and Agent looked up to see round little beasts with fuses on their heads and arms open wide. Agent took his stance and began to fire at some of the little creatures, making them explode before they could get close.

Psi-blasts came from himself and from behind him, with shots of green helping him out. He looked back to see Otto firing at some of them.

Agent frowned. “I was ready for that. That was my fight.” 

Otto raised an eyebrow. “Well, we did agree to help our fellow psychonaut–”

“I asked you to help me find tags. And the tags usually end up here. I can handle the mental enemies that form here, alright!?” Agent was suddenly struck by a powerful attack that hit him in the back.

A large scribble creature lumbered in the air as more personal demons began to appear from censor doors.

Psychic Seven began to act on the defensive, putting themselves between Agent and the enemies, and readying to fight.

The Zombie Mirtala and Queepie ran up onto a stage with Tala and Queepie following after. 

“What, are you trying to help WAAAAAzputin? ” Zombie Queepie asked as he tried shake out the Zombie Raz’s fluff from the open hole.

“He’s just a big crybaby!” Zombie Mirtala agreed. “That’s all he is!”

“You shut up about our brother!” Tala shouted.

“Aww, but we’re just getting to the fun part!” 

The curtains on the stage began to open and spotlights fell onto the two.

“Welcome to the greatest showcase we have to offer!” Zombie Donatella called to the imaginary audience.

Augustus and Donatella began to look around. “THE BABIES!” They both shouted to each other. They then took off, leaving Frazie and Dion to chase after them and Loboto all alone.

“Well, might as well, go continue my scavenger hunt !” He began to skip out of the circus area and hit the glass floor where he paused and looked down. There looked to be some gray gunk falling deep into the pit into an orange light. “Huh! I’m sure it’s nothing…” Loboto looked back to his scavenger hunt. “Now, where did I need to go again? Oh yes, the circus! It’s got… got… MEAT!”

With that, he was skipping in again, completely forgetting about the Aquatos that were in there and the announcement.

“Oh, the audience has just arrived!” Zombie Dona taunted. “Won’t his majesty be pleased that we have gotten rid of such nuisances!?”

“His majesty?” Dona glanced around, trying to see if that disgusting man known as “gristol malik” was anywhere in the seats. But nothing… there was no sign of that trashheap that pretended to be a human being.

“Kids, don’t worry!” Augustus tried jumping onto the stage only for him to fall back and land flat on his ass.

The Zombie Donatella laughed. “No, no! That wouldn’t be a fair fight at all! And where’s the fun in the unfair advantage if it’s not to your liking!”

“Dad!” Zombie Raz called.

“NO! HE IS NOT YOUR FATHER! HE KILLED YOUR FATHER, BECAUSE THAT MAN IS A DIRTY PSYCHIC!”

Zombie Raz flinched with his eyes clenching as he was jerked around more.

“Now, it’s make your mother proud time!” Zombie Dona screeched to her children. 

Around the two Zombies, purplish goop creatures began to form. Orange eyes and gaping maws made the creatures’ forms. It wasn’t the exact same color as the tar that they had been seeing out of the other Aquatos, but it did seem kind of similar? Yet not quite…

The creatures began to lumber as the Zombies lunged for the children, Raz’s legs ready to be used as weapons. 

Mirtala and Queepie were ready to do battle, also charging at the zombies. Queepie went for the wrists that were holding his brother’s legs and bit down hard on the Zombie’s arm. The weak skin broke, making Queepie get the disgusting taste of gasoline in his mouth. He spat it out and coughed, leaving him wide open for a kick to the head from Raz’s foot.

Meanwhile, Tala seemed to be doing better as she backflipped and bounced onto her braids, legs kicking up to hook her ankles around the zombie Mirtala’s braids and using momentum to lift the Zombie up and slam her into the ground.

One of the creatures, however, managed to get close to Mirtala and bite at her, covering her in slime. “Ew!” She winced.

The zombie took her chance and hit Mirtala on the head with Raz’s plush leg. That managed to do a bit more damage than what Tala expected, and the slime creature once again lunged for Tala.

Tala kicked the zombie in the way and the monsters screeched with yick clouding their lungs. It was a horrifyingly gross sound, making both the kids wince just a bit. The battle was not yet won, but Queepie and Mirtala knew that. Queepie threw a flying kick at his zombie clone, it flying into the invisible wall. 

“QUEEPIE USE THIS!” Frazie called out, throwing a folding chair up! A bright blue hand appeared, bringing the chair over to the youngest with quick speed. He had telekinesis! But he wasn’t using that to throw it, no no. Queepie gripped the chair in his hands, slamming it over and over the zombie version of himself in a brutal fashion over and over until it turned into a gross tar… Meanwhile Mirtala had thrown her zombie self against the floor, it too turning into that tar substance.

“Ew.” Both Queepie and Mirtala said in unison, having both beaten their clones. The weird tar was being absorbed into the floor, while the two looked around

“Should we worry about that?” Dion asked.

“It’s that weird thing where mental enemies turn into…” Frazie was trying to remember. “Oh, raw energy.”

Chapter Text

Hollis looked over the half tape once again, still sporting the same words on it: “She was right all along.” Hollis put the tape back in, but the screen lit up with words saying “UNAUTHORIZED.”

Unauthorized? That didn’t make any sense. Memories were not supposed to be “unauthorized,” even to psychonauts exploring. It’s why finding figments and memory tapes and nuggets of wisdom were awarded with ranks when they were reported. And even then, Raz’s construct encouraged them to explore. This wouldn’t make any sense unless… “Norma, he seemed to have something to say about your mind.” Hollis remembered.

“Well, Raz doesn’t like me all that much,” Norma retorted. “It makes sense he’d want to insult me.”

“But he still has half of this tape.” Hollis frowned.

“And you were part of that nightmare, Norma.” Lizzie nodded.

“What? You think I was–”

“I know you,” Lizzie interrupted. “You’ve done this before.” 

“‘Done this be–’ Are you saying you’ve seen me in other nightmares, Lizzie!?”

“Well, I wouldn’t be surprised,” Lizzie smirked.

“Ugh, you’re insufferable!”

“And you’re the one giving a ten-year-old boy nightmares.”

Norma scoffed.

Gisu opened her palm. “Lemme try.”

Hollis had no better option, so she gave the tape to Otto Mentallis’s apprentice. Gisu flipped the tape two different ways, trying to figure it out. “How can… half… hmm… Pooter, you have some weird mind stuff going on.”

“Ugh! Just hand it to me.” Norma said, snatching the tape with her TK and shoving it in.

“Norma–”

The screen flashed with green letters. AUTHORIZATION GRANTED.

“What did you even do?” Adam asked.

“I JUST PUT IT IN!” Norma shouted. “I don’t know why you two were struggling.”

Hollis shot Junior Agent N. Natividad a pointed look.

The video tape loaded showing what looked to be a high school in greyscale, with the rest of the Junior Agents, sans Norma, in long coats and fancy hats. Except for Sam, who seemed to have a dress, but she was in the peripheral vision of Raz.

“ Alright, we’ll cover more ground if we split up. ” Adam said in the tape. “ Lizzie and Gisu, take the west. Sam and I will take North. Morris, take the east, and Razputin, you can go South. ”

Raz gave a thumbs up and without another word, started to move down the south hallway on his Lev-ball. He had taken to embracing the world around him well enough. Kids were in “classes” according to the clocks and full classrooms, and this was supposed to be a close to silent movie-esque genre. At least, from what he remembered of the movie that Norma had shared on a movie night. It was like TPT with the mystery element, though not as action packed as Raz would have liked.

He walked through the hall until he came to a fork in the road. He went left and something caught his attention. While the door itself was greyscale, there was a brown sign with white letters reading “Janitor’s Closet.”

He pressed his knuckles to his palms. “I think I’ve just hit the jackpot to blow this case wide open.” He quoted from what he thought the movie protagonist had once said.

He opened the door, relieved to find it not locked, and opened it to what appeared to be a purplish void with red tight ropes. “Aw, did you think of me Norma? I’m flattered.”

Morris tried to hide a giggle. “The little shit!”

Norma groaned as Raz began to walk along the red ropes, the door closing behind him.

He kept his arms out wide for balance as the gravity seemingly started to shift around him. “Woah… easy. Heh. Yup. Norma probably made this to test me or whatever. Thanks Norma!” He kept walking, looking down along the tightrope and seeing some things start to come into view. Boards along the bottom showing pieces of what was labeled as “EVIDENCE.”

Raz made it to the end of the rope and found himself face to face with a picture of himself with the hand of Galochio throwing him into the air. “Of all the things to remember my hydrokinesis… of course she would remember that .” He looked back to the next part of the rope, seeing the silhouette of Maligula.

His breathing was suddenly much louder in the rest of the Agent’s ears and he had to tear his eyes away. “It’s fine. You’re fine. Nona… Nona won’t hurt people anymore. Maligula can’t hurt people anymore…”

The viewers glanced towards the floor as Razputin had done, feeling the fear come up and be squashed.

He looked around to the other corks, but it appeared he’d have to get to the Maligula part of the cork board to reach more areas. Raz steeled his nerves and then started to jog across the tightropes, trying to look away from Maligula’s picture. Once he got there, he turned his back and looked over multiple parts of the corks.

A picture with him and his father labeled. “Curse??? No such thing.”

Another picture was of him rereading his TPT Issue #43. “Possible history gained? Deluginist hoping for fuel against Psychonauts?”

“Oh, I’m not a–” Raz growled.

Another cork came from the picture of him on the plane. Fidgeting with something in his coat pocket. “Possible Second Key to the Lucktopus??” 

“OH THAT’S A LEAP IN LOGIC! And I’m an acrobat!” Raz shook his head. “The mental gymnastics she had to use to think of…”

A card flashed as Raz closed his eyes.
Lili Zanotto – Pros: Free run of Psychonauts HQ. Disillusioned with the Psychonauts. Rebellious against father.

Cons: ?

The rest of the crew exchanged looks with each other.

“See? He was being suspicious! Trying to hide evidence–” Norma began to defend herself.

Adam hit her in the back of the head.

“What the– Joseph-Gette–”

“If this is how you’ve treated Raz when we were all still suspicious of him, I hardly think that adding in the Grand Head’s daughter would have been a smart idea.”

Norma looked back down, gulping. 

But the tape wasn’t over yet…

“If I can just…” Raz got onto his Lev-ball as a new, blank board came into view. He jumped, keeping the Lev-ball in his hands and switched to his Lev-balloon to cover the extra distance he needed. “What is this all about?”

He looked up to see the full picture. Suspicions of his use of powers, links to Maligula, what happened with pulling Ford out of his ear, and the visits to Truman Zanotto. A message was posted near where a picture of a “Psilirium sick” Truman was tiny, but Raz approached it to read.

“Although it was true that he himself was not the mole, Razputin Aquato was doing the mole’s dirty work. No one would suspect the Grand Head, especially when suffering from ‘Psilirium sickness,’ and using someone to do his grunge work was smart. But I still found out about it. I knew that Razputin was suspicious! He and his whole family with the fake curse that they used to hide their hydrokinesis. Most likely to break their ties to their family lineage with Maligula.”

Raz shook his head and read something in parenthesis. “(Doing some deeper digging and asking both Augustus and Frazie questions, it turns out they were related to the Galochios on their Grandmother’s side. The last name Aquato came from Lazarus Aquato, Augustus’s father.)” Raz felt his hand reach to grip his heart.

They told Norma that? And not him ?? Raz looked back to the board, seeing the figure of Maligula tower over him. “Sh-she’s right…” He gulped loudly. “She’s right… I… I worked for the mole. I was being manipulated, I…”

Raz once again squeezed his eyes shut and the memory faded.

The VHS spat out a generic copy of a film noir movie, though Norma did recognize that Razputin remembered the face of the main character, even if his face was not on the original cover art of the movie.

“So… are we gonna acknowledge this mental breakdown that Raz may or may not have had in Norma’s mind that we never knew about or are we just gonna ignore it again?” Sam asked.

“We… are going to…” Hollis blinked trying to find the right words. “Junior A–”

“Norma.” Coach Oleander broke through the silence, staring right at the Junior Agent. “A word with you. Outside.”

Norma blinked, confused.

“NOW JUNIOR AGENT! ON THE DOUBLE!” Coach Oleander shouted. That got Norma’s legs finally moving.

She marched out of the Memory Morgue, Coach Oleander following behind her.

She stood straight, in the attention position, just like she had when first assigned Agent Nein as her mentor.

“Parade rest, soldier.” Coach Oleander told her.

Norma put her hands in front of her belly, head lowered and ankles apart.

There were a few moments before Coach muttered an “oh right,” and then said “at ease.”

Coach Oleander once again opened his mouth, only for a bull to come running out and knocking him down.

“Oh my gosh!” Norma gasped and then leaned down. “Agent Oleander?”

“I’m fine. I’m fine.” He grunted. “Though, we may want to find a quieter place around here, somewhere.”

“You’re not hurt right?”

“The animals may knock me down, but I’ve still got plenty of Mental Energy.” He waved his hand as if swatting away bugs that represented Norma’s concern.

The two ventured through the open meadow, still dealing with the guard dog and peacock that tried to get their way through Coach’s Mental shielding.

Norma had once been told by many of the Psychonauts that those who used shields were pathetic and weak. Agents would say “that’s why they don’t teach it to Junior Agents anymore. Who’d want to be a sitting duck?”

But for Coach Oleander, it seemed to be a natural go-to. As if using it had made him hardened and able to glare danger down with his one good eye. But if he was so good at shielding, why did he lose his eye in the first place?

Norma kept her teeth together against the inside of her bottom lip to keep from any words slipping out. Her thoughts were rampant and who knows if she could have said the wrong thing at any time?

Oleander came across what looked to be brambles, though looking closer there were little black berries in the bushes, and many holes that seemed to lead inside of it. “Just like the foxholes.” Oleander muttered as he began to climb his way inside.

Leaving Norma with no other option, she followed her Senior Agent inside.

The area was nice enough to say the least. Dry. Warm. The dirt wasn’t too dusty or too muddy. Nothing would end up on her clothes.

She sat next to Coach Oleander and he let out a deep breath.

“Norma, don’t take this the wrong way, but you remind me a lot of myself.”

Norma sat there for long moments, trying to make sure she didn’t say anything rash or harsh against her senior agent. She finally gave a nod.

“Back when I was… dealing with the pressure of being around… other, better people than myself, it was very hard. I always worked hard, trying to get to the top of everything. And I did. I was top of my classes.”

“Really?”

“Oh, sure. After my… my father taught me a valuable lesson about how to pull your weight, I did everything I could to do just that. Top grades, all the extracurriculars, all the sports, all the things you could think of? I did them. When I joined the army I… I did the same. And when the Psychonauts picked me up I felt that exact same pressure with my missions. I had to go it solo, be the one who got the glory. Ended up mucking a few of them when I didn’t communicate to my team.”

Norma blinked and opened her mouth, but Coach Oleander merely continued. She was on the side of his blind eye, after all. He probably couldn’t see her.

“When I didn’t, it was because I was jealous. There was one thing that I was never able to be. Tall. Couldn’t even… with the army… they had no uniform that fit me. I had no uniform I could show my papa or my mama. When I got into the Psychonauts, I wanted to have a few shiny medals on my uniform before I showed them.” Oleander let out a sigh. “But with the missions going south… My mother and father passed before I could show them.”

Norma clenched her eyes to prevent tears. “What does this have anything to do with me?”

