See, they were going to get together and talk about what happened. They really were. It's just that there was always something. They could never get a spot together on the subway. Flash had practice. Peter had patrol. Decathalon was starting back up again, and if they didn't focus, they would be in serious trouble. And that was the last thing they needed at the time.

Flash was...a little heartbroken after the blunt rejection, and the knife was twisted even more after the words that Melbourne gave him. ("Well, that doesn't surprise me in the least. Of course, he'd react like that, after everything you put him through.", the counselor commented, pursing her lips at a file in front of her. After a moment, she looked up with a grin. "It seems that we'll just need to try a different route. Not to worry. You'll get there eventually. Just as long as you stick to my advice.")

That goddamned voice was ringing in Thompson's ears again, making it hard to focus during class. Peter handed him a slip of paper, with a simple question on it. Meet up after school?

"Hey.", Flash greeted sheepishly. "Hey. Sorry about Ned. I've never seen him like that before.", Peter was quick to apologize. "It's fine. It wasn't unprecedented. I deserved it." "Anyway, how have you been?" "Hallucinating like hell. You?" "Not as bad as Monday, but yeah." "Yeah, like, I keep seeing this really weird app on my phone.", Flash described, pulling out his device.

Peter froze in his step. "App?" "Yeah. It's red and black and it's icon kind of looks like an eye." Slowly, the boy moved to look over his shoulder, eyes widening when he saw a familiar logo. "I don't remember downloading it, but no matter how many times I delete it, it keeps coming back." "You're tech smart. Think I got a virus or something?", Flash asked, turning to Peter with an expectant eyebrow. "You...haven't clicked on it, have you?", Peter asked as a response, slowly inspecting it. Thompson just shook his head, looking at Peter like he was an idiot. "Hell no. I don't want that thing locking into my hardware. Why? You have it too?"

The brunette paused for a moment, thinking of the app that had yet to leave his phone. "Yeah."

Another moment, before he turned to the other. There was something going off in his head, something telling him to trust this thing. He wasn't aware what exactly it was, but they were screaming. "Hey. Here's... a really weird thought. What if we clicked on it?"

"...You saying it isn't a virus?", Thompson responded, clearly in disbelief. "If it's a virus, I'll get you a new phone. I just have this idea.", Peter explained with a little huff. Flash grimaced as he touched the icon, before peeking open one eye to see a menu. Three spaces to enter data, each with their own label: Person, Place, Cognition. "Hm."

"Melbourne.", Flash said first, thinking about their earlier meeting. The name entered, unlocking the second option. "Midtown High School of Science and Technology.", Peter said aloud, watching the words getting typed into the second input. The two flinched as they felt a wave of energy pass over them. It felt a lot like when things first got weird on Monday.

"Dude.", Thompson breathed out, looking to Peter with wide eyes, only to be met with the same expression. "I know.", Parker responded in the same breathless volume. "Y-You think?", Flash stammered, turning back to his phone. "Maybe.", Peter answered, clearly just as much in disbelief. Flash's finger hovered over the Cognition entry, looking to Peter with a confused expression. "What does that mean?", he asked, but the other was clearly lost in thought. "How a person thinks of something...", Peter thought aloud, before deciding on a word to try out. Flash raised an eyebrow as Parker typed castle into the keyspace, getting met with a shrug. "Worth a shot."

"Melbourne. Midtown. Castle. Palace detected.", a voice spoke aloud, making the two widen in shock before a heavy wave of energy was sent over and around them. It felt like they were at a dubstep concert, right next to the bass-boosted speakers, and the DJ just made the heavy drop. The vibration was almost strong enough to knock them down. "Ack, my head.", Flash complained, rubbing his head as he slowly turned around.

He dropped his phone in surprise. The sound of the device against the pavement made Peter stiffen up as he turned around and became face-to-face with the Queen's Castle.

"Holy shit.", Flash breathed out, looking at his phone, only to be met with the icon covering the entirety of the screen, just like it had done last time. "Well, at least it wasn't a virus.", Peter mused, getting the two of them to breathe out a little chuckle. Holy shit.

