Sorry for the long wait. I hope this bulky chapter makes up for it.

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Out in the main room, Batman stood still in his spot while observing everything around him. He can see Caine flying above them with Bubble by his side, Jax and Ragatha having a little spat, Zooble not caring about anything and then Gangle and Kinger both keeping their distance from him.

Pomni stood behind him, wondering if she should try encouraging him to move.

"Ah, there you are!" Caine points his cane at Batman. "Are you ready for an exciting assortment of group activities?"

"I am!" Bubble chirps, not giving Batman a chance to reply.

"Silence, you peasant!" Caine retorts before popping Bubble with his cane. "Now then, are you ready to have some fun, little one?"

He looked at the group he would be collaborating with, and then back at Caine. "Do I have a choice?"

"Whoa, that's a manly voice." Jax commented in the background.

To which, Ragatha nudged him with her arm and whispered. "Stop commenting on every feature about him."

"Well, you could just do nothing..." Pomni spoke up, giving him an option. "But if I can make a suggestion, I'd say participate... because there's nothing else you could do here."

The human contemplated, wondering if it would be worth it to engage in childish activities with such zany characters in a place that is under the guise of a family-friendly establishment.

"Fine." Batman replied, having nothing better to do with this place... for now.

"Excellent!" Caine snapped his fingers and everyone was transported outside in broad daylight.

Batman squints his eyes and shields them from the sun with his arm.

"Do you burn in the daylight or something?" Jax joked when noticing his discomfort.

"He's not a vampire, Jax." Pomni corrected, though she knew he was joking.

"He sure acts like one." The rabbit replied before looking at the ringleader, who's still floating above them. "So what're we doin'?"

"You're gonna play a good old fashioned game of Tug of War!" Caine points at the rope placed down in front of everyone. "Teams will be boys and girls!"

Pomni, Ragatha and Gangle grouped together. Kinger and Jax waltz over to Batman. Zooble was unsure which team to be on, but she went over to the girls since she did not want to be on the same team with Jax.

"Hey, that's a little unfair. There's more of them than us." Jax said while looking at Caine.

"That's just too bad." Caine teasingly replied before materializing a whistle in his free hand (the other one still holding the cane). "Brace yourselves, everyone!"

Everyone, even Batman and Zooble, picked up the rope and then a line was magically drawn at the middle of the rope, and then white lines were drawn on the grass in front of the factions.

"First team to get the line to their line wins." Caine gripped the whistle eagerly. "On your mark... get set..."

He blew the whistle by closing his teeth - concealing his eyes..

Everyone began pulling, someone in the group was barely trying.

"Come on, we can beat them!" Ragatha said in a strained voice while she and everyone else on that side was pulling. "We outnumber them!"

"Come on! Put your back into it!" Kinger said to his team, mostly talking to Jax.

"I am!" Jax retorts while looking annoyed, this was so unfair to them.

"Looks like the ladies are going to win." Caine said, noticing that the white line was getting close to the girls' team.

And then suddenly, the rope was being tugged over away from the girls. Jax and Kinger were pulling so hard and when given such an easy pull, they both accidentally fell on their bottoms for pulling too hard. They would get back up, but they were in awe at the sight they were seeing.

Batman was pulling the rope against the four of them, and winning.

"WHAT THE [Honk]?!" Pomni exclaimed, astonished at what she saw while still pulling on the rope.

"How's he doing that?!" Ragatha said, her grip on her rope loosening because she was distracted at his feat.

Gangle and Zooble tried to pull even harder, but it was futile as one final tug from the human and the line crossed his line.

"What an extraordinary comeback!" Caine congratulated in his usually cheerful voice. "The boys win this round!"

"Nice going, Bats." Jax put an arm around Batman's shoulders, but then the human instantly shrugged the rabbit's arm off of him. "Okay, a little touchy. Anyway, I definitely know who to bet on for an arm wrestling match."

"It's very impressive that you're capable of doing... well, you know." Ragatha comments, a bit flustered at his feat. "I don't think any of us are capable of doing that."

"Such a unique specimen." Caine comments in the background while scratching the top of his denture-head. "Anyway, are you ready for the next game?"

He snapped his fingers and everyone was transported in the dining room, everyone sitting down on chairs positioned around the circle table. Then an empty glass bottle lying on its side and Caine floats over the table - everyone looking up at him.

"This is rather a harmless game of Truth or Dare in the guise of Spin The Bottle." Caine announced while maneuvering the chairs with his magical capabilities. The males grouped together on one side of the table and the females and Zooble on the other side.