“I’m saying I’m seeing the same paranoia, Natividad. I’m seeing the same person trying to stretch to goals. I don’t know if you’re trying to prove it to your parents, or to your sister, or to anyone, but I know when someone is trying to push themselves to be the best. And it’s difficult to not feel threatened when another is doing the same.”

Norma thought back to the things she knew about Razputin. Both from the tapes and from what she had seen. His shaking legs as he read his comics in the common room, or his insistence with his sister to train their abilities. Norma gulped and finally looked back to Coach Oleander.

“I was forced to apologize to him. I shouldn’t have had to! I was…” right all along…

She was right all along. That was what was on the tape.

“Natividad, I felt that I was right for hating Sasha and Milla because they never took me seriously.”

“…You hated them?” 

Oleander nodded. “I did. Superstar Agents coming in while other Agents didn’t want to work with the kids anymore. I wanted to make them pay. I think that was part of the reason I started picking on the kids more. Milla was someone they’d always rush to and Sasha was this… cool spy guy.”

Norma frowned. Part of what got her into the Psychonauts was seeing Agent Nein on a poster. But what had she seen about Oleander? Pamphlets. Pamphlets holding his words about “Whispering Rock.” No face to go with the name until she got into the program.

And by then… she had heard of his probation and found him carrying a mermaid’s tail into the Psychonauts HQ.

But now she was left with this other side of him. A boy who had the exact same goals as her, grown into a scarred man who was left with broken glass around his image.

And he was probably telling her this because… he didn’t want it to happen to someone else.

Oleander shrugged. “But what do I know? Raz seems to agree with you. Do you think that’s a good thing?” He finally turned to see her.

Norma mulled over her answer. “I… I would rather Agent Forsythe have agreed with me than Razputin.”

“Why’s that?”

Norma hated that warmth stung her eyes. “Because then I wouldn’t be in trouble.” She felt like she was a young girl, having accidentally lit a lamp cover on fire. That was her first time she had used her pyrokinesis. And the first time she’d ever gotten yelled at. Sat on the stairs while her sister was in her room, and her parents shouting at her about the dangers of fire.

Oleander patted her on the back. “You’re not in trouble Natividad.”

“How am I not in trouble?” Norma hated how thick her voice was sounding.

“You are currently dealing with some things biting you in the ass. But remember, as dangerous as regrets and doubts are, they’re also healthy .”

Norma sniffed and wiped her eyes. “Coach Oleander…” Norma tried to think of ways to continue the conversation, but she felt… more at peace now. “Thank you.”

The brambles were suddenly moved from on top of them, and the two turned their heads to look at the Imp that had once helped the Jackalope. “All that talk about not being in trouble?” She snarled. “You’re gonna be in trouble if you don’t leave!” She shouted, fireball at the ready.

“Easy. Easy.” Oleander told her. “We’re leaving.”

“Just because the Psychonauts let you off easy, doesn’t mean I will.” She growled.

Agent groaned and spat out some sand as he heard psi-blasts being fired off behind him. He shook his head and then his eyes widened. His uniform! It was ruined! Well, not ruined yet. He just needed to get it cleaned. Fast. He needed to look like an agent, not a little kid who was playing in the dirt!

It took him a bit to try to get up from the sand as he tried to run, merely kicking up sand and getting more in his joints on the ankles of his uniform. It hurt to move but all that mattered was just getting the sand off right now. He needed to get going anyways, pain could wait for later.

Dragging himself along through the war torn city, he could feel the fire building in his joints. It hurt like hell, but he had a reputation! Probably. Otto considered him on the same level, so he just had to tough it out. Yeah he tripped more times than he could count trying to get himself to his destination, but finally he made it!

It was one of the more… odd places in the area. It was like a little doll shop, but no dolls were sold. Only clothes. Clothes specifically made for him. So it was more of a clothing store than a doll shop. But it was VERY similar to a doll shop.

Agent once again tried to pull on the zipties and winced. He tugged on the clothing from under and tried to work his fingers underneath the ties. He grunted again and snorted. “Where’s a fucking paper towel?”

While Oleander was most likely reprimanding Norma, the rest of the Junior Agents were still sorting through the tapes to try to see if one could lift their mood.

“Okay, why does a ten-year-old have so much trauma?” Morris asked.

“Anti-psychic family will do that to you.” Lizzie nodded.

“And saving the world twice.” Sam mentioned.

“Plus intergenerational trauma from a family of immigrants leads to…” Adam trailed off as everything they knew about Raz hit them again.

“Do you think we’ve been too hard on him?” Gisu glanced to Agent Forsythe, who was currently bent over the VHS player.

When she didn’t respond, Lizzie once again pulled out another tape.

“Do we really have to?” Morris asked, his face scrunching up.

“Do you have a better idea for this? We’re in here with aggressive animals out there. One of these tapes should actually lead us to somewhere else in the mind, right?”

Adam shook his head. “Honestly Lizzie, we have no clue.”

“Neither do I.” She admitted. “But that construct told us to watch the tapes so…”

Her TK hand grabbed it and maneuvered around Agent Forsythe to put the tape in.

The tape opened with Raz hopping up some steps. He put his hands on a flickering control panel only to be slightly pushed off. Raz stood on his tippy toes to see the sight fully.

Kids around his age with blank stares and lolling heads.

“You’re the only one left, son.” Ford Cruller’s voice claimed. Raz turned to see Ford staring into the window of the holding cell. “Can’t even make a connection with Sasha or Milla right now for some reason…”

“Sasha said he had some official Psychonaut business…”

“Impossible. I would know if they did.” Ford turned to Raz. “Nope, something’s happened to them. Razputin, listen. You’re the only one who can stop Oleander now.”

“What about you?”

“I…I can’t leave this cave, Razputin.” Ford mulled over his next words carefully. “Not as the Ford Cruller you know.”

“What? Why?”

“Years ago, I was in a terrible psychic duel that left me barely alive.”

“Yeah, I read about that. They said that your psyche was shattered, that you lost your mind,”

Memories of seeing the Psychic Six dealing with Maligula flashed on screen, ending with Ford in the astrolaith, his mind shattering as the machine blasted him.

“but… you seem fine to me.”

“Yes,” Ford began to look above himself, “when I’m down here, near the Psitanium mother lode. The concentrated power of the Psitanium pulls my thoughts together, keeps me… like my old self.” Ford looked back to Raz. “But if I leave this sanctuary my psyche becomes disjointed, and I fall into one of my other personalities, with no memory of who I really am. I’d be no use to you, unless you want something raked… or mopped…”

Except for when I have bacon. Raz thought. Maybe bacon can help Agent Cruller also be his old self, too?

“Well, you can call headquarters and get help!”

“The Psychonauts won’t listen to me. They wrote me off as a loon years ago.”

Hollis sighed audibly as she felt another sting of guilt.

“That’s why Sasha and Milla have to take on all my missions. Headquarters doesn’t know I’m the one behind the assignments or they’d never get assigned. But Sasha and Milla seem to be out of commission now. YOU have to be my field agent, Razputin. Are you ready?”

I just wanted to LEARN. Raz’s mind protested. He shook his head. “No, not yet.”

A SMACK sound was heard. “How about now?” Ford asked.

The first snicker came from Gisu, trying to cover her mouth as the sound and nonchalance surprised her.

There was a gasp from Morris.

And a bit of a non-human choking noise from Adam.

“Dang it. Why are all of these tapes of bad memories?” Lizzie asked.

Sam shrugged. “What about the kiss he had–”

“THAT WAS WITH THE GRAND HEAD’S DAUGHTER!”

“Well, yeah, he and Lili are dating.” Sam reminded them.

“I don’t need to be reminded that the ten-year-old has a date before I do.” Morris said.

“WHAT ABOUT RAZ AND LILI!?” Hollis shouted.

Another SMACK was heard on the tape.

Agent flinched from the pain on his cheek, dropping the paper towels in the sink. “Shit!” He cursed as the paper towels were getting soaked by the water stream. “I did not need this many…” He pressed his fingers to his temples and tried to concentrate on the dripping paper towel roll. Feeling the droplets with his mind he tried to focus and separate them. It was… like telekinesis right? Or… or was hydrokinesis closer to another element like pyrokinesis?

Agent’s brows knitted together. He could do this. He could do this! He was supposed to be better at hydrokinesis by now! Right?

His eyes snapped open as water rushed out from all of the paper towels, splattering against the walls, floor, ceiling, and himself. “FUCK!” He cursed. He carefully tried to walk over the wet floors, not wanting to try to use his power again. 

Another pain came to his cheek as he took another step and Agent lost his footing, slipping and hitting his head against the sink. “God… dammit.” He groaned. He sat back up and now noticed the legs of his uniform were soaked. “God… fucking… fuck…”

Camper winced as he felt another sting to his cheek. Milla took notice of the noise and flinched and glanced down at him. The mark on his left cheek was noticeable, an almost singe was etched on his face in the shape of… a hand.

Milla looked back to Camper’s eyes, which closed as he flinched again and the singe mark got worse. “Camper? Darling?”

He put his hands up in front of his face, as if trying to hide.

“Sweetie?” Milla grabbed for his wrist again. 

“STOP!” Camper finally snapped, still covering his face. “It’s nothing. I’m fine. ”

“Camper, you’re getting hurt. Please, talk to us. We’re here to help you.”

“I shouldn’t need help. I was happy at camp.”

“Didn’t Elka say she was gunna sew a button to your brain?” Dogen asked.

“NO! CAUSE WE’RE FRIENDS! WE WERE ALL FRIENDS!”

Milla was about to try to talk again when Sasha spoke up. “Milla, Dogen Boole. I think I need a word with you both.”

Milla looked at Sasha and gestured back to Camper, who was still covering his face, but Sasha nodded. He knew full well of the situation. Milla sighed and walked over, Dogen following after like a duckling.

“Sasha, please tell me you have some solution.” Milla begged.

“That would be a lie, Milla.” Sasha admitted as he tugged his mental connection, making Lili sit back down.

“Sasha!” Lili snapped.

“Miss Zanotto.” He acknowledged.

Lili crossed her arms and legs, pouting a bit.

Sasha turned back to Milla. “Camper seems to have his defenses up too high. Control too tight–”

“Yes, I have noticed that, too darling.”

“Did you ever manage to get close to Razputin using your usual tactics, Milla?”

Milla seemed surprised at the question.

“It’s not that I don’t think that your usual tactics are horrible, but I don’t think they would make Razputin open up.”

Milla thought back to the times she was able to get through to Razputin and… came up with nothing. The most was when she was giving him energy in the Rhombus, and that was when he was near Lili, gushing about her to a rat and staying in a rat’s body to hear her coo and faun over it.

What did she know about the youngest Psychonaut that hadn’t been shown to her by others?

The truth was… next to nothing. He hadn’t been honest with her. “What about you, Sasha?”

Sasha seemed also at a loss. “Truth be told, he did come into my lab and used the Brain Tumbler, but Morceau’s mind was already intermixing with all the campers. Arguably, the only thing I knew was that he… he admitted to me that he was Romani.”

“Th-that’s it!?” Milla’s voice was a quiet shriek.

“That is all that he was willing to tell me. Other information I managed to get through mission reports that Hollis gave. That and… speaking to him about the casino mission.”

Milla was quiet for a moment as she used her mental link to tell Sasha the most I spoke about him with that mission was a threat. Oh Sasha… what if he’s afraid of me?

The only thing I think we can do that can tell us more about this mind is… watch from a distance.

…Just like at camp.

Just like at camp.

The tape repeated another slap. And the nervous laughter was starting to peter off as Raz’s winces became worse. And louder.

I’m not ready! I’m just a kid ! I just wanted to be a psychic! I wasn’t serious about being one today !

“Okay, I think I’m ready for this tape to be done!” Gisu shouted.

“I don’t know how to turn it off!” Hollis called back.

“There has to be something that we need to realize for this to stop, right?” Adam asked. “That was for the rest of the tapes.”

“Why don’t we just use the remote?” Morris asked.

“Like we know where a remote is!!!” Lizzie snapped.

“I know where it is.” Sam said, holding up a VHS Player remote.

“SAM!? YOU HAD THAT THE WHOLE TIME!?” Lizzie asked.

“Well, it was on this shelf the whole time.” Sam said, motioning to the shelfspace next to her.

“Why didn’t you tell us!?” Gisu shrieked.

“You didn’t ask.” Sam said, pressing the button to eject the VHS.

Hollis grabbed the tape and put it back in the box. “Okay… okay… okay… another memo to me - Talk to Ford Cruller about WHY Raz has a MEMORY of Ford SLAPPING HIM!”

“So… do we just keep going?” Morris held up a tape labeled “Nostra-dumbass.”

Lizzie leaned over with narrowed eyes. “What the fuck is a ‘Nostra-dumbass?’”

“Michel de Nostredame, usually said as Nostradamus in English, was an astrologer.” Adam began. He was also a psychic, trying to see the future in the stars, and selling his prophecies as well as see-glass–”

“Okay, so Pooter probably insulted someone and was so glad he used this insult that he saved it in his memory.” Lizzie concluded.

“Please let this be a happy memory.” Morris groaned.

The tape was accepted and sucked in. The Aquato family was featured and there was a collective sigh and brace for pain.

Dion ran off as the camera followed his running away.

“Help him out, would you Pootie?” The camera looked back to Donatella. “He’s had to take on so much extra work since you abandoned your family and broke our hearts. That’s a good boy.”

“Not that bad, he said.” Hollis huffed. “‘My family isn’t that bad,’ he said! LOOK AT WHAT WE’RE FUCKING DEALING WITH!”

Morris looked at Lizzie. “Yo, Hollis just cursed…”

“AND I’LL FUCKING DO IT AGAIN! I’M A GROWN WOMAN.”

The Junior Agents all took a step back.

On the tape, Raz ran over to Dion on his Lev-ball, and the moment he got close, Dion glared. “Don’t worry about helping out, squirt. We’re used to getting by without you.”

Lizzie snorted. “So that’s your poor little meow meow.” She looked at Gisu who refused to make eye contact with Lizzie.

Raz cleared his throat. “Mom told me you needed help.”

“With what? Reading crystal balls? Beat it, Nostra-dumbass!”

Everyone except Hollis. Turned their heads. Slowly. To stare. At Gisu.

“That’s your poor little meow meow?”

“HE’S NOT MY ‘POOR LITTLE MEOW MEOW!” Gisu shouted.

“He really is a poor little meow meow.” Sam nodded.

“BUT HE’S NOT MY ‘POOR LITTLE MEOW MEOW!” 

“But you want him to be.” Morris claimed.

“THAT WAS JUST NORMA TALKING!” 

“And you deflected.” Adam recalled. “You didn’t deny it.”

“I HATE IT HERE!”

“…too many secrets. We’ll be better when they’re all out.” Raz claimed.

“We’ll be better off when YOU’RE out !”

“Dion–” Raz’s voice hitched and he turned away. “Bye, Dion.”

The room was filled with silence, then Lizzie turned back to Gisu. “GISU’S POOR LITTLE MEOW MEOW, EVERYONE!”

Norma panted as her back pressed against the Memory Morgue’s outside walls. Oleander panted as he finally caught up and wheezed out something.

“AND STAY AWAY FROM HIM!” Imp shouted, another fireball hitting nearby.

Norma and Oleander finally let out breaths of relief. Norma finally looked on and her stomach dropped. “Agent Oleander… we’re in a graveyard…”

Oleander looked on, seeing graves of names of the patients from Thorny Towers. “Oh geez. I forgot about these people…” Oleander sighed.