"How did you two get here?!", a familiar voice shrieked. Mona came charging at them in full force. He did not seem happy. "Funnily enough, we actually know this time. You see, there's this funny app--" Thompson got interrupted with a loud groan. "Say no more.", Mona responded, acting like he's heard this story a million times before. "We'd like to get a better look of the place, if we could.", Peter suggested, turning to Morgana curiously. The not-cat debated the matter for a moment, before turning to the brunette with a little sigh. "I do need more manpower...Alright, at least you can fight. But you're both novices, so stick by me, and if you can avoid making a lot of noise, do it.", he suggested before leading the two inside the castle.

The place didn't look that different from the last time they came in. In fact, it looked more elaborately decorated, as if someone was settling themselves in well with the castle. The group looked around before quickly moving to a hallway, footsteps becoming muffled by the velvet carpet beneath them. They snuck past patrolling guards, Flash's heartbeat pounding in his ears. If they were caught, he was helpless. Mostly. He did bring something as a scare tactic, but...it likely wouldn't work.

"Quick, in there!", Mona prompted, running straight for the door that looked just a little different to the others. "Ah, a safe room at last.", Mona sighed as the two looked around. Peter saw the shift of a cognition; it was a classroom, in real life. "Safe? Ok...you said that you'd explain everything if we ever saw each other again. And here we are, seeing each other again. So, start talking.", Flash demanded, glaring down the Not-Cat, who just rolled his eyes in response. "Alright. Sheesh.", Morgana grumbled before crossing his arms. "For starters, welcome to the Metaverse. This place is made of humanity's twisted desires, in which they take shape. You are in a Palace, the reality of one person's desires.", he explained. 

Peter nodded along in understanding, quickly putting the pieces together. "The queen.", he filled in, getting a proud smile from Morgana. "Bingo!" 

"And the guards? The monsters we've been fighting?", Parker then asked with furrowed brows. "Shadows, cognitive beings born amongst the sea of human consciousness.", he then explained with a thoughtful nod, answering the superteen's questions just as much as he brought more on. "When...you say cognitive, you mean--" "Nothing more than thoughts taking a physical form. Every time we defeat a Shadow, it goes back into a person's thought.", Morgana interrupted, knowing where the question was going. "Oh.", Peter hummed aloud, physically relaxing at the reassurance that no one was getting hurt during the battles. 

"Okay, but what about the flashy, fiery ghost-things that show up every now and then?", Flash asked, glancing between Peter and Mona. Not much of this was making any sense to him. "Rhodenbarr has a name, you know.", Peter remarked with crossed arms. Morgana chuckled at the joke, shaking his head and crossing his arms. "That is a Persona, a manifestation of one's rebellious will.", the Not-Cat explained. "And the clothes?", Thompson followed up, gesturing to Peter's clothes, which had yet to transform into the outfit it had been. "One's own image of a rebel.", Morgana answered nonchalantly, making the former bully look down. So, Flash thought to himself as he observed the webbed pattern on Peter's outfit. I was right.

With that, Thompson breathed out a long sigh, internally debating his position on all of this, before he decided to speak up. "Look, I'm not the brightest guy. Anyone could tell you that. But something's clearly going on, with all these Palaces and distortions and shit. And we need to get to the bottom of it.", he stated firmly, looking between the other two boys. Morgana looked pleasantly surprised, while Peter looked at him with slight confusion and shock, as if he never would have thought that the black-haired teen would've even come up with such an idea. Almost offended at the notion, Flash huffed before continuing. "Look, I may not be able to do that Persona stuff, but I'm not going to sit on the sidelines."

"So, I brought this.", Flash prompted, pulling out a pistol. "Where did you get that gun?", Peter immediately asked. Flash drew a silence that became a little eerie. "When did you find the time to get it?", Parker asked, tone slowly becoming more deadpan as he realized the truth. "...Do not tell me...that you have been carrying a GUN around in your BACKPACK at a HIGH SCHOOL ALL!! DAMN!!! DAY!!!!!" "...It's not loaded.", Thompson mumbled, looking down at the ground.