"Each team takes a turn spinning the bottle for one member to ask another member from the opposing team the truth or dare and if they - as in the person who was prompted with truth or dare - do it, that team gets a point. If the opposing member refuses to tell the truth, or refuses to do the dare, then they don't get a point but the other team does. First team with the most points wins. Oh, and don't think you could lie to me... because I'll know." Caine then demonstrates how the game is played by spinning the bottle and it points at Jax, then he spins it again and it points at Pomni. "Jax, you're first."

"Okay, Pomni, truth or dare?" Jax inquired while leaning back in his chair, his legs propped up on the table.

"Um... truth." Pomni answered, knowing Jax well enough that he would probably make her do something ridiculous for his dare.

"Are you bald under that hat?" Jax inquired, stifling a chuckle.

"No! I mean, I don't think so..."She tried to pull it off, but it appeared to be stuck on her head like someone glued it there. "I wouldn't know, since I can't take it off."

Caine didn't say anything, so that meant Pomni was telling the truth. He reached down and spun the bottle again. The bottle points to Ragatha and then on the spin, it points to Kinger.

"Truth or dare?" Ragatha asked, leaning on the wooden with her arm while staring at the chess piece from across the table.

"Hmm... dare." Kinger said, being a bit bold but also curious to what she would try to make him do.

"I dare you to... hmm..." Ragatha taps her chin while looking around. "I dare you to tell me what you've been hiding in your little fort."

"Wouldn't that fit into the truth category?" Gangle asked while adjusting her Tragedy Mask.

But Kinger folds his arms (hands? Since we only see his hands?). "Never."

"Then you don't get another point. But we do." Ragatha smugly smiled, knowing very well that he would answer like that.

Caine spinned the bottle again, and then it pointed at Ragatha again and then the next spin landed on Jax.

"Truth or dare?" Ragatha inquired, her smug mood turning into some annoyance.

"Truth." Jax said with his signature grin, wondering what question she would ask him.

"Where did you get that key that unlocks all of our rooms?" Ragatha puts her hands at her hips while giving him a glare.

"Uh, dare please." Jax quickly replied, putting his feet down.

"I dare you to tell me where you got that key." Ragatha replied almost quicker than him, anticipating that response.

"I plead the fifth." Jax replied, sitting up straight.

Ragatha sighed. "Then you don't get another point."

On the next bottle spin, the bottle points at Gangle and then it points at Batman.

"Um... Uh..." She fumbles little ribbon-like hands while sitting in her chair uncomfortably. "Truth or dare, um... Bat-Man?"

Batman didn't immediately respond, taking his time. "Truth."

"Why... Why are you dressed like that?" She inquired, wondering if that was the right question to ask.

Batman did not answer that, he didn't even bother to think of a response. And now there's an awkward silence filling the air. Everyone stares at him, but his indifferent expression doesn't imply whether he feels uncomfortable or not.

"Looks like he's too shy..." Caine guesstimates, and then snapped his fingers. "Give him a dare."

Gangle fumbled again, she normally doesn't like making people do things like daring them to do something embarrassing.

Then Zooble scoffs and asserts herself. "Tell us your name, if you even remember it."

"Batman." He answered confidently and seriously.

Everyone went quiet, Pomni looked up at Caine and expected some sort of correction. But the ringleader said nothing in response to Batman's answer.

He's not serious... right? Pomni pondered while looking back down at the table.

With the silence filling the room to the fullest, Caine finally descends to stand on the table. "Alrighty then, another point for the girls. I suppose they win this round! Since the boys apparently can't play the game properly."

With the snap of his fingers, everyone was taken to a different room with multiple boxes of board games scattered around the room.

"Help yourselves to some fun games and puzzles during this brief recess while I set up the next and final activity!" Caine announced before disappearing once more.

Batman glances over to the others, watching them picking up some of the boxes and showing them to someone else, or just trying to play by themselves (even though all of them require at least two people).

Gangle and Kinger were pondering over a puzzle, looking for the missing piece (to which Kinger was sitting). Jax, Zooble and Ragatha were playing Jenga - where Jax would intentionally pull out the supporting weight to cause the tower to crash down and potentially hit one of them.

"Ahem."

Batman looked down and saw Pomni standing in front of him, holding a chess box in her hands and her pupils dilated in slight apprehension.

"I... I was wondering if you would like to play..." She stretches her arms out to show him the box, the box making slight noise as the pieces were being shuffled inside. "I'm not that good at it, so maybe it'll be--"

He lowered himself to sit on the floor with his legs crossed.