“You knew them?”

“Well… kind of. I was… crazy back then–”

“You mean this was the place you took kidnapped children!?”

“Again, I was crazy. And they all wandered back to the camp shores safely.” 

“ Wandered!? ” 

“Hey, I was crazy . I didn’t know what else to do!”

Norma dragged her hand down her face as the conversation ran in circles. “Okay, so what about these guys?”

“I dunno. I only really interacted with Boyd and Crispin.”

Norma looked back at the graves reading the names. “Boyd Cooper.” “Gloria von Gouten.” “Fred Bonaparte.” “Edgar Teglee.” “Crispin Whytehead.” “Sheegore.”

She steeled herself. “We need to get back into that Morgue. Now.”

Chapter Text

Augustus was clambering onto the stage and hugging his kids tightly with relief.

Queepie squeaked like a kitten, trying to wriggle out of his dad’s grasp. “Dad, you’re gonna kill me better than those zombies tried to!”

Augustus let go of them both as Mirtala glared at Queepie, still holding onto her dad. “Queepie, you can’t say that!”

“I just did!”

Mirtala blew a raspberry at her little brother, and he matched it with his own.

Dion and Frazie looked to their mom, thinking that she’d intervene, but she was staring up. Up at their poor middle child.

“Mom?” Dion asked.

“Do you know where that other zombie is?” Dona said, seemingly unaware that her children had said something, but still answering. In her voice, her children could tell she already had a plan.

“You mean… the one of Nona?” Frazie questioned.

“Yes. If you don’t know, I need you to find her.”

“What about you?”

Donatella’s eyes narrowed. “I’m going to save my patatino.” She finally looked away from the zombies to her husband. “Gus.” 

Augustus looked up in surprise. The only time she would shorten his name was when there was something important to get out. Something that couldn’t wait.

“I need you to find that dreadful creature that stole his torso. I will go and get our son’s head back on his shoulders.”

Augustus nodded and got off of the stage. “Frazie, Dion. Keep your younger siblings safe–”

“Dad, we’re not gonna have you fight her on your own!” Mirtala shouted.

“Yeah, pops…” Dion stood up. “We saw how much damage Nona could cause. And with Raz seeing…” Dion trailed off as he remembered the other zombies that had just existed.

Augustus sighed. “Alright. But if any of you are close to being hurt enough that you leave, I need you to get out of danger as soon as possible.”

The children nodded, and the rest of the Aquatos set off to fight the last remaining creatures keeping the little zombie Raz hostage.

Fighting a Bad Mood on its own was one thing. Sometimes one-on-one fights with it were better than group fights. It was only able to be fought one way, and multiple people trying to use clairvoyance on one person or enemy led to headaches and clashing thoughts. Teaming up with Personal demons was an entirely more awful thing that also caused grievances. Only a select few of the Psychic Seven could use Clairvoyance, but it had been so long that they needed to stay still, and concentrate. 

And trying to concentrate while little bombs that cried like babies and exploded when near you did not help.

Otto gave another Psi-pop to Cassie as he helped her back up, and the two ran away from another one of the Bad Mood’s attack.

“Christ, if I’d known one of these were in here, I would have practiced this beforehand.” Helmut managed.

“Can’t change the past, Helmut.” Compton told him and then fired off a tangerine colored psi-blast at another set of personal demons. “Focus on what you can do now!”

It was Ford who finally managed to get the Bad Mood to reveal its weak point. Its arms came against the top of its head as it let out sounds similar to the personal demons. The weak point was right by the rest of the emotional baggage.

Otto was closest, so he set to work. His Psi-core necklace glowed with a minty blue, its power wrapping around Otto’s fist as he bashed the cage open. A metallic noise was heard and Otto shook out his fist as if recovering from a sting. 

“Are you okay?” Bob asked.

“Ah, I’ve dealt worse with my inventions.” Otto answered as the Bad Mood turned heart shaped and exploded.

A sound similar to a seat belt unbuckling was heard behind Otto. And suddenly there were splashes into the water.

Lucy covered her mouth and ran to the beach’s shore, and the rest of the group followed her worriedly, only to see what she was staring at.

The baggage was falling back down into the water, with hands dragging them down quicker if they floated for even a few seconds.

“Oh no…” Cassie whispered. “We… We need to find Agent.”

“We do?” Ford asked, raising an eyebrow.

“We need to make sure we break this to him gently .” Cassie said. “If an archetype loses its purpose, especially one that appears to be in charge like Agent is, who knows what dangerous other archetype could take over.”

Norma and Oleander came back in as Morris picked up another tape. “‘Hey Mom’… Yeah, I don’t need to see another bad memory…”

“Any big updates?” Oleander asked.

“I need to give a lecture to Ford, as well.” Hollis answered.

Oleander sighed and brought out the notepad again.

Adam dug around for another tape and thought he found a simple one. “Alright. This one has Raz meeting the different campers.”

“Really?” Gisu asked.

“I mean it’s literally saying that on the tape.” Adam claimed, showing it to Gisu. 

“Huh. I’ll be darned.” Gisu yoinked the tape from Adam and put it in. “Hopeful–”

“DON’T JINX IT!” Morris shouted.

Norma stood next to Lizzie, exchanging a look with her. 

Raz stretched and got down from the bunk on top of Dogen’s. He was still in his clothes from last night, so he was already dressed for the day. “You excited, Dogen?”

Sam smiled, ready to see her brother.

Dogen seemed just as excited as Raz, smiling and happy that he made a friend.

Sam suddenly frowned, flinching a bit. “That’s… not my brother.” She claimed. She picked up the remote and paused the VHS tape. “My brother doesn’t like getting excited. At all. He’s very mellow, just like his big sister.”

Gisu raised an eyebrow. “What about the squirrel?”

“Oh we have problems with squirrels is all.”

“ That’s all?”

“Yup!” Sam said as the tape rewinded.

Raz was fidgeting at the top of his bed, hearing the cheers of some of the campers outside as they headed to Basic Braining. Milla told him that he wasn’t allowed to participate in the “paranormal training.” “But being psychic is normal for me.” Raz grumbled to himself. 

That gave him an idea. “Hey… being psychic is normal for me! I was born with it! Meaning…” He jumped out of the bunk and after the other campers. “Basic Braining, here I come!”

“Hey Raz, hurry up!” Raz watched three people run past him and towards the wooden ramp of the Coach’s Lookout tower. “You don’t want to be late for Coach’s class!”

“Woo-hoo!” Someone else called as a fourth person lagged behind. “Basic Braining is the best class ever!”

He ran outside, seeing Dogen surrounded by squirrels who were chattering at him. 

Raz glanced back around the cabins and noticed a kid who was lurking around the cabins. Raz squinted and began to walk back, seeing him use an acorn for… something. “Hey Nails!”

Oleander let out a snrk . “Nails?”

“Ah yes, real name ‘Nails.’” Morris nodded.

“A parent must have loved him a lot to name him ‘Nails.’” Lizzie agreed.

“Hey Raz.” The somewhat smudged memory of a kid greeted back.

“Whatcha doing?”

“Oh, I’m just practicing my Clairvoyance!”

“Wow! They teach that here?”

“Of course they do! We’re training for a spy organization, and it’s a useful power!”

Oleander shook his head. “No, that kid does not want to be part of the Psychonauts.” Oleander sighed. “He’s only using his power to be a peeping tom. Every time I catch him I make him do push-ups, but he never seems to learn.”

“H-he what?” Adam asked.

“Yeah.”

“But I thought you’d only accept pre-pubescent kids there?” Norma brought up.

“Yeah.”

“We are not worrying about that child right now.” Hollis reminded them all as the tape player rewinded.

“You know, a nutcracker might be faster.”

“Tonight, when this baby is full of fine ladies, I’m going to see everything .”

“How are you going to fill that nut with ladies?”

“Other way around, buddy.” Gisu blurted.

“GISU.” Norma glared.

“Listen, you gave Raz nightmares, I don’t have to answer you.”

“Yeah, you only answer to your poor little meow meow.” Lizzie claimed.

Camper watched the group talk to one another at a distance, and he took a little walk around to be with his friends. Exchanging pleasantries and reflecting on how cool the Psychonauts are. He could practically picture where everyone was going to go and be good at. All their psychic abilities used to their full potential in the organization. And how much fun they would have. All together! As friends!

He was looking around for another friend that he had wanted to talk to, and started to feel… kind of bad? Prickly, even.

He glanced up, and his marbled green eyes spotted Nails– Nils? Nails? Nils? Nils. Nils . His name was Nils.

Spotted Nils walking towards the group. Towards Lili.

The prickling began again, all along his shoulders and upper back. “N-no Camper, c’mon! Nails is a friend!” He reminded himself.

His name was Nils.

Camper winced and looked back up towards where Nils was going to. To Lili. 

Nils was talking to Lili. 

The prickling got worse. An inner fire in Camper’s belly and hand burned.

All at once he was there, with the group. His arms wrapped around Lili and tugged her up, quickly snapping the mental connection that Sasha was keeping on her. He glared at Nils’s face. “Get. Away. From My. Girlfriend.”

“Woah, woah, I was just telling her–” Nils’s voice was almost dripping with slime.

Camper stamped a bit, still holding Lili. “Back. Off.”

Sure enough, the construct did so, strutting over to another wooden doll. 

Camper immediately felt regret. How could he do that to his friend? They were all friends here! He was supposed to be nice!

“Uh… Raz?” Lili asked.

Camper let out a little “Hm?” And then realized he was still holding his girlfriend a few inches off of the ground. “Ah! Uhm! I-I’m sorry!” Camper whimpered.

Raz approached two kids as they were trying to decide on a band name. “Whispering Rockers!” Raz cheered.

“What?” One asked.

“That’s my band name idea!”

The two kids looked at him, and began to nod. “Yeah, yeah! That’s a good name, Raz! Thanks!”

Oleander rolled his eyes. “As if those kids would even… they’ve been on that debate for three years. And they’re not gonna stop until they just don’t have a band.”

The tape rewinded again, back to the kids looking at Raz.

“Hey, why aren’t you guys at Coach Oleander’s class?”

“Are you kidding?” The girl asked. “A kid got killed in that class last year!”

“I heard it was a bunch of kids, Phoebe!” The boy corrected.

“Well I heard it was a bunch of blind kids. And the coach threw them off a cliff.”

“Yeah, because they were late for class!”

Some of the Junior Agents side-eyed Coach Oleander.

“Oh come on! This is playground rumors! Blatant slander!”

Camper smelled smoke as he was panicking about holding his girlfriend and in a flash, he was suddenly near but not at the Campfire circle. Fionna and Q-Bert…

Phoebe and Quentin were nearby, with Phoebe hitting her drums hard and embers starting to occur.

“What are you doing!?” He shrieked, making the girl in his arms wince.

“We’re rockin’ out!” Quentin cheered. 

Phoebe nodded, and then went right back to playing, her drumset wobbling on the uneven ground.

“You need to stop!” Camper insisted. “You might cause a forest friar!”

Quentin and Phoebe began to laugh. “A forest friar ?” Camper felt himself begin to get worked up. Breathing heavily and his arms felt like lead and he wanted to run but his legs felt like jelly.

“HEY!” Lili shouted, now finally free of Camper’s grasp. “You better get someplace else or I’ll burn your equipment, how about that?”

“Jeez. Fine Lili.” Quentin got his stuff. 

“You used to be cool.” Phoebe sneered at both of them.

Camper let out another whimper, and tried to scrub at his eyes. 

Lili walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, it’s fine now.”

Camper hiccupped. “We’re supposed to be friends. I yelled at them.”

“They made fun of you. They don’t deserve to be your friend.” She patted him again, and Camper wrapped his arms around her. Lili reciprocated, at first just putting her arms around him, then tightened the embrace as she glanced around, seeing no one else.

Augustus had lead the way around the maze like big tent, following only their mental instincts and coming across a few enemies. They kept burning the goo creatures and blasting the creatures with weights, but mentally, the family felt exhausted. All the raw mental energy enemies dropped immediately sank through the floor, unless one of the Aquatos had been under one of the creatures with weights.

Augustus raised a hand as they reached what looked to be the end of a hall that led to a big room. Glancing inside, he could see the zombie version of Nona, tearing out a long thread from the little Raz torso and using it to sew something new.

“Okay.” Augustus stared at his children with pleading eyes. “I have… no plan . But… we’re going to do this.”

Frazie smiled, mustering up enough of her old self to give a confidence boost. “Isn’t that the Aquato way?”

“For Raz?” Queepie asked, raising his hand high.

The family put their hands in, smiling. “For Raz!”

Augustus took the lead, his kids following behind like ducklings. Or an army.

As they burst into the room, loud as always, there was a deep laugh. “Trying to interrupt me I see?” The Zombie Nona looked up with an unexpected mouth full of teeth. “It wont be that easy!” Her skin was deep purple, unlike the rest of the zombies, and her eyes were like that of a snakes.

The voice and look made Augustus freeze for a second, before his face hardened as he was about to charge in. But he felt something weighting him down. With a quick glance to his feet, he saw an odd purple sludge, and behind him he could see Frazie setting a glob like monster on fire. As Augustus dodged out of the way of a weight being dropped, Dion threw Queepie up at the weird bug thing to commit acts of violence. 

“Give me back my SON!” The dad yelled, tackling Maligunona out of her shitty rocking chair. The two were in a weird somersault, ending as they were slammed into the wall. The woman screeched, the torso of the zombie Razputin flying off somewhere to be found later. The kids seemed to be trying to keep the other enemies away, knowing that this was something Augustus Needed to do. 

Frazie grabbed out one of the enemy’s weapon, a large hammer maybe seen at the “test your strength games.” And then she clocked the creature on its head.

Augustus let out a practical roar. “This is for not just Razputin, but Marona too!”

Augustus let out a flurry of punches and kicks, not giving two SHITS if his kids saw this. He even heard a cheer from Mirtala! Even as Maligunona fought back with claws or even trying to call upon snakes to latch onto his arms, Augustus wasn't feeling it. Pure adrenaline was pulsing through his mental projection, No fancy psychic tricks or anything. Just pure hand to hand combat, beating up the mental construct of a woman who took so much from Augustus and his family. 

With one final crack of his fists, the construct let out a blood curdling screech, disolving into that gross raw mental energy…

No words were said, but Mirtala had something to give her papa. She found Raz’s plush torso, and pulled out the string to put back in him. She held it up to Augustus, him giving her a small smile and taking it

“Good job, kids.”

Camper was sitting down as he kept control over his breathing. Lili sat next to him with her legs folded to the side as the others arrived.

“There you are, darlings.” Milla said with relief. “Camper, are you–”

“I’m sorry for wandering off, Agent Vodello.” He mumbled. 

“No darling, I’m just wondering if you’re feeling okay…”

Camper frowned, then nodded.

Liar. A voice hissed. Not that anyone else but him could hear it. But his breath hitched still. It was there. In the safe space. No. No. No no no no no! It couldn’t be! That’s why Warden hadn’t come back yet. Warden was dealing with it. Warden would keep him safe. As long as Warden was there. Everything was fine, right? You keep telling yourself that.

Camper shook and suddenly found himself stumbling. All around him, the woods were dark, and he was alone.

The Psychic Seven had vastly underestimated how big the city was. Without following Agent around, they realized that plenty of spaces and stores in the city were really off, yet big.

Food stores filled with only one thing that was either ridiculously expensive with three dollar signs near them, or only one dollar signs with them.