Peter inhaled sharply, drawing out a long, exhaustive, frustrated sigh. "You fool. You actual, absolute, goddamn idiot.", Parker grumbled, burying his face in his hands. "And the safety's on." "Do you realize how much trouble you could have gotten in?!", Parker reprimanded, imagining Thompson getting dragged into a cop car as he spoke. "Well, I knew I'd be in more trouble if I dragged both of us back here without a way to defend myself.", Flash jumped to defense, standing up straight to make himself seem taller.

"He's not wrong.", Mona spoke up, moving Flash's side to inspect the gun. "Besides, with a model that realistic, it'll fly over well here. If the enemy thinks it's real, it will be.", he explained, making it sound as if this was supposed to be common knowledge. The two teens looked back to him in confusion, almost tilting their heads. "What do you mean?", Flash asked, eyeing the creature curiously. "You'll see.", Morgana smugly responded with a swish of his tail as he moved to the door. "That's not a model, is it.", Peter asked in a hushed tone. Flash shook his head, looking back to the weapon. "Nope.", he whispered, making both of them look to the cat-like creature. "You wanna tell him?", Peter asked in the same volume. "Absolutely not."

They didn't get much more time to conversate, as a couple of knights caught sight of them and transformed, this time into a couple of demons. "Come on, try it!", Mona prompted with an eager grin, one that quickly fell when Parker shook his head, almost paling some. "Nope. No thank you. I'll be fine." He'll stick with his Persona and powers, thank you very much.

"Oh come on, how hard could it be?", Thompson remarked as he cocked the gun like how he saw in movies. "Hands in the air!", he shouted at the enemies before putting a little too much pressure on the trigger. The bullet his the gunfire-weak enemy, making a one-hit kill. After the gun fired, though, both Peter and Flash were pale. The first thing he did after the battle was gently set it on the floor and walk away from the firearm with his own hands up.

"I THOUGHT YOU SAID IT WASN'T LOADED!!", Peter sputtered, not caring about how loud he was. "IT WASN'T!!", Flash jumped to defending, clearly having his own mental freakout. "Then how in the...oh.", Parker realized, remembering what Morgana told them. "Huh." Said companion walked by their side with a cocky grin. "I tried to tell you two. But noOoOoOo. Mona doesn't know anything.", he remarked, full of sarcasm, picking up the gun and nonchalantly tossing it to Peter with his tail, who was quick to return it to the original handler. "...What else is there that we may need to know?", Peter slowly asked as the both of them turned to Mona, who merely smirked. "I'm glad you asked."

It was hard to tell the time in the Metaverse, Flash had concluded. The crimson sky left no sunset to judge, and with all of the electronics shut off, he had no indication of passing time. Peter and Mona could've been talking while they were walking for five minutes, or it could've been thirty for all he knew. This place was weird.

"Hey, man, what was up with that? Why didn't you take the gun?" Peter paused for a moment, contemplating whether to tell him, before deciding against it. Yet, his mind went to the final battle on the bridge. To the robbery that took place what felt like a lifetime ago. "Personal issues. Not talking about it.", he curtly responded before walking again.

Morgana tilted his head, confused about the vague statement, turning to Flash to ask for sympathy in confusion, only to realize he wasn't going to get it. "Wait, wasn't your...oh.", Flash stopped himself, remembering what word had spread through the school. His uncle. "Sorry dude." "What?", Mona asked, not liking the fact he was kept out of the loop. "Don't...don't worry about it." "I'll...hold onto the gun.", Flash decided, getting a grateful, relieved smile from Peter. Mona was still confused, and a little pissed about that fact.

It wasn't much later they walked by the entryway again, where dozens of guards surrounded the group. Peter bit back a curse, wishing that he could get his powers to work in full function. His Spidey Sense wasn't doing him much good, it seemed.

"It's an ambush!", Mona called out, pulling out that too-big sword of his. "Yeah, no shit.", Flash grumbled, looking around with wide eyes as Peter and Morgana summoned their Personas and started attacking. This went on for a couple of minutes before a feminine voice with an obviously fake accent spoke up. "Watch your language, Mr. Thompson. Your words will not foul my castle."

The voice alone seemed to summon more guards, circling around the group and closing in fast. The two fought, but it was to no avail. First Mona was down, then Peter. Flash, who had never so much as held a gun before, was knocked down to his knees while he was trying to figure out how to get it to fire.