"Oh, okay." She sits down on the ground as well, he's still like two or three feet taller than her.

She opens the box and sets up the board while he watches. For some reason, she feels a strange sense of comfort around him. Maybe because he's the only human around here.

Jax is a rabbit, Zooble is Zooble, Ragatha is a doll, Gangle is ribbons with a mask, Bubble is Bubble, Kinger is literally related to this chess board, and Caine is... well, Caine.

Meanwhile both of them are humans, at least she believes he's a human. While the costume may look deceiving, there's a human jaw at the face - which was enough for her to know that this isn't some deformed or mythical creature around here.

Though, his silence makes things awkward. Any time she talks to him, she feels like she's talking to herself.

Anyway, she finished setting up the board and picked which side she was playing on. She was going to be white, and he was going to be black. She figured that since he's dark, then maybe she should join the dark side.

She knows he's not amused by the little humor she did, though nothing around here does amuse him.

Pomni moves her pawn from 2F to 4F. And then Batman moves his pawn from 7E to 6E.

As Pomni moves her second pawn from 2G to 4G. "I'm sorry if I seem so--"

Batman moved his queen from D8 to 4H. "Checkmate."

"...bad?!" Pomni's jaw dropped at the fastest defeat ever. "How did you do that?!"

"Fool's mate." He answered, picking up his queen from D8 and used it to knock over her king at E1. "One of the oldest tricks in the book, a mistake only the novices make."

"Oh..." She stares at his queen, feeling ashamed that she even dared to challenge a professional like him - she never guessed him to be the chess pro. "I'm really bad at this game..."

"Practice makes perfect." He said while picking up his queen and returning it to D8.

"You want to go again?" She inquired, picking up her king and holding it in her palm.

He moved his pawn back to its original position, she'll take that as a yes.

This time, Pomni made sure she didn't make the same mistake twice and carefully thought about where to move the pawns. They had a somewhat normal game, though Pomni believes he's going easy on her this time - given that his moves are very generic.

Though, she notices that every time he finishes making his turn, he rubs his right upper arm by the shoulder. She isn't sure why, she can't see what's wrong with it. Maybe it hurts? Maybe it's sore?

She can't help but watch him rub the area every time he finishes a turn. And now she finally gained enough courage to speak up about it.

"Is your arm hurting?" She timidly asked as she made her turn.

"Phantom pain." Said Batman as he made his move with the pawn.

"Did something hurt you here?" She asked, side-glancing around to see there's another abstract creature somewhere - like Kaufmo.

"This happened in the real world." He replied while adjusting his arm.

"What happened?" Pomni said as she moved her piece.

"I was stabbed." He answered while contemplating his next move.

It worries her that he's been stabbed out in the real world. Who would stab him and why?

"Why?" She asked while tapping her fingers.

"I don't want to talk about it." He sighed mournfully while making his next move. "Checkmate."

"Huh?!" She looks down at the board, realizing that he had taken the opportunity of her being curious to make a sneaky play right under her nose. "How the [Honk] did you do that?!"

She felt the urge to flip the board and make the pieces fly up and scatter all over the floor, but she doesn't want to ruin the little moment she has. She's finally getting him to talk, so maybe losing at chess was worth it.

"[Bleep] IT, JAX!" Ragatha shrieked from the background.

Both of them glanced back at the group, and saw Zooble strangling the purple rabbit. Then Caine popped into the room and that made Zooble let go of Jax.

"Alrighty, one final game for the teams to win the title of being the best... for the day." Caine said while twirling his cane. "Good old classic hide and seek. Each team takes a turn being hiders and seeker. Seekers will have five minutes to find the hiders. For every hider that's found, the seekers earn a point. The rules are this: no going outside, you must tag the hider to count them being found, and the first team with the most points wins. Boys will hide first. We shall give them thirty seconds to hide, plenty of time to hide, right?"

"Uh, no?" Jax scratched his head.

Caine summoned an airhorn and used it. "GET TO HIDING!"

Batman was already gone before the timer started. Jax and Kinger scrambled to sprint down the hall and out to the unknown to pick their hiding spots. After the time expired, Caine dismissed the girls to search for the boys.

"How about we split up?" Ragatha suggests, looking at the others. "Me and Pomni search together, and you two search together as well?"

"Fine, whatever." Zooble rolled her eyes and strolled down the hall Jax and Kinger ran down, Gangle timidly followed her.

"So, where do you think he could be?" Ragatha asked Pomni, putting her hands on her hips.

"Who?" Pomni replied, looking up at her.