Clothing stores filled with one outfit that Razputin may have worn, or seen other people wear, like lab coats that were paired with the same clothes Sasha Nein wore.

Weirder still, any store selling water was locked, and only peering inside would some be able to see the answers. Most of their sight had been starting to fail for the Psychic Seven, but Helmut tried to direct them away from the flooded stores that had a door ajar in the back, with a swollen purple hand reaching from the back. Sometimes it held a protest sign.

They began to split apart, looking for Agent and calling for him.

Otto and Cassie were the first two to split off, going up stairs that led to another part of the “shopping district.” Around there, they saw a construct of Gisu Neruman, still going around on her levboard and seemingly water was being moved. But when Otto and Cassie moved, they were completely dry.

“Gisu?” Otto asked.

The construct stopped and stared at Otto. Her bright cape looked like it had been left in the elements a few too many times, sun bleached and washed out as she stared blankly. “Oh, did Raz get that thing done yet?”

“Thing?”

“Yeah, I asked him to take care of it.” Gisu sighed. “Oh, did he cry while it happened? I bet he did.”

Cassie shook her head. “Can you explain it to us?”

“Can it, old lady. I need to get back to my math.” Gisu then got back on her skateboard and rode off. 

Cassie and Otto began to walk after her, but someone from the shadows stepped out. “And who are you ?” a construct resembling Norma Natividad asked, holding her magnifying glass up to them. “You look like you’re trying to be Otto Mentallis and Cassie O Peia.”

“We’re not trying… we are. ” Cassie corrected.

“A likely story. He was supposed to inform me about everyone coming in today. But he hasn’t shown up with the report.”

“He?” Otto asked.

“You’re allowed to know that much of him. But I won’t say anything else. I can’t let you anywhere beyond this point. Leave!”

Cassie looked at Otto and asked, “is she always this prickly?”

Otto shrugged. “Sasha was her mentor, not me.”

“Yeah, he remembers her as being that prickly.” Someone else answered.

Cassie and Otto looked to the other side of themselves and saw Sam Boole. Or maybe it was a construct of Sam, they didn’t know. She was a bit funny like that. “How are you today, Sammy?” Cassie asked.

Sam stayed silent and that confirmed it. A construct. 

“Sam, is something going on?”

“Plenty things going on. Plenty things going wrong.” Sam nodded. “Agent is scared that he will come back.”

“He?” Otto asked. “The same he that Norma was talking about?”

“Oh no. Norma would never do that willingly. Not any of us would. Well… maybe.”

“Maybe?” Cassie repeated.

“ He ’s been talking with Agent. Camper, too.” Sam nodded, a grave look on her face. “Who knows. Maybe when he sees the damage… he’ll listen.”

Compton and Helmut seemed to have a little more of a pleasant time. Sure, there was another earworm, but it was hanging out next to a construct of someone that Compton recognized to be Morris Martinez. Someone who ran a pirate radio station, which Helmut approved of. And hey, listening to that song was better than listening to the previous earworm.

Unfortunately, another construct couldn’t agree with that. 

“Turn that down !” A Lizzie construct shouted, throwing something at Morris, who only made a bounce pad for the thing to hit.

“Fiery today, aren’t we Ms. Lizzie?” Compton asked.

“I thought your sister was supposed to be the fire one.” Helmut quipped.

Lizzie let out a pfft . “My sister is constantly trying to stay calm. Her fire’s more accurate that way, she says.”

“Constantly trying?” Helmut prodded.

“She’s practically paranoid.” The Lizzie construct shrugged.

“Hey now.” A new construct came out of a shop, holding groceries, “don’t you use words like that.”

Lizzie glared at the Adam construct and shook her head. “Whatever.”

In another part of the city, Bob, Ford, and Lucy had much better luck. Call it what you will, parental instincts, psychic detection, but Lucy kept making deliberate turns as Bob and Ford called for the young man.

She walked into a clothing store, which looked like the devil had raised a fit in it. “Oh, Pootie…” She crooned as Agent tried to stand up, pants still soaking wet.

His face moved like he sniffled, but he made no sound. “Nona…”

Milla put her hands to her temples as Camper teleported away again. 

Sasha put his hands on her shoulders, gently reminding her to breathe so she could calm down. “We just need to track him down again. He seems to only stay in the area of the camp, and it is much smaller than Whispering Rock. It will be okay.”

Lili frowned and looked up at Milla. 

Dogen tugged on Sasha’s pant leg. “Uncle Sasha, if… if you’re gonna stay in camp, can I stay with you?”

Sasha exhaled and then nodded. “Yes, I’ll walk with you around the camp and we will find the construct together.” Milla, keep an eye on Lili.  

Milla nodded and waited until the boys left. 

“So, we’re gonna check the dark part of the woods, right?”

Milla nodded, feeling something very wrong about where the little one was. Raz’s mind was a pendulum swinging. It was only a matter of time before it swung too far in one direction…

The two girls head out to the part of the dome that Dogen and Lili had broken and walked into the much darker woods. Lili instinctively reached her hand out, then glanced at Milla and balked.

“It is alright, sweetie. Keep it bright, but small.”

Lili extended her arm again, a tiny flame coming out and revealing more shapes of the trees in the mind. “It’s really quiet…” She muttered.

“They aren’t talking to you?”

“No… not even a warning…” Lili gulped.

The two moved forwards, around the dome until they came to a clearing. But this wasn’t the one with Oatmeal. It had a stump. A hollowed out stump.

Milla jumped up on her levitation ball. “Ready, Miss Zanotto?”

She wasn’t sure what they were going to find in Ford’s sanctuary, but hopefully… it was something that would give them the boost they needed to help this part of Raz.

The two jumped down and landed straight into Ford’s sanctuary. But this was no sanctuary.

“ Guys? Where are you going!? Don’t leave me!! ” “ We’d be better off without you. ” “ HELP! HELP! ” 

Multiple voices that were distinct. Some were even only sounds of destruction like explosions or water gurgling.

Lili suppressed a shiver and grabbed onto Milla’s hand. “Oh…” Milla looked down to the different nightmares barely held back by fiery bars. “He… took this from me…”

Camper suddenly dropped down behind them, and looked as pale as a wooden construct could. “No! No no no! You shouldn’t be here!”

“Razputin.” Milla began gently as she and Lili turned to Camper. “Is there any way we can help–”

“I DON’T NEED IT! I SHOULDN’T NEED IT! THE ONLY ONE WHO COULD HELP ME IS MYSELF!”

As Donatella climbed and flipped her way upward, all she could feel was burning motherly rage. She was so… she was so mad at herself! Literally and figuratively, for letting her son be this afraid of her and also being mad at the fake copy of her. She could feel the twisted twin of herself glaring down.

Donatella lifted herself up onto the small platform, glaring at the zombie in front of her. “Now we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Choose.”

The zombie Dona rolled her eyes, letting out a scoff. “ You think it will be that easy? ”

The real Donatella shrugged, rolling her shoulders as she prepared for a fight. She may not have looked it, but she was well muscled. “Your loss.”

Simple, but effective. The other Donatella glared, as the real woman began to sprint over. The fact that she could do so on a tightrope was already so impressive, but the zombie didn't care. Thus began a chase, with the two Donatellas swinging from trapezes and running over tightropes. 

Finally, Donatella cornered her counterpart at the very topmost platform… this would be a dangerous thing to do, but Donatella was death defying . 

“I’ll ask only once more. Give me back patatino now.”

She saw the boys button eyes shine for a second, mouth opening a bit. The crying had stopped for a second, before the zombie Donas fist shook him around, making him flinch.

“ Over my. Double. Dead. Body! ”

The fight began, with swipes and dodges from both sides. Donatella was landing some good kicks, toes pointed like that of a ballet dancer as the zombie was beaten up. Dona wasn’t without injury though.

Her counterpart’s claws were sharp and she wasn’t afraid to play dirty tricks, trying to slash at her eyes! Shoves and elbows that almost knocked the woman off the platform were thrown at her, testing her almost. “ And you call yourself an acrobat? Almost as pitiful as this thing you call a son! ”

“ Don’t you TALK ABOUT HIM LIKE THAT! ” Dona’s face grew enraged, even the Zombie counterpart looking a bit terrified as she barreled over arms outstretched. Donatella’s inertia sent her into her other self, taking them both over the edge.

“ You IDIOT!! You’ll just die WITH ME! ”

“Maybe I will!! But then my Son would be free of YOU!” The mother growled, able to fumble the child’s head out of her counterpart’s hand. Suddenly, she felt a force, and was no longer falling… It looked like a glowing orange net, the zombie dangling by the ropes. Was this…

She glanced down at her little Razputins head, his face scrunched tight with concentration

“ Oh, Patatino… ” She murmured, sending a glare down at the zombie trying to claw her way back up. “This one’s for you, okay?” She gave a smile to her son, before sending a hard kick onto the zombie's face.

The other Donatella screeched, falling down through the tent and ending with a gross splat . 

“We’re going to get you patched up, okay Pootie?”

“ Okay, Mama… ”

Norma started to pace impatiently as Coach fixed the warped memory. “Finally.” She groaned. “Listen, I think what we’re doing in here is not helping whatsoever.”

Adam raised an eyebrow.

“Look, the construct led us to here but aside from a few unnaturally found warps , what have we been doing?”

“Watching his memories.” Gisu answered.

“ Exactly . Most minds would have us interact with ways or ideas the mind works. But we’ve just been sitting in a place, gathering dust like dead people.” Norma paced again. “Agent Oleander, I know we had that discussion but something just… isn’t right in this mind. The Jackalope only said ‘he wasn’t the Raz pretending here.’ So maybe we’ve just been stuck in here without being able to really help Raz in other ways. We’ve only found two warps out of how many tapes ?”

Norma’s words seemed to resonate with the rest of the group. Oleander and Lizzie nodded.

“Yeah, that bunny Raz wanting cuddles when he’s normally first to run into danger is another thing.”

“Another suspicious thing.” Norma reminded them.

“Well, what are your plans?” Morris raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, how exactly are you gonna get through all those animals when they’re all mean?”

“We need to split up and distract them. As well as the Imp and Fairy. I’ll deal with the Jackalope.”

Sasha had gotten Milla’s distress soon after it occurred. Sasha looked down to Dogen. “Mr. Boole, would you prefer to be carried?”

“Are you gonna give me uppies?” Dogen asked, outstretching his arms.

Sasha gently grabbed Dogen with a, “yes.” He grabbed up the child and began to sprint to where he felt Milla. Her distress hadn’t been this great since… since… Flashes of nightmares passed by and Sasha let out a curse in german as he nearly got tripped up. No. The nightmares were here. Trying to claw their way into Raz’s conscious mind. He ran even closer to where he sensed Milla, and jumped into the stump.

The five were now in the “sanctuary” with the Nightmares pushing and shoving the floor, causing separation between them all. 

“Razputin, I know it’s hard, but these nightmares shouldn’t be trapped like this!”

“THIS WAS WHAT YOUR MIND WAS LIKE!!” Camper shouted. He covered his mouth as if he said a swear and crumbled to his knees.

“Oh no…Razputin…” It seemed that Raz had tried the same method of Milla’s trapping of nightmares, but he had no experience with it. It wasn’t an area where the Nightmares could roam and seemingly they had all been caged, instead of the area that Milla had.

Nightmares were part of a mind, they were healthy even if they were scary. But these Nightmares were not given the needs of what she was able to cultivate over years. All Razputin had seen was the basic structure that was a cage for the children to stay in, rather than the individual cages that Razputin had created for each individual creature. If he made too many cages, eventually the bars would grow too weak and the nightmares would want to escape.

“Yes, my nightmares. Your nightmares need a different–” The floor rumbled again and Lili clutched onto Milla’s leg. “Your nightmares are yours , they need a different, more personal trap.”

“We… we already tried that!!”

“Darling, please just listen–”

“NO!” Camper cried. A Censor door came open, and Warden popped out again.

“NO!” The Heavy Censor announced and rushed forwards.

Milla jumped up and summoned a Lev-ball that she sent back down to the ground, stunning Warden with it.

“STOP! STOP IT!”

Milla and Warden both looked to Camper and Warden ran over to check over Camper. He grabbed Camper and the two jumped through the Censor door, leaving the group behind.

Milla shook her head with worry and summoned Levitation around her and Lili as well as Sasha and Dogen.

Donatella clutched the little one’s head close to her heart. Her fingernails combed through where his scalp had been clutched to soothe any pain. Even if he was only a doll, he was her son. He was hurt. And she knew this comforted him.

“Dona!” She heard her Auggy shout. He was running to her, clutching most of the body that was now intact.

Donatella gave a kiss to her Pootie’s forehead. “Let’s get you patched up now, mio fidelio .” The arms now attached to the body reached for his mother and she cradled him fully. “I’ll hold him steady and you sew him up.” She was facing Augustus, but Dion had the needle and thread. She looked to him and smiled as he finished up the patch job on the arm before moving to the little plush’s neck.

As they sewed him together as a family, wires and tar met en masse at the entrance of the tent.

Jackalope’s ears squeaked as he heard the shouts of the Agents. “Finally leaving? Took them long enough to find that tape.”

Imp’s tail lashed as her hand rested above his key. “I’m going to go investigate.”

“Hmm?”

“They’re running around, not running through.”

Jackalope smiled at her. “Always the protective one, mmm Impi?”

Imp nuzzled him. “I’ll be back soon, I promise.” With that, she left.

Jackalope jumped back into the brambles, hoping to see Fae there, but he was gone. Jackalope strained his ear for his friend, and overheard both his voice and his sister. Jackalope settled uneasily, only for someone to suddenly reach in. Smoke filled the air as he was dragged out by his ears. 

“Ow ow! Hey! Easy on the merchandise!” He growled.

Norma stared down her nose at the unnatural creature. “Listen bud, I don’t know what your game is, but you better start explaining.”

Jackalope opened his mouth, but two more people soon caught up to Norma, having outrun some of the animals.

“Oleander’s doing a good job on his own.” Lizzie informed Norma. “The others should be able to get here soon.” 

Adam stood up to his full height. “You sure you should be holding ‘im like that?”

“Don’t bother.” Jackalope snarled. “You want answers?”

“I think I’m entitled to them.”

“Fine then, miss detective. If you must know, I knew that Oleander was with your group. The only tapes I thought you were gonna pull were the ones that affected Camper. He’s been playing pretend long enough that it’s hurting Raz. All you needed to do was fix that tape, then all of you leave. Raz could have handled the rest himself.”

“ What ?” Norma growled as the rest of the group showed up.

“So you found a few more tapes than expected. You just know a little more about Raz now. Congrats! You feel bad! I accept payment in apologies and you all leaving so we can process.”

“I don’t understand…”

“I got you here. You guys came here. So I had you do a little job to help the brain. That’s what Psychonauts do. Now that you’ve seen more, I expect apologies for that and for you to leave . It’s simple.”

Norma glared. “You know what you little runt ?” She jostled the rabbit and began to walk towards the entrance. “I had a very enlightening talk about paranoia today. I had to sit down and think over a lot of things. You on the other hand haven’t been trying to engage with the world. I bet if anything… you’re something of a person who gives tests.”

Jackalope began to thrash in Norma’s grip as he disagreed, repeating “no” over and over again like a censor.

“Oh yeah. Yeah yeah yeah. Look now mister, we’ve been sent in here to learn about the mind and it’s all kinds of messed up. So you’re going to show us this other ‘Raz who’s pretending,’ got it?”