"Batman." She smiled, softly chuckling. "Surely you know where he could be, seeing that you spend a lot of time with him."

"Ragatha..." Pomni became flustered and adjusted her cap to conceal her eyes.

"I'm just teasing." She pats Pomni's head. "But do you know where he could be?"

"No..." Pomni lifts her cap up slightly so she can see.

"Learn anything new about him?" Ragatha curiously asked while walking down the other hallway.

"Other than being a pro at chess, I learned that he was stabbed in the arm before he entered this place... and it still hurts him." She answered while looking at her own arm, wondering if she could somehow relate to his pain. "This makes me wonder... if he's... he's the solution."

"What solution?" The ragdoll inquired while looking straight ahead.

"The exit." The jester replied, looking behind her. "If he can still remember anything prior to now, know his name and still feel the pain from the other world, then maybe he can help us find a way out."

Ragatha sighs in disappointment. "Pomni, I thought you'd finally understood... There is no way out."

"But how can he still know his life before, and his name?!" Pomni retorts in an exasperated tone. "He can probably find the way out if he tries hard enough, and free us!"

"Pomni, we've been here for years - or for as long as we can remember - if there was a way out, we'd have found it already." Ragatha responds in a sorrowful expression. "This is our new home, and the sooner you accept it, the better it is for everyone."

"There's always a way out. Always."

Both of them flinched and looked behind them, spotting Batman standing there.

"OH [Bloop]!!!" Pomni clutched her bosom in fright.

"How did you do that?" Ragatha asked in a breathless voice while smiling - mostly in awe at what he did. "That was kinda cool. Oh, wait! Get him, Pomni!"

Both of them tried to touch him, but he leaped over Ragatha's head and took off running.

"Hey, get back here!" Ragatha said while chasing after him, Pomni scurrying behind her.

Elsewhere in this place, Gangle and Zooble were strolling around. While Gangle was actually trying to look for Jax and Kinger, Zooble really didn't bother looking around and was just stuck in her thoughts as they walked around.

"Where do you think they could be?" Gangle asked, looking left and right.

"I dunno and I don't really care. It's just a stupid childish game." Zooble rudely responds while leaning on the wall. "There's no prize or incentive for doing this."

"Well, you're right... But that's the fun of it, isn't it? To see if we can be better than the other team?" Gangle curiously said while looking up at her.

"I know I'm better than Jax and Kinger." Zooble retorted arrogantly with the roll of her eyes. "I'm just not sure about that bat-guy."

Both of them paused when they heard a slight whisper. Their glance turns over to a small pillow fort that Kinger claimed to be his.

"You've gotta be kidding..." Zooble said, disappointed in Kinger's hiding spot.

Gangle strides over there and peeked inside. "Hello, Kinger."

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Kinger screamed from the inside of the fort. "HOW DID YOU FIND ME?!"

Zooble facepalmed. "This is pitiful..."

Nearby, Jax was peering his head out from a dark hallway, observing the two of them finding Kinger.

"Told him it was a bad spot." Jax whispered to himself before retreating his head back to the hallway to lean his back against the wall. "Just gotta wait a few more minutes."

And then Batman casually walks by him after appearing out from the darkness, nearly causing the rabbit to shout in terror.

"Jeez Louise!" The rabbit whispered loudly while clutching his chest. "You could've given me a heart attack! What're doing here?! This is my hiding spot!"

The human doesn't reply and just walks out in the open to reach the other hallway in front of him. Zooble and Gangle were too distracted to notice Batman walking by them before he was in the other hallway.

"He's over there! After him!" Jax heard Ragatha shout from afar behind him.

The rabbit turned his head around and spotted Pomni and Ragatha charging down the hall. "Aw, [Bleep]!"

And then they tackled him. Ragatha was slightly giggling at the rush of excitement she just felt while Pomni's head was spinning. Jax was dazed from the scrimmage. Zooble, Kinger and Gangle approached the three dazed characters.

"What happened here?" Kinger asked while looking down at his teammate.

"What do you think happened?" Jax rhetorically asked while sitting up and rubbing his arm.

"Looks like you got your [Honk] kicked by the two of them." Zooble scoffed, finding some amusement - even if it was at someone else's expense.

"Have any of you seen Batman?" Pomni inquired, rubbing her forehead.

"Of course you'd ask where he is." Jax teased while standing up and stretching his back. "I just saw him not too long ago right before you two broads went RKO on me."

"Where'd he go?" Ragatha asked while standing up and helping Pomni on her feet.