“No. No I can’t go out there, no!” Jackalope’s key began to twist with rusted and squeaky tick-tick-tick-tick s

“What the hell are you talking about!? This is your mind. This is your realm, right?”

“That thing is gonna come back! Lemme go!” Jackalope swiped at Norma’s arms, but the young woman hardly flinched.

They stepped closer and closer to the gate, the Junior and Senior Agents unsure of how to get involved as the two finally stepped over the threshold, and Jackalope let out a SCREAM .

Agent shivered as he held onto his Nona.

“Pootie? What is wrong?”

“I’m just… it’s… I’m fine.”

“You are not fine.” Lucrecia corrected.

“I will be .” Agent promised. He moved his ankle a bit and sighed with relief. 

“Your pants are soaked.” Lucy mentioned.

“Yeah. Uh… I’m not as good with hydro as I thought I would be, yet?”

“Hydro?” Bob asked.

Agent looked to Agent Zanotto and gulped. “Uh, yeah. I’ve been calling it that.”

He nodded with a smile. “Helmut calls it that too.”

“A-Agent Fullbear?”

“Yup, Helmut was always coming up with ways to say things easier. It really helps.” Ford added.

“I didn’t ask you.” Agent corrected, “I was talking to Agent Zanotto.” Agent’s hand subconsciously went to his face, where the slap still stung, but in the dark it wasn’t as seen. “Come on, we’ve wasted enough time already. Emotional baggage isn’t going to sort itself!” He began to march forwards, determined to get his job done finally . And maybe show off to his Nona about how cool the Psychonauts are. How she helped found this great organization and was finally getting the recognition she deserved.

“Ah, Pootie!” Nona called and had to keep a much quicker pace than she was usually comfortable with to try to keep up.

“Yeah, Raz!” Bob began to walk beside Lucy, followed by Ford on her other side.

“Don’t worry Nona, it’s a super easy but fun job!” Agent reassured, loud enough so that others could hear.

They were coming back from their split off points, so seeing and hearing Agent talk about an “easy but fun job” made them realize he probably didn’t even know what was going on about them.

“Oh, erm, Agent, maybe we should slow down a bit?” Cassie asked.

“No way Ford, we’ve been lollygagging for far too long. We need to get some actual work done!”

“Yes, but maybe take a moment to listen to us?” Otto insisted.

“I’ve already had enough of your advice, Ford.”

“Raz…” Compton tried.

“No, Ford.”

“Razputin–” Helmut began.

“Be quiet, Ford.”

“Raz.” Bob gently said.

“Shut up, Ford.”

“RAZPUTIN!” Ford shouted.

“Shut the fuck up, Ford!” Agent snapped, still trying to be excited about the emotional baggage. “Oh, they’re adorable when they get their tags, Nona.” Agent continued. “They do these little song and dances and they look so happily at their tags. And using Clairvoyance, they see me as a little bellhop boy!”

“Yes, but Pootie–”

“Oh man, you’re gonna love–” Agent’s eyes widened as he saw the damage. The wall of baggage was much lower, with his buckles snapped and baggage strewn along the walkway. 

“Agent,” Cassie reached her hand towards him. “We were trying to–”

Agent ran over to the edge of the pier. No longer was there a guard rail to lean on. Baggage sunk deep into the depths. Agent stared down into the Emocean as he felt panic seep into his joints. His work, his goal, his everything. Gone…

Fall. his voice commanded.

Agent turned around, giving a blank stare to the Psychic Seven, before opening his arms and letting his upper weight drag him down into the depths, where a construct made of the Emotional Baggage swallowed him up.

The construct breached up in front of the group as a SCREAM rang through the mind.

Camper huffed and tried to control his breathing as Warden kept a hand on the small of the construct’s back.

Warden looked up as the others appeared again and got into a fighting position. “NO.” He growled.

Camper pawed aimlessly, as if trying to grip onto something to hold close to him.

“Razputin, do you remember what we spoke about? With control?” Sasha asked.

Camper sucked in a breath and gulped. “Warden, please don’t hurt them.”

“NO.”

Camper tensed but did nothing as two party horns blared and two familiar constructs appeared. Clerm and Chloe watched blankly from beside Camper as Warden wound up for an attack.

Sasha stood his ground, staring at the Emotional Repressor that was this construct. Even still, it was a heavy Censor. They could be dealt with easily.

Sasha fired only three shots against the creation before its body parts scattered and its mental energy sunk back into the mind.

Camper finally looked up, eyes looking blue with possible wispy tears. His mouth was wide open, but the SCREAM was too far away to be his.

As soon as the last stitch was done on Zombie, he reached over to his father. Augustus grabbed him from Dona and gave him a tight squeeze. “You’re alright now, son.” 

Queepie had wandered a bit while the quiet sewing had occurred. While he was happy that they were helping Raz, it was boring. He found himself coming up to the calliope his sister played, and was about to scramble up to play it when the instrument fell backwards and started to be dragged by a mass of green and dark gray. 

Queepie ran back to his family, realizing that something was still alive in here and they were gonna have to deal with it to make sure Raz got through. “Mom? Dad?” Queepie asked.

“What is it, Quantavius?” Donatella asked.

“We got a big thing.”

“Big thing?” Dion repeated.

“I think we gotta fight it.”

The family looked at each other, then back to the little plush Raz who tightened his grip on Augustus. “They’re never gonna let me go… Please don’t let me go…”

Augustus squeezed him again. “We’ll keep you safe.” He promised.

The family moved carefully, stealthily, almost as well as the spies their middle child loved so much. They needed to get a full scope of what they were dealing with. As they got closer to the entrance they saw the lumbering masse of a chimerized family they had just killed.

“Oh come on!” Dion, Frazie, and Donatella all faux cursed.

“ Little one… ” The creature’s voice was twisted, even worse than the regular zombies. Mostly, it was Dona’s voice, with Maligunona underlying and hints of the other family members pushing through. “ You won’t run away from us again. We know you’re near…with your fake family. That loving family… don’t you know it’s a lie? The moment you stop being what they want, they’ll toss you away. ”

“How are they even still alive?” Dion asked, his voice barely able to be heard.

A crash was heard nearby and the poor plush Raz couldn’t help but yelp and begin to cry.

“ We. Are. DEATH DEFYING! ” The chimera construct shouted. A SCREAM rang through the mind and the Aquatos tensed their shoulders, ready to fight.

Chapter Text

Zombie trembled in Augustus’s arms and tried to squirm out of them. “We need to go! We need to run!” He whimpered.

Augustus held onto him tighter. “I won’t let them hurt you again.”

Zombie shivered and sobbed into his father’s chest.

The rest of the Aquatos nodded to each other in silent understanding and got ready to jump out as the creature lumbered towards them.

Zombie’s breaths hitched and he finally let out a wail. The boxes covering the Aquatos were cleared as the creature honed in on the little traitor. 

“ There you are. ”

A notepad appeared, identifying the creature.

“fig. Aquato Family

“notes: Horrifying and Death-Defying!”

The monstrosity reached one of its arms, which turned out to be made of mostly Zombie Frazie trying to reach for Zombie.

Zombie pushed his legs with all his might, dislodging himself from Augustus and began to run away with a terrified shriek. One that the Aquatos would only hear when Raz was falling and water was involved.

The rest of the family followed close behind, though they were more concerned about protecting the little zombie rather than the amassed flesh of the Zombie Aquatos catching them.

Zombie immediately began to climb up a set of ropes that looked more like it belonged on a ship rather than a circus. With every step he took, Zombie was whimpering and worrying. He was terrified of the family catching him up and tearing him apart again… 

As he got to the first part of the course he was used to running, he let out a hiccup. Doubts and other, more humanoid creatures looking similar, started to form and lurch their way towards Zombie. He stepped back, only to feel the edge of the platform with his right heel. He opened his arms out to keep balance and he hiccupped again. This was it. This was the end–

Augustus grabbed him by placing his arms under Zombie’s armpits and lifted him up high. Higher than the circus platform he was on, and it almost felt more stable.

“Frazie?” Augustus asked.

“On it, papa!” Frazie leapt past her father, pressing her fingers to her temple and lighting up Doubts one at a time, making the path a touch clearer.

Zombie watched from his father’s shoulders, hesitantly raising his own fingers just a few inches away from his temples.

The rest of the family rushed past, also making the path easier as Judges formed, ready to smack the Zombie right off his father’s shoulders, only to be met with his other family members. Queepie and Mirtala were using their own powers, while Dion and Dona had charged the judge, in a tug of war match with it and its gavel.

“Little runaway! ” A chorus of corrupted voices shouted as the rope audibly creaked with the weight of the creature as it clawed its way up.

Zombie felt as if he was suddenly off balance. Like he was going to fall. To sink back into it.

“Little brother!” The Frazie Zombie shouted while reaching to swipe at him.

Augustus ducked, and Zombie formed into a ball, tumbling forwards into Augustus’s arms.

His teary button eyes looked up at his father.

Augustus gave him a kiss on the forehead, making Zombie feel a warm sensation fill and comfort him. “Dona!” Augustus shouted.

Dona turned from watching Dion swing the Gavel back at the Judge, knocking it down to the floor below.

Augustus threw Zombie up into the air and he kept in a silent whimper as he curled into the fetal position.

The creature let out a shout and tried to rush past Augustus to get to his son. Augustus shoved his elbow where the sun didn’t shine and the creature squealed and stumbled, falling back off of the platform.

It groaned at the bottom, but Augustus saw a teeming swarm of the tar-like creatures with orange eyes. A thing that set them off from some of the others were the fact it looked like grey horns were sprouting out of the tops of them.

Augustus ran over to the rest of the family, Frazie following. “It’s stacking itself up again. We need to get to higher ground!”

The family looked around to the places they had used to get up to fight their zombie doubles, but it seemed the circus itself was rapidly decaying as well as that monster. Tightropes snapped, broken trapezes, and more meat hooks gleamed at the top.

“How can we even…” Dion’s breath was ragged from dealing with that thing, let alone trying to think of a plan.

“The Devil’s Firehose!” Mirtala’s voice pipped up.

The family all looked to her.

“It gets us up high, and instead of having someone stay on the bottom, we can be lifted up high from one of those!” She pointed back up to one of the swaying hooks.

“Mirtala, that’s brilliant!” Zombie said in what sounded more like ten-year-old Raz’s voice. “But… but…” Zombie’s pitch went higher again as he looked back down to the blob of limbs and faces growling.

“ Mentalists… ” it hissed.

Dona tilted his head to look back at her. “I’ll keep you safe, my patitino.”

Zombie held onto his mother tightly, trying to keep from crying. 

“Don’t you have to be near the bottom, mama?” Mirtala pointed out.

Dona pried Zombie’s arms off of her, and he hiccupped. “No tears now. It’s showtime. And we’re going to have fun, okay?” She began to stretch her arms out towards Dion. “You trust your brother to hold you?”

Zombie reached his arms out to Dion, who met him half-way. He clutched to Dion like a lifeline.

He’s still small, mom… Dion mouthed.

I know. Dona told him.

“Queepie!” Dona called. They could almost hear their own circus music in the air as it began.

Dona went next, being thrown by Augustus and placing a hand on top of her youngest’s head.

Augustus backflipped, standing on his wife’s one flat foot. 

Dion set Zombie down. “You know what to do, yeah?”

“Mhmm.” Zombie whimpered.

Dion took a running start, followed by Frazie cartwheeling to get momentum.

The two jumped up, with Frazie landing her head on Dion’s own.

Mirtala nudged Zombie and the rest of the family nearly staggered. That’s right. Part of the routine was–

Zombie prepped his hands and Mirtala jumped, getting shoved upwards by his strength.

“Now, Razputin, up top you go!” Donatella told him.

Zombie nodded, smiling almost confidently. He stepped onto Queepie’s head, silently apologizing and grabbing his own mother’s arm. He began to climb up like a spiraling tower, but as he got to his dad’s right shoulder, he moved to grab his dad’s wrists. His legs dangled and shook as he fought to make one of his hands let go and continue gripping and spiraling up until he was at the top.

His hands grabbed Mirtala’s and his legs hooked around the hook.

Dona began to pass up Queepie, allowing him to also clamber up the long family pile. As he got to Zombie, he grabbed a bit at his hair to get a good grip up, before jumping over to the next highest platform.

Dona went up next, climbing over her children and giving a kiss to Zombie’s forehead before reaching the next platform.

This was quickly followed by Augustus who kissed him where Queepie had tugged on his hair.

Dion climbing up next had a bit of a pause, looking down to his baby brother before looking back at Zombie. “You’re doing great, Raz.” He told him.

Zombie seemed to brighten further, and only seemed to get a bigger smile as Frazie came up and told him, “Good job, Raz!”

Mirtala was the last one to clamber up Zombie’s body. She was about to join the rest of her family when she heard the disgusting mixed voice grunts of effort coming from the stitched together family. They had finally gotten back up onto the platform they were just on.

Zombie was frozen in fear.

“Raz? Raz come on!” Mirtala reached out, toes on the platform as she leaned her whole body out to try to grab her brother. Her eyes darted back to the monstrosity, which swung its sibling arms towards Zombie.

Mirtala finally grabbed his right knee and tugged . He came off of the hook and Mirtala was surprised at how light he was. Like, even Raz when he wasn’t slacking he weighed more than this.

“ GET BACK HERE, BRAT! ” the gross creature shouted, though Mirtala heard more of Frazie in that.

Mirtala set Zombie down as one of the “family’s” “arms” grabbed onto the hook. 

“Okay, it’s just the tightrope. We do this a lot. Remember?”

Zombie hiccupped but steeled himself. “We can do this…” He stepped out onto the rope looking down to the enemy laden floor. 

“Eyes on the rope Raz, not the floor!” Mirtala reminded.

“Eyes… eyes on… eyes on…”

“ Forget it! He’s too stupid for it! ” The creature snarled as it heaved itself up.

“WILL YOU SHUT UP!?” Mirtala snapped.

Dona and Augustus’s eyes snapped to her, looked back to each other, and both shrugged.

“We got to move quick, Raz!” Mirtala reminded. She went behind him, slightly pushing on his lower back. “Remember the basics of this! You’re the expert with the tightrope!”

Zombie took in a deep breath as he spread out his arms, and began to move as fast as he could run on the tightrope, Mirtala clinging and keeping up with her brother.

“ You can’t outrun us! ”

“WATCH US!” Mirtala shouted again.

The two got to the end and looked back, seeing that the creature probably couldn’t follow, but the gap with the tightropes already had the enemies at the bottom that seemed to be getting bigger. And closer.

Zombie panted and became frozen.

Mirtala looked back and then looked to see Frazie. “Raz, it’s okay, just jump to me!”

But he couldn’t. Not on his own…

Mirtala lifted Zombie over her head, remembering her time as “The World’s Strongest Baby” before Queepie stole that title and threw Zombie to Frazie’s waiting hands.

The older sister grabbed him by his own hands and smiled down. “You okay, Raz?”

Zombie looked up and smiled. “A little better now–”

“ HURRY IT UP! ” The goopy family shouted downwards, making Zombie flinch.

They were already getting on the move. Just a bit impatient and making Zombie’s anxiety worse. Which made the monsters multiply.

Frazie only had to take a look between Dion on the other trapeze to realize what needed to be done. “Raz. I’m going to let go of you.”

Zombie’s breath hitched as he looked back up at Frazie. He shook his head wildly.

“Raz, I need to let go of you but–”

“Please don’t!”

“I promise you, Dion’s gonna catch you.”

Zombie panted, but soon his eyes widened and he nodded. Frazie got to the climax of the upswing and released Zombie, who let go of his sister. He felt his arms outstretched again as he took to the sky. Felt like the spotlight was on him. Like the world was watching but… he felt more comfortable with this. Cause… cause his family was here.

He grabbed onto Dion’s hands and felt Dion and him immediately slip into the routine they always did. A handspring while another did a cartwheel into their little floor routine. 

Dona would have been clapping had it not been the fact the creature had already gotten onto the same platform as her little girl.

But instead of going after her, like it had been going after her patatino, it avoided Mirtala. It still only had eyes for its Quarry. The creature moved to look like it was on all fours, resembling a frog. The family’s limbs bent in ways the bodies should not have, even for someone who was a skilled contortionist.

It let out a shriek and jumped over the pit of the trapezes, forgoing the enemies helping it up.

Dona and Augustus shared a look, trying to figure this creature out. It had ample time to attack Mirtala, but it refused. It only had eyes for Zombie. Unlike when it was trying to defend its prey, it was in a hunting mode now. And it was only hunting for one prey.

And the only one who was in the way–

“ DION! ” Augustus shouted.

Dion looked back (a mistake he only realized when) and he was hit to the side by the Frazie arm.

“Dion!” Zombie cried out, trying to rush over to his brother.

The Dion arm thing grabbed Zombie by the leg with one hand, and pushed him to the ground with the other.

Dion (the real Dion) rushed over as Zombie cried and got hit multiple times by the zombie creature of himself.

“ Ingrate! ” The zombie Dona head shouted.

“ Just grab him! ” The zombie Augustus barked.

“ Don’t let him forget. ” Maligunona droned.

Dion threw himself between the mental version of himself and his brother. “Stop it!” Dion shouted. “You’re hurting him!”

The creature swung its Dion “arm” towards him over its head, the mental version leering down at them. “ Please. Punching bags were made to get hit. ”

Dion’s breath hitched and he froze for a moment, giving the other “Dion” ample time to deliver an uppercut to him, knocking him off of Zombie.

“ He’s nothing but a weakling. ”

Zombie stood up with a glare. “I’m. Not. WEAK!” He did something that surprised everyone. Running towards the creature. He then made an incomplete cartwheel into a backflip with a twist and sent a full force punch to the Zombie Dion’s jaw, knocking it out of place. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Zombie sniffled.

Dion patted Zombie on the shoulder. “C’mon before it gets up. Let’s go.”

Zombie nodded, and followed his brother down towards the last stretch of the course.

Dion picked up his baby brother, getting to the edge. “Mom and dad are waiting, you ready?”

Zombie nodded and Dion smiled back. 

“Like a ball now!”

Zombie curled up and Dion jumped up, pressing all of his force into one hand, throwing the little guy up into the air.

The Family let out a screech and fumbled after, falling over the platform after Zombie. However, they didn’t have the same force behind themselves and began to plummet. Ending up in another SPLAT on the ground.

Dona crouched down to let Augustus onto her shoulders, and he caught the boy with ease. “We need to move, now!” He ordered the rest of the family.

They began to land down properly as the tar below tried to put itself together once again, moving more like a blob than the near human shape it tried to be.

“Move, now!” Donatella pushed her babies forward, Frazie picking up Queepie and Mirtala. Dion kept close to his mom, glancing back as she pushed her hand against his back. 

And the brightness of the mind nearly blinded them as they returned.

The Aquato Family Construct let out a horrid scream, as they saw the last of the real Aquatos dart out of the tent. They had failed.

…But on the bright side, they’d finally be with His Majesty again

The Family saved the Freak. They shuddered as they fell apart and into the drain that led deeper down. Soon to be one with his majesty. 

Zombie clung onto Augustus’s back letting out a few pathetic noises.

Dona put a hand on his back and Zombie flinched. “My patatino…”

Zombie looked back with his tearful button eyes. “Momma?”

“Don’t worry. We won’t let them hurt you anymore.”

Zombie smiled, lips still kind of wobbling, but the reassurance was clear. The family finally stepped back onto the Rhombus, seeing the other groups coming back… with other Razputins as well.

Except for the group with the Junior Agents, who had what looked to be a rabbit in a bird carrier.

The group staggered as Camper’s body began to stretch horribly. Creaks like a tree in a storm mixed with his screaming as the other two constructs seemed to cheer him on, creating staffs and coating him in a green aura, making him invulnerable as he transformed. This seemed to be the opposite of what Camper wanted, as he tried desperately to tear off the new bark that formed over his body and through his face. The camp clothes and fake helmet were dropped as the creature replacing the Raz took its place.

A notepad appeared.

“fig. Raz-Ent-Ment

“notes: He’s not over it.”

Similarly, the two campers transformed as well, showing off their forms of enablers. “Make an Exit, Push them through! You have to do what’s best for you!”

“Please, Raz!” Lili pushed. “We’re just trying to help yooooooo–” She and Dogen were suddenly sucked out of the brain like someone was forcefully used smelling salts on them. Left behind were only two stray thoughts.

Milla and Sasha tried to press forwards towards the creature, only for Raz-Ent-Ment to start winding up an attack with one of its tree branches. It let out a scream-like roar as it swat towards Milla, only for Sasha to jump in and take the blow.

The blow was hard enough to launch Sasha back into the main camp area and through a fake cabin.

Sasha groaned from the pain that was draining his mental energy. In the fake cabin, he could make out different camper names, like Nils, Mikhail, Dogen and OH SHIT– Wait, that wasn’t a–

A sudden train noise filled Sasha’s senses as a Funicular car crashed through the front of the cabin, then seemingly bounced over Sasha as it took out the roof and suddenly was swallowed up by the ground.

Sasha stood up, now seeing the other vacant puppets with emerging enemies.

Bad Ideas were forming around the musically inclined campers, while Regrets were coming from around J.T. and his friend. Sasha recognized him mostly from the fact that J.T. used to be the top marksman in the Psychonauts Camping Program. He supposed he still was, considering Razputin graduated from being a camper–

A Bad Idea shot a lightbulb at him, which Sasha shot in mid-air. Right, he should keep his head focused on the task at hand.

Milla was still dealing the creature, but she was trying to get a safe distance away from Raz-Ent-Ment’s attacks to just… try to get a better grasp of the situation. “Razputin, please, I know that you’re hurt–”

She dove out of the way from a clod of dirt being thrown at her, which exploded into smaller chunks, but also had garbage like torn doodle pages and ripped up dolls.

“Razputin, it’s alright. I’m here for–”

Another dirt ball was thrown.

“Throw it like food, just like those orphans. And we’ll be sure to release those endorphins!” The Enablers cheered.

Milla stopped in her tracks as she heard that . Did… Did Razputin really…

Raz-Ent-Ment paused, looking to the Enablers for approval before taking up an even bigger chunk of dirt. He aimed it at Milla and she had to focus all of her energy on one ability she rarely used.

Feeling the psychic energy wash over her, she sneakily darted away from the impact, and now watched Raz-Ent-Ment from behind a dead tree. 

The Enablers were still dancing around him, but… they didn’t cover him with their green protective energy like they do with most allies. Odd.

Raz-Ent-Ment began to make noises that sounded similar to a child winding up to cry. Though… much more echoes in it as it frantically looked around for her. “Me… Mee…. Milla….”

Milla flinched as it sounded so close to those nightmares she had.

“Milla…?” It once again looked at the enablers, who were starting to gang up on him.

“You better do what we say! Or else you won’t live to see another day!”

“Me… Me… Milla!!!” It cried out. It began to grab at itself, ripping off bark and tearing at itself as it tried to outrun the Enablers who merely kept skipping and chanting the same things over and over to him.

It began to run into trees. “Me… Milla! Sasha?” It ran into the tree that Milla was hiding behind, forcing her out of hiding. 

“Razputin. Razputin it’s okay–”

“There she is, kill the witch. Go ahead and scratch that itch!”

It let out a loud cry as it slammed its claw down onto Milla, pinning her to the ground and taking a good chunk of her mental health out of it.

“Me… Me… Me…” 

“Kill the Bitch! Scratch that Itch! Kill the Bitch! Scratch that Itch!”

“MEEEEE!” Raz-Ent-Ment staggered and lashed at itself.

Milla sprinted away from the situation to try to get to Sasha, but found herself far away from the crack in the dome. 

The only things keeping it up were the Enablers. Normally, she would let others fight these things, but she was angry enough to simply start creating spiked thought bubbles and fire them at the creatures.

Because they were mostly focusing on the dome, they couldn’t protect themselves from getting destroyed by Milla’s thought bubbles. She flinched at the thought that came to her, but silently wished that Lili was here. It may have been hard for the girl to see her dear friend like this, but Lili’s fire would get the Enablers off and running from the dome. Perhaps that was what she needed to do. Destroying the fake dome and letting that darkness that Raz tried to keep out in. 

A sort of acceptance with it? As the cracks formed bigger and chipped, Milla could see daylight start to fade, becoming sunset. As that occurred, the lights flickering from the dome dotted the ceiling… like stars.

Meanwhile, in the camp, Sasha was having trouble with the light change as he fired Psi-blast after Psi-blast to the enemies that began to gang up on him. A strangely high amount for someone so young.

Lili and Dogen stumbled back onto their bottoms from the force of being shoved out of the mind. Lili looked around for anyone or thing that dare mess with the delicate operation that the agents (and children) were working through, but found no one.

“Raz?” Dogen tapped his friend’s face. “Wake up. I don’t like this.”

“Neither of us like this Dogen!” Lili snapped. She was looking around the others, who had similar looks of distress on their faces.

“Time to wake up…time to wake up!” Dogen continued, trying to shake Raz. He hoped that knocking his friend out of the Psi-Door induced trance would help get everyone out. “Can you hear me?”

“Try opening the door again!” Lili told him as she jumped down towards him. She forgot to get a thought bubble underneath her, so she may have slipped and may or may not get a bruise later, but bruises would have to be dealt with later.

Dogen tapped the door with his finger.

“Turning the knob, Dogen!” Lili urged, taking it over herself. She couldn’t turn it, as it felt locked and she simply got more aggressive.

“Wake up Raz…I don’t like this…” Dogen mumbled.

“Dogen, can you try turning it?”

“Why can’t Raz just wake up!?”

A shelf of books suddenly exploded, making paper fly everywhere.

Lili began to calm her breathing. “Okay it’s just. We’re both worried about Raz, yeah?”

“I’m worried about him.” Dogen said. “He’s gone through… a lot.”

Lili nodded. “And–and the way he helped people with that was through going into their minds. It’s what all Psychonauts do.”

“But… but we’re not Psychonauts.”

“Not yet . But we’ve trained for this. If adults can do this and send us into their minds to learn powers, we can do that to help out Raz. Especially cause he’s important to both of us.”

Dogen nodded. “We’re–we’re gonna help him.”

“Of course. But we need to get back into his head in order to do so. So let’s try turning the knob together okay?”

Dogen put his hand on top of Lili’s. “Okay…”

The two put their hands on the knob and began to try to turn it again.

The dome soon came crumbling down, much to the cries of Raz-Ent-Ment. 

But Milla and Sasha could see each other again.

Milla rushed over to him, holding her partner before he could process everything. 

Then it hit Sasha. Milla was crying. The Enablers were protecting each other, not the creature. And whatever Razputin… Camper turned himself into… he hated. He was tearing at himself in ways which mirrored… They would need to discuss this with Razputin in the physical world, but only after they dealt with the monstrosities of this mind.

The sky was starlit with clouds that looked like agonized faces on the horizon, not unlike the face of Raz-Ent-Ment itself.

It suddenly dug its limbs into the floor, and Sasha and Milla suddenly couldn’t move from their spot. It shivered and shook as another TK hand grabbed up a clod of dirt to throw…

Only for suddenly the door at the ceiling of the mind opened up again and down fell two figures.

Raz-Ent-Ment’s attention was suddenly called to wherever the figures fell.

The clod of dirt barely missed Milla, but it hit and nearly knocked down Sasha if not for the roots still attached to him.

Raz-Ent-Ment began to take his limbs out of the dirt. Trying to figure out exactly what it was. 

Instinctively, Sasha blasted to damage the beast and it shouted out in pain.

His cry sounded so similar to Camper’s protests towards Warden…

Out from the brush, Dogen and Lili had returned! And Lili looked ready to fight.

Raz-Ent-Ment began to back up from them. Almost fearful. No, fearful wasn’t the right term. Fearful was more so reserved for others seeing something they were afraid of. Raz-Ent-Ment’s body language wasn’t showing fear of seeing them… but them seeing him.

The Enablers twirled their batons, and began a cheer. “Come on gang, let’s do this together! When we’re a team, we can get through any weather!” The once only one enemy puppets suddenly had mental enemies pouring out of them, along with a black ick substance that clashed even against the Doubts and Panic Attacks that began to form.

Raz-Ent-Ment began to run around the area, blinding speeds rivaling the teleporting Panic Attacks as the group collectively did what little damage they could to those hard hitting enemies. Not all of them had Time Bubble, and even the one who did have the ability hadn’t even hit double digits in age.

Lili surrounded herself with flames as she focused on trying to get close enough to Raz-Ent-Ment to try to use her phytokinesis to hold him and help calm him down.

But he was still running and suddenly jumped up high into the air.

“Raz!” Lili protested as he landed across the area.

He creaked and began to grab up more clods of dirt. He threw them towards those in his mind and they all tried to dodge, convening back with each other in the middle of monsters.

“We can’t get him on our own. We need a plan.” Milla said.

Sasha immediately took to being in charge. “Lili, use your pyrokinesis on the Enablers and any other enemies you can get to. Milla, I’ll keep an eye on the kids, you try to reach out to Razputin and get him to detransform.”

Milla nodded and began to run towards the monster, taking care of any enemies that got in her way.

“But what if- what if he CAN’T detransform?!” Dogen was getting increasingly more anxious, clinging onto one of Sasha’s pant legs.

Sasha’s look was one that Lili was familiar with. One that was trying to deny, but couldn’t. Something that she had seen only in meetings when her father had asked him questions about… “accidents” on missions.

“We… you won’t, right?”

“We’ll do our best to help him.” Sasha promised.

“We will help him.”

“We… can’t say for sure.”

“We have to!” Lili insisted.

Dogen covered his ears as he heard the argument escalate until– The sound of lightning hitting a tree sounded. Followed by a screech of pain.

“Razputin!” Milla shouted.

From the limb that fell off, there appeared to be an orangey… gooey substance in the tree.

“A weak point!” Lili identified. “Sasha?”

Sasha didn’t even need to be told as he fired. 

But the next scream sounded closer to Raz than the creature they were fighting.

“Don’t hurt him!!!” Dogen squeaked, deathgrip on Sasha. “We- we need to get rid of the tree!!”

Lili tilted her head, giving Dogen a look. “How exactly would we–”

“I–I know I blow up a lot and it usually makes things worse, but this time my explosion was good! It was a good thing! It’s helping him!”

Lili and Sasha exchanged a look, almost not believing the young Boole.

“I… I know you guys don’t believe me, but don’t you at least trust me?”

Lili nodded immediately. “Of course I do, it’s just–”

“So trust me on this!”

Sasha opened his mouth to protest, but Lili relented. “Fine. We’ll get the enemies off of you. You get to Milla, quick.”

Lili began to run towards the two Enablers that were constantly putting up shields on the harder hitting enemies, and let the fire grow. 