"Down over there." Jax pointed, and then looked over there to see any trace of the human. "Though, I'm not sure what's the ti–"

"Time's up!" Caine appeared and startled everyone. "The girls only earned two points, but the boys still have a chance to win the game if they manage to find all of them!"

"Why not just three out of four? Because they only have two?" Kinger asked, noticing that Caine's logic wasn't entirely sound (though, when was the last time it was sound?).

"Eh, makes it more entertaining, I guess." Jax shrugged indifferently. "Besides, we got Bats on our side for this one. And since he's so good at hiding, maybe he'll be just as good as the seeker. Speaking of which, maybe we should go find him."

"No need, he's right there!" Caine points his cane at Batman, who was behind Kinger.

Kinger had a delayed reaction before looking behind him and going, "AHHH–"

Zooble slapped him. "I've had ENOUGH with your screaming!"

"Anyways, you gals better get to hiding, because the head start timer starts NOW!" And then the ringleader promptly used the airhorn and the ladies were off.

"Okay, so we gotta strategize on how we do this." Jax said, sounding like some sort of coach for a sports team. "We gotta show 'em that we mean business."

"This is unreasonably competitive of you." Kinger said, noticing something odd about the rabbit. "Normally you'd just lounge around and do nothing like Zooble."

"Well, something tells me if we lose, Ragatha's gonna demand for that key I have. So, Bats, any ideas?" Jax looks over to the human, who then just stares at him with a blank expression - though his eyes tell the purple rabbit that he is not going to participate in childish banter (despite reluctantly agreeing to play this game). "Okay, so you're still shy. Don't fret, I bet we'll find them in no time. Split up like always, nothing could go wrong, right?"

"So long as we don't have another Kaufmo incident." Kinger said while nervously looking toward Batman like he was a leper, and then loudly whispered to Jax, "I think he's starting to abstract."

"Hey, dummy, I bet he can hear you with those long pointy ears on his head." Jax whispered back while nudging him.

Batman turned around and began walking away as soon as the time expired.

"Hey, look, he's digging my idea." Jax pointed at the human. "Great job, Bats! Let us know who you find."

"I don't think he's going to play." Kinger said, still nervously eyeballing Batman.

"Ah, please, if he didn't want to play he wouldn't have survived the round against the girls." Jax dismissed arrogantly with the wave of his smug hand. "I bet he just has social issues or something."

While the other three ladies picked their spots in different places, Pomni picked the worst one: her bedroom underneath her bed. She panicked when the time had started and she obviously didn't want to hide in the same place with someone else.

So she went to the only place that she knew and that was her bedroom. And then the time expired and she quickly slid underneath her bed and hoped nobody would come in here. She isn't sure why she's trying so hard, there's no reward to this game.

Maybe she's just feeling giddy like everyone else? Or maybe it's to impress someone.

Either way, she's doing her best and she hopes that's what helps her now. Minutes pass by and she can hear Jax and Kinger occasionally walk by in their search for the ladies. She knows it's them because she recognizes their footsteps (since her head is on the floor and can hear the sounds of their footsteps).

Though, she isn't sure what–

Her door opens in a slow creaking motion, like from a horror movie, and a chill goes up Pomni's digital spine. Her body froze and her fake stomach felt empty. Two black boots took a few steps into the room, making a very quiet sound as they touched the floor.

Even when it's dead silent in here, the sound of this character's footsteps were still too quiet.

The jester made her best guess that this was Batman, since he's the only one here who wears black boots. Well, that and because she could see the end of his cape behind his ankles.

She didn't want to move, she felt like his pointy ears would pick up the smallest sound in here. She doesn't know why he's in here, unless he's already checked everywhere else. But right now, he's just standing there.

She can't see his head, so she doesn't know if he's actually looking around while standing, or if he's got his sights focused on something. He took two steps forward before she saw his hand reaching down to grip her bed.

And then she watches as the side of the bed was lifted up, like someone opening the hood of their car, and Batman staring down at her. And she could've sworn she saw his eyes glowing pure white based on the angle she sees him at.

The overhead light behind his head makes her squint her eyes a bit while looking at his face. He used his free hand to grab Pomni's hand and lift her up out from there. He sets the bed down and drops her on it.

"Found you." He said in a low, but also kind of forced voice before leaving.

And while he left, Pomni just stared at her hand, and then at Batman's cape before he was out of sight. She unexpectedly felt something when he pulled her up like that. It wasn't pain, it wasn't fear and probably not admiration (though it's debatable).

But she did feel hope, which is something she hadn't felt in a long time.

January 27th, 2024. 12:58 AM.