Bursts of flames led the Enablers to run around in a panic. 

Raz-Ent-Ment groaned in a sad manner, and lunged towards the floor, once again sinking the roots down and letting them grab the other Psychonauts in the area.

Lili began to try to focus on using what little phytokinesis she learned from her Uncle Bob… but started to hear even worse things…

Raz-Ent-Ment’s stray thoughts were all kept inside of that tree… in such a way that–

Lili screamed from pain, keeping her heels of her palms on her temples as she tried to refocus. It felt like a vice on her head.

Another explosion occurred, and the entangled roots turned to twigs as Raz-Ent-Ment came back up.

The limbs had been broken off, still stuck in the ground, and revealing more of the orange goo inside of the tree.

Enemies began to fall apart as the Enablers kept getting set on fire by Lili, and Sasha blasted them easily with his Psi-blast. 

Milla was keeping Raz-Ent-Ment still and calmly approaching him. 

“Razputin? Razputin can you hear me?”

The tree creaked in response and the limb showed itself again. It looked more like a hand, trying to wave and flail to get someone’s attention. “Agent…?”

Milla paused. “Yes, Agent Vodello is here… as is Agent Nein.”

“Agent…” The limb went limp and began to retract.

“No, Raz, please. We’re here to help you, we promise.”

“I want Agent!”

“I–I don’t–”

“Miss Milla?” Dogen’s voice was suddenly behind her.

“Oh, yes Dogen?”

“I can… I can help.”

The limb fully retracted as Dogen shuffled forwards. He clenched his eyes tight as the tree began to crack and creak more. He was shaking and clenching his fists as the noises sounded more and more.

“D-Dogen I don’t think–” Another crack sounded and Milla panicked. “GET DOWN!”

She pushed the child out of the way as thousands of splinters exploded away from the orange goo.

“Milla, are you alright!?” Sasha asked, slightly panicked.

“I’m fine. Dogen, are you safe?”

“Mhmm.” He got up and began to inch forwards.

Before the four was now a little orange humanoid, who was desperately wiping at its eyes as it sobbed.

Dogen was the closest and put his hand on it. The thing looked at Dogen's face, fat tears still rolling down. “Camper?”

Camper sniveled and nodded.

“That?” Lili asked, pointing.

Camper seemed to look ashamed and began to move his head between his knees.

“No! No no no I didn’t mean that as a bad thing!” She moved next to Dogen, putting a hand on him. “It’s just surprising to see this… all of you.”

Camper sniffled. “I’m sorry.”

“No need to feel that way. No need to feel sorry.” Lili told him.

“Really?” 

“Of course.” She gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Huh…”

“What?”

“I thought you’d taste like Orange Creamsicle.”

Camper sniffed again, this time more tears falling.

“Oh, come here, darling” Milla told him gently as she picked him up. He didn’t fight her, but he did scramble a bit.

He opted to put his arms around her shoulders and swing around to being on her back… before letting his legs hang in the air. 

“Are you sure you can travel like that?” Sasha asked.

“I’ve done it plenty of times with Warden.” Camper answered.

Sasha looked towards the other two children, though it was clear to Lili he was looking away from Camper with that action.

Through the nightlit woods, the five traveled, keeping relative quiet, save for their feet and some whispers between Dogen and Lili about “how cool was that” and “do you think TPT might publish something like this?”

Camper’s eyes lit up as they made their way to the black rhombus, seeing the other groups with their own Raz constructs, he shot himself from Milla’s shoulders with a cheer. “AGENT!!!”

The Psychic Seven were left simply staring where Agent once stood, the breaching whale in front of them suddenly staying still in the air as a notepad appeared by it.

“fig. Weeping Whale

“notes: sings a requiem.”

The whale landed back into the water, spraying some onto the surprised group’s faces.

“What…in the actual… fuck .” Compton managed.

That finally got the group to snap out of whatever was going on… only to start panicking.

“POOTIE!”
“What the hell, little man!?”

“How long was he from snapping before we got here!?”

“Little guy’s in trouble and we have no way of helping!!!”

“I haven’t seen this in all my years of exploring minds–”

“EVERYONE CALM DOWN!” Ford shouted.

“We can’t exactly do that, Crully!” Lucrecia told him. “Not when My POOTIE IS UNDER THE WATER INSIDE OF A BEAST THAT ATE HIM!”

“Lucy, you can control water.” Otto pointed out.

“Oh sure! Let me just CONTROL THE ENTIRE OCEAN and FIND THAT WHALE and maybe just KINDLY ASK HIM TO GIVE ME MY GRANDSON BACK!”

“Isn’t he your Great Nephew?” Helmut asked.

“I know what I said.”

They heard the waves crash and the loud crying of emotional baggage as the whale breached again.

“OH NOW IT’S JUST TAUNTING ME!”

“Lucy!” Cassie grabbed her before the old woman could launch herself off of the pier like her grandson did.

“Okay, we need SOME way of getting out to that thing.” Otto sighed. “Has anyone seen any ships around?”

“Well, there might be some down by the docks…” Cassie concluded.

“May even have a launching bay?” Ford asked. “Before Razputin went into the Bathysphere, he did spend a lot of time with my Admiral personality.”

“Whoever made you admiral wasn’t thinking straight.” Otto told him.

“Otto, barely any of us think straight.” Bob said.

“Well, I hope that you can drive straight.”

“In that case, I’m not gonna be at the wheel.” Helmut informed the group.

“WHALE!” Lucy shouted.

“Right!” Compton clapped.

“Down to the docs, quick!” Cassie began to lead.

“Cassie, we can’t, we’re old .”

“As quick as you can, then! Besides, we’re in a mind!”

The seven made their way down to the docks, and Ford dashed through a small building. “Yup, knew it!”

The launching bay only had two buttons that really did anything, but plenty of levers and buttons that did nothing as well.

“Okay… Helmut, you have the mind closest to a ten-year-old boy, get in here!”

“I thought you were the admiral!”

“Do you think a ten-year-old would have the same knowledge of how a launch bay works as an admiral?”

“Alright, alright, sheesh.” Helmut came in and randomly pressed a button.

Suddenly, rocks removed themselves from a cliff face and let out a good sized ship. It was decorated with lighter colors, like white birch wood and checkered green and magenta sails.

“That is the ugliest ship I’ve ever seen.” Ford scoffed.

“Ford, you’ve been around drab, dark wood too often.” Helmut assured, patting his back.

“I mean, the name is even strange too! SS TPG… What even is that?”

“Ah, it’s something important to the kid.”

Ford went silent, paling.

“Ford, we need to work on your attitude.” Helmut told him as Ford put his head in his hands.

The rest of the group were setting up on getting onto the ship and Bob kept staring at the checkered sails. “Well Bobby, what do you think of it? Little guy’s got style when it comes to this, eh?” Helmut asked his husband.

“Actually, I think he got inspired by another’s sense of style with this.” Bob answered.

“Huh? …oh– OH! Oh, it’s that kind of ship!”

“I think so.”

Helmut smiled. “He’s a good one.”

“Yeah, she chose well.”

“Hey, does anyone know how to steer a ship?” Otto shouted across the deck.

“Hold your horses!” Ford called back.

“We don’t need to steer the ship!” Lucy told everyone as she got to the head of the ship. Below her, she noticed a statue that made her heart warm. “Oh, he’s so loving… Except to himself…” She said to herself. She spread her arms and the water began to move the boat towards the beast.

The whale itself was seemingly trying to dive deep, but could only stay up just below the surface. Each time it tried to dive it had to raise itself up above the water to slam itself back down, creating waves that Lucy was able to split apart and move.

As they got closer to the whale, the waves crashed against the ship, trying to keep it away. Lucy was determined though, pushing them forwards as the rest began to grab whatever they could on the ship to use against the beast.

Cassie and Ford were looking in what they thought would be the captain’s quarters, which was pretty accurate, save for the two twin sized beds that were on opposite ends of the room.

Helmut and Otto were on the lower decks, trying to see anything usable, only to find some kind of fancy food and a cake that resembled the one from Bob’s mind. “What is even this flavor?” Otto asked.

“All the flavors, Mentallis.” Helmut told him with a very pleased expression.

Bob and Compton were looking around cabinets, only for Compton to open a door and find a clattering of Harpoons falling onto the ground. Each of the blades on the harpoons were tied with mistletoe, as shown by the little white berries and leaves that were familiar in the new year decoration. “Oh yeah, these’ll work.” Bob declared, looking very smug about something.

The duo came back onto the deck, letting the harpoons fall back down onto the ground. “Cassie, we’ve got something!”

“I’m getting Helmut up here.” Bob let Cassie and Ford know before going silent.

“Bobby, you won’t believe what we found down there.” Helmut told him excitedly.

“What did you find?” Bob asked.

“We found weapons.” Compton pointed down to the sharp things on the ground.

Helmut whispered about the lower decks into Bob’s ear and Bob looked like his heart was melting. “He really has that?”

“Yeah.”

“My goodness, I think he has it worse than we do.”

“That’s hard to have, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re right.”

A purple TK hand grabbed one of the harpoons from the pile and shot it at the whale, stabbing it firmly in a Steamer Trunk that gushed out black tar from the wound.

“Appreciate the enthusiasm, Lucy,” Otto called. “But don’t we need to tie the ropes to the boat to track the thing?”

“The only thing it needs to do is cough up my grandson!” Lucy shouted.

“That is a fair assessment.” Helmut agreed.

“Still, let’s get these set up properly.” Cassie said, beginning to tie a rope around the end of the weapon.

Others did as well as Lucy kept an eye on the whale as it slowed. The tail of wailing emotional baggage suddenly hit the underside of the boat, forcing it to nearly go sideways.

TK hands were used grabbing the weapons to make sure they didn’t go overboard as the older psychics braced themselves on their Thought Bubbles.

The whale was beginning to charge away and circle the boat, now starting to get on the offensive. Its wailing was loud as it sounded like a foghorn mixed with a whale song. It charged the boat to hit its underside again.

Another harpoon flew and jammed into the beast, tearing apart a suitcase and letting a few of the others spill away from the creature.

Ford teleported them out of the way then jumped up off of the boat onto some baggage that was off of the beast.

“Crully, what are you doing!?” Lucrecia cried as the beast breached and nearly crushed Ford. It made a loud noise and Ford jumped on top of it. The baggage sure enough had a blowhole, and Ford jumped inside.

“FORD YOU IDIOT!” Otto shouted.

“What is the madman up to!?” Helmut cried.

They didn’t have time to worry as the whale began to drag their boat as it fought to dive again, and Lucy forced the water to keep pushing against it. But it wasn’t quite enough.

“Booley, do you think you can help Lucy?” Cassie asked.

Compton nodded. “I’ll certainly try.” He got up to where Lucy was as fast as his stubby legs could get him to go. Focusing his power, he let the waves that Lucy let hit the boat be an anchoring sound as he reached out to the animalistic construct. He could start to make out some voices in a coherent choir.

“ Walked out… left behind… don’t belong here… don’t belong anywhere… Why did you abandon me? ”

Compton balked with the control and the Whale’s tail once again thrashed and hit the front of the boat.

“Compton, you had it!” Lucy snapped.

“You didn’t hear what I heard!” Compton shot back.

“We’re all trying to help him, Lucrecia.” Otto told her, readying to throw a harpoon.

The whale still thrashed as other Harpoons hit it from Cassie and Helmut doing so, Bob doing his best to assist with any aim or any harpoons that may fall out of the creature with the mistletoe roots wrapping around buckles and ropes that once held the construct as a wall.

Otto fired, the harpoon going straight through a hole in the construct and spearing through it.

“Otto!” Lucy began.

“What?”

“You could have hit Ford!” Compton pointed out.

“We are in a mind! ” Otto reminded them.

“Sorry, we haven’t been in another person’s mind in twenty years! ” Helmut shouted.

“Well maybe you haven’t, but I–”

“Otto shut up and stop trying to kill our boyfriend!” Lucy snapped.

Otto blinked as Cassie, behind him grabbed another harpoon and threw it at the knots of rope holding the whale together.

The whale began to tense up and heave with smoke coming out of other areas.

“That doesn’t look good…” Otto groaned.

The whale began to drag the ship around as it dove and breached and dove. 

Lucy did her best to keep the rocking boat stable in the water as the group clung to the wooden rails. 

The whale tensed up and spat something out of its blowhole.

Agent and Ford both landed onto the boat, Agent landing smack on his back and groaning.

The Whale slammed itself onto the pavement of the dock, and it seemed like it was finally falling apart.

Ford landed into the belly of the beast with a splash . The goopy tar from the emotional baggage filled the floor of the place. At the back of the area, the Agent Razputin was on his knees, the tar sticking to him and sinking him deeper. “Why can’t I hear it?” He asked in a warbling voice. “ You could hear it…”

“Razputin.” Ford began.

The construct seemed to perk up, his head jerking upwards but not looking at the old man. “What are you doing here?”

“Razputin, we’re worried about you–”

“WORRIED!? IF YOU HAD BEEN WORRIED YOU WOULD HAVE JUST DONE WHAT I ASKED!” He growled. “We could have all just been Psychonauts on a mission together.” His shoulders rolled as he got back up. “But now? Heh… now!?” He turned on his heel. “ IT’S ‘ LATER ’ FORD !

A notepad popped up nearby.

“fig. Agent’s Anger

“notes: No more mission.”

As soon as Ford had got done reading it, the thing sunk back into the tar.

Agent let out a scream and let out a Psi-blast, headbutting the air. Ford levitated upwards, but the area was narrow and long. The only ways the two could really move is if they were moving towards each other.

“Now Razputin, you do have a right to be angry–”

“DAMN RIGHT I DO!” Agent shouted, unleashing another Psi-blast. “This is all your fault!” He visibly shook. “If it weren’t for you, that dumb curse wouldn’t have made my family hate psychics! IF IT WEREN’T FOR YOU I WOULD HAVE A LOVING FAMILY !”

Ford scowled at the “teenager” throwing a goddamn temper tantrum. “If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have a family!”

Agent balked and the pressed the heels of his hands to his head with another scream. “SHUT UP OLD MAN!” Another Psi-blast fired.

Ford teleported and got closer to Agent.

 “You hid our powers from all of us ! You cursed us to think we were going to die in water!” Agent’s PSI-fist formed around him and he slammed it into Ford. Er, to where Ford had been . Damn teleportation. “You made all our lives miserable and what for!? To… to protect some…” Agent felt his throat close up. “Some… to protect some…”

Agent was suddenly kicked across the face. 

“You know it was to protect Lucy. I know you love her–”

“Hurting kids again ? What am I supposed to be ready for this time?” Agent glared back up at Ford and shot out another Psi-blast. Agent slammed his fist into the tar as Ford teleported again. “YOU COWARD! You’re always running away! You never take up any of the blame until you’re cornered!” 

Ford was simply behind Agent, watching him look for Ford, then Agent paused and looked back down at the tar.

It was a quiet sentence he said, almost in a worried tone. “Why can’t I hear it?” Agent stepped further in, and started to shout again. “COME ON! CAN’T EVEN FACE THE PERSON WHO FIXED YOUR BRAIN FOR YOU!?”

“I NEVER ASKED YOU TO FIX MY PROBLEMS!” Ford snapped back. 

Agent turned and let a fire try to start, but Ford teleported out of the way, leaving the smoke.

The Whale made a loud deafening noise, and Agent covered his ears.

“I TOLD YOU TO LEAVE IT ALONE!” Ford continued. “ YOU WERE THE ONE WHO PUSHED!”

“YOU WOULD’VE TOO IF IT WAS TO PROTECT LILI!”

There was a pause with the fight as the only sounds were the sounds of emotional baggage leaking into the tar below, and Agent’s heavy breath.

“I mean… you… Lucrecia…”

Raz… hadn’t fixed Ford’s mind of his own volition? This… this was the first Ford was hearing– We just wanted to undo what Maligula did to you!

We…

We.

Raz had gotten the information from someone else.

Someone… had a threat over Lili.

Or at the very least, Razputin thought there was.

Just like… just like…

“Razputin–”

Agent’s shoulders shook as the fight rumbled outside. “I was… just trying to help…” Ford stepped out of the tar, onto the collection of baggage that Agent was kneeling on. “T-Truman he said… he woke up and he said… I wanted to tell Lili but he said that if anyone knew… people could have died… Lili could have…”

“Raz, I know what you’re feeling.” He tried to approach.

“YOU WERE PROTECTING A MURDERER!” A sudden chain shot of Psi-blasts fired out. “YOU WERE PROTECTING A MURDERER WHO TORE MY FAMILY APART !”

“I brought it together–”

“Oh sure! Making my Aunt forget about her sister and her first husband and making her mourn over her brother-in-law !? GREAT JOB BRINGING THE FAMILY TOGETHER AGAIN!” Another missed Psi-blast occurred.

“It was the only way to keep her stable! She needed those memories, even if they hurt her!”

“How could she even miss him if she didn’t fall in love with him? What did you do, Ford? Impose your own traits and replace the face with my grandfather’s!?” Agent panted. “DID YOU MAKE HER MISS YOU WHILE YOU GOT THE PRIVILEGE OF FORGETTING HER!?”

“It wasn’t a privilege! I was doing it for everyone’s safety!”

“Everyone’s safety!? EVERYONE’S SAFETY!? You abandoned everyone! The only one you could remember was Otto, and you left him with the Psychonauts! YOU WERE NEVER THE HERO THEY SAID YOU WERE!”

“I never said I was a hero! I just did what was right!”

“AND YOU THOUGHT WHAT WAS RIGHT WAS LEAVING A POOR SINGLE MOTHER AND HER SON WITH JUST EACH OTHER!?” The blast was dangerously close that time before Ford teleported again.

He landed with a bit of a splash as Agent turned and let a fire brew. Ford teleported again, this time further back in the whale.

“Do you have any idea what it was like to live that!? To wonder when the next meal is!? Or to wonder if it’ll be a comfy enough night to get rest?” A few tears were starting to slip out of Agent’s eyes. “You’ll never know what it was like with only a few dreams to keep you going, because you already had everything you could ever need.”

“You’re wrong, Razputin.”

“YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT, OLD MAN!” Agent cried, firing another shot. “You never had to work a day in your life, while others were left to clean up your mess! Even at that camp, you left Milla and Sasha’s brains to get stolen! And if you had just KEPT YOUR BRAIN THEN IT WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED!”

“…Now how was I supposed to know that everything with the Psychonauts would occur? All I wanted was Lucy to be safe.”

For a moment, Agent was silent. Maybe he let out a sniffle.

“I just wanted to make sure that all of them were.”

“You… You left Helmut!” Agent shouted. “YOU ABANDONED THEM! YOU COULD HAVE DONE SO MANY OTHER THINGS TO HELP!! DIDN’T YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT HELPING HER RAISE MY DAD!? INSTEAD OF LEAVING HER ON HER OWN!!?”

“After what I did? She deserved a life without me.”

Agent balked. “…what?”

“I tore apart her mind so many times, Razputin. Tore down her defenses that allowed her to… become that way. She didn’t deserve to have a person in her life who did that to her.”

Agent breathed audibly, almost heaving.

“And then you showed up.”

“I HAD TO!” Agent shouted. “I… had… to… for–for my safety. They were…my family just couldn’t…”

“Understand? The world wouldn’t have understood Lucy, either–”

“WHICH WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU HADN’T DONE ANYTHING TO ME!!” Agent began firing shots again, and pillars of fire quickly formed then went away as the whale croned on.

It seemed it didn’t like smoke in its lungs.

“We’re gonna go in circles if you go about this argument again.” Ford warned.

“SHUT UP, YOUR EYES ARE UNEVEN.”

Ford had to take a pause with that, thankfully still in the darker parts of the whale–

A shot hit him square in the chest.

“I… I got a hit… I actually got a hit!” The construct cheered, jumping and splashing around the dark water.

Ford teleported and dug in for one of those extra strong mental health substances. “For someone that looks like they’re supposed to be older, you sure do act like a ten-year-old.” Ford mentioned.

“SHUT UP! I’m thirteen! I’M THIRTEEN! I’M THIRTEEN !” He shouted, stomping his foot like a child.

“Well, you’re certainly acting like a child.”

“What are you gonna do, slap me? Say I’m ‘not ready’ until you get done hitting me around?”

“Son–”

“I’M NOT RELATED TO YOU! YOU DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT TO CALL ME THAT!” Agent shouted, the tears now falling.

“…Raz.”

Agent panted, and his body shook as it was wracked with tears and sobs. He fell onto the higher emotional baggage again, lying there and crying. 

Ford approached him and tested both of his knees before kneeling down on the stronger one. “Razputin.”

Agent’s breaths were choppy and snotty. “I don’t know how much longer I can do this.”

“Fighting me?”

“Fighting… working… I just…” Agent curled up a bit as he sobbed harder. “I just want to be a kid…”

“You are a kid, Razputin.”

“…I don’t feel like one.”

“Then how do you feel?”

“I feel like… a fraud. I know that I haven’t been working as long as the other kids my age. Hell, the kids older than me! What if I’m all there is!? What if I just don’t get better!? I’m not as good at levitation as Milla, I can do things that Morris or Adam can do, I can’t even master telepathy! Telepathy! ” He threw his arms over his head. “I just… want to be good at this and… I took it out on you.”

“Why do you think you did that?”

“Cause… I looked up to you. And I felt… I felt that if I could just… best you with one thing. Even though… if it weren’t for what you did… there wouldn’t be any Psychonauts organization.”

“Is that what you think?”

“…It took me a while to retrust my Nona after finding out. My own Nona. I saw her as… as a monster… and sometimes… I still fear that Maligula will come crawling back out and… and…” Agent hiccupped. “I’m horrible for thinking about it. Especially since she… she…”

Ford placed a hand on Agent’s arm, and he could feel him tense up, but he didn’t reject the touch. “C’mon, son. Let’s get on back up there so we can all talk, okay?”

Agent sat up with creased eyebrows and rubbed his eyes. He lifted his legs a bit, Ford seeing his feets kind of fall out of the legs. 

He was slightly alarmed, until he saw the actual bulge of the feet several inches up the pant leg. He gave Agent a questioning look.

“I wore stilts.” Agent simply said.

Ford looked to the blow hole that he came through, seeing it starting to seal up. “They’re damaging the whale out there, pretty good. But I don’t know how well it’s gonna go for us. Think we can get out the mouth?”

Agent shook his head. “There’s no need for it to have a mouth…” He hummed. Agent blinked slowly as a glowing, yellow lightbulb flashed under the surface of the tar. “I think I have an idea.” He pressed a finger to his temple. “I read it in a book, once.”

A very childlike response as Agent tore out some pieces of emotional baggage from the whale.

Ford still saw a thick layer of Duffle Bags and Steamer Trunks frozen in agony. Agent was pulling whatever he could that didn’t appear to be wet or crying as hard. Getting a Purse from the lower layers and a suitcase from the top to add onto the Hatbox he had already found. Ford added a few more bags. “Okay, but to make a good campfire we need–”

“Kindling! Right.” Agent answered.

“Do you have anything on you that might work?”

Agent patted his pockets and turned them out, the only things falling out being boxes of cigarettes. He frowned and gulped, looking at one of the sticks that Sasha was so fond of smoking.

Ford let him contemplate as Agent’s eyebrows finally relaxed with his decision, and he began to shove the cigarettes in different places where the emotional baggage had gaps. “Ready?” Ford asked.

Agent nodded.

The two began to focus on the same area of cigarettes, letting the ends suddenly catch and fill the air with the smell of tobacco.

As they waited, it was quiet. Just watching the fire grow.

Agent suddenly dove towards Ford, his hands gripping onto the onesie uniform that Ford wore. His body violently jerked with sobs as he buried his face into Ford’s shoulder. Though, that didn’t seem to hide the fact that it looked like his eyebags were getting better.

The whale let out a louder noise as it violently thrashed.

A harpoon sailed through the creature, narrowly avoiding Ford.

“Oh, that’s a neat way of fighting this thing.” He told himself.

“Bwuh?” Agent asked, raising his tear stained face.

“Oh, just that the others have been helping out too.”

Agent smiled and the whale suddenly jerked again. So violently to send them both sailing out of its blowhole and onto the ship that was currently trying to bring it closer.

“Ow!” Agent groaned. “My back…”

“You’re telling me.” Ford said, grabbing one of the boy’s arms to help him up.

“Pootie!” Nona cried and grabbed him.

Agent began to cry again, more openly and held his Nona back.

“Oh, how sweet.” Cassie smiled.

“Ford, what exactly did you do?” Compton asked.

Ford took in a deep breath. “A lot of things I’m not proud of.”

“I meant back in the whale.”

“Well… I could say that’s pretty accurate, too.”

Meanwhile, the two Aquatos were given their space to speak, Lucy holding Agent close as she sat next to him.

“Nona… I said awful things about you. I thought awful things… I’m sorry.”

“Pootie, little turnip, so many thoughts and words can be hurtful but so long as you know, and you make strides to be better, that’s all that matters.”

“But… what if you were gone?”

“Hmm?”

“Frazie… Frazie said that… you’d be gone soon. That–that any day with you could be our last… what if… my last thought was that I wanted you gone…?”

“Oh Pootie, if that was your last thought, then that would be it. It is harsh to know, but you know you don’t want it to be your last thought about me. And no matter what… I’m still your grandmother.”

Agent sniffled. “Thanks Nona.”

“Besides, I’m living for another thirty years. I’m going to see great grand babies.”

Agent rubbed his neck nervously. “Oh… you realized the ship I made was for–”

Lucy suddenly seemed to get something. She turned to Bob and Helmut. “THAT’S WHAT THIS SHIP IS FOR!?”

“Lucy, did you just get it?” Helmut called back.

“I think so!”

Agent blushed. 

“Oh, my little Pootie already has love!”

Agent tried to hide his face as they all reached the dock. “Okay, enough talking! We should probably check the rest of the brain!”

Otto nodded in agreement. “Yes. If one part of the brain is a mess, usually all of it is.”

“Hey, I do a good job of taking care of the rest of the brai–” He tripped up and fell thanks to his longer pantlegs. “Just… it’s a lot harder when I don’t know the future.”

A light blue TK hand grabbed him by the scruff and brought him over to his Nona. She leaned over carefully and began to roll up his pantlegs.

He hugged her tight as thanks. “I love you, Nona.”

“I love you too, Pootie.”

The group made their way out towards the rest of the Rhombus, joking and laughing. 

Agent felt… a lot better now. Especially as he saw across the Rhombus that Zombie managed to get out, and–

“AGENT!!!”

Agent lit up and ran forwards, stretching his arms out. “CAMPER!!!”

The ghost seemed to have enough force as Agent spun him around, the two laughing cheerfully. “Agent, I think I’m better now.”

Agent nodded. “I think I am too, little ghosty.”

As the bunny continued to scream,there were sickening cracks to accompany it. First the left side of the jaw stretched from its face, exposing rusted gears and sickening green flesh underneath. The right side of the jaw followed after as Norma dropped the creature finally. 

The rabbit continued to crack and morph, its limbs lengthening faster than its skin could cover. Some parts of its body were not fully regenerating, and leaving the green flesh and gears out in the open air. The antlers on his head curled over to mimic that of a Nightmare except that it still had its spokes at the sides. Its jaw grew oversized and hung out, too big even for its smaller head. It seemed the Jackalope was in too much pain to close it, or was unable to. The teeth didn’t help at all as they grew into sharp, triangular shapes. Razor sharp teeth at its front.

The rest of the rabbit’s back curled inward, it wasn’t before long the rest of the body began to mutate, the jackalope starting to grow in size as it began to hunch over like if he were a man turning into a werewolf. More exposed rusted gears made disgusting squelches against the skin as they fought to turn. The key in its back was ticking, struggling to turn yet clicking at a fast rate.

Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick-

Norma stepped back away as the creature continued to convulse in pain, she retreated back to the rest of the group breaking into a sudden windsprint towards them.

She didn't even care if the Jackalope was mutating right behind her, growing different sizes of sharp claws and teeth. Breaking the rule of turning her back on a hostile animal, but thankfully it didn't seem to want to attack her, distracted by its current pain.

She didn’t have to run far.

The rest of the Junior and Senior Agents had noticed the other animals around the Madness Meadow flee from where Jackalope had been dragged to. The group watched on in absolute horror, frozen like a whole herd of deer in headlights. Seeing someone or some- thing that was supposed to represent the youngest psychonaut agent in Psychonaut history turn into a monster . 

Jackalope howled as most of his transformation was "complete". Minding the many holes or unnatural body parts in the wrong places, such as the holes through green flesh and white bone sticking out, or the eyes and bumps at one of the sides of his back. Animalistic growling echoed from its exposed green throat. 

Only one sound was the loudest out of all of them, a green veined pumping heart, exposed yet protected by the animal's ribcage. Pumping its green blood through its body at a fast rate, and not at all stopping.

Jackalope turned his head towards the group, his once small eyes now stretched and at the front of his face, unable to blink his eyes because he no longer had any eyelids, making them get painfully red as he faced the group. Mouth drooling with saliva, the Imp and Fae flew past the group behind the Jackalope, their bodies also being different to create more menacing forms. 

They must've transformed while they were distracted by the demon bunny. The Imp had longer and intimidating horns, multiple balls of fire floating around her, and the Fae becoming more furry (not the fluffy kind!!) and slim with extended claws coming out of his fingers. With the Imp and the Fae right behind him, Jackalope let out one final scream.

The notepad suddenly appeared in front of the group.

“fig. Fantasy Trio
“notes: Raz’s Defenses are on the Offense.”

Before disappearing. )

The group had almost no time to finish reading the notepad and process its information, as the Demon Bunny rammed himself into the group with thunderous stomping and disgusting growls.

“LOOK OUT!!-” shouted Adam, but it was too late as everyone got knocked around and launched in different ways. All except Norma .

“You.” Jackalope growled. 

Jackalope wasted almost no time, swinging his mutated paw with the eyeball on it in an attempt to crush Norma with his giant claw. Leaving a giant dust cloud. 

“NORMA!!!” Lizzie shrieked in alarm and fear. It seemed as if Norma got dementastrated. 

Norma quickly ran out of the dust cloud, she survived it!! 

Lizzie panted and breathed a sigh of relief. She glanced at Adam who was giving her a look with a raised eyebrow. 

"She-We- I- We almost lost someone good from our team!!" She defended herself hastily. 

“Yeah…..right. Someone good from the team…” He muttered in a slight sarcastic tone. 

The Imp growled in frustration and lunged downwards, chasing after the other pyrokinetic.

“Forget about it. I'm going to help my sister.” Lizzie ignored Adam's comment, regaining mobility in her legs again before sprinting after the Imp and Norma.