We opened the door to the office, revealing a man who appeared to be in his mid-fifties who wore an expensive-looking, dark blue suit and striped tie. His dark brown hair was cut short, and he looked at us with a friendly gaze that soon grew cold as he spotted White.

"Hello, Mr. Hayward." I greeted him somewhat nervously. I've never spoken with anybody who holds a position of high power, like Hayward does.

"Oh please, call me Tyler." Hayward waved a hand dismissively. "There's no need to act so nervous. My citizens are my friends."

"Thank you," I nodded, smiling. For a moment I wondered if we had the wrong guy; he seemed rather nice. "My name is Wonder, and these are my friends; Glitch, Technoblade, Thor, JD, Vision, and-"

"White, I know." Hayward interrupted, glaring at White coldly. "I never thought I'd see you again, after what happened."

"Save the formalities, Hayward." White said. "I figured out what you've done."

"Done?" Hayward asked, intrigued. "What on earth do you mean?"

"My friend here says that you've committed some illicit acts in order for a supply of beneficial resources." I told him. "The benefactors are unknown to us, but we know what you've done."

Hayward looked shocked for a moment, his eyes widening ever so slightly, before he chuckled dryly.

"So you found out. To be honest, I'm proud of you." he congratulated. "It was only a one-time thing, and I didn't really think anyone would find out about it."

White looked somewhat startled. "That doesn't seem right..."

"Wait- that's it?" Glitch asked. "That seemed almost too quick..."

Hayward nodded. "I admit it, I did some...bartering a while ago with a few people. I didn't think it would come up again, since it was a one-time offer, but you seem to have found out about it rather quickly. How did you figure it out?"

Everyone looked around confusedly, before turning to White, who looked throughly perplexed.

"No...that can't be right!" he protested. "You've been doing it for a few months, back when I worked for you! Someone has been supplying you with money and energy for a long time!"

"En-Energy?" Hayward tilted his head. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm so confused..." I muttered. "What did you think we meant? What bartering did you do?"

Hayward looked around, a somewhat worried look crossing his face. "I- I thought you meant my trade several months ago, when I supplied some men with coke in exchange for funds."

"Coke?" White was astonished. "That was definitely not what I meant..."

"You do drug dealing?" Techno asked. An almost offended look came over the mayor's face.

"What?! No!" he almost shouted. "I meant coke as in Coca-Cola, the drink!"

A collective "ohhhhh" rose from the group as we realized what he meant.

"That sounded really sketchy," Glitch noted. "We thought you meant something else."

White stepped forward. "We came here to find out who's been supplying your company with money and energy, and why you've been acting so secretive about it."

"Oh...that." Hayward looked down at his hands, looking nervous as he spoke. "Well, I suppose I'd better tell you since you all got this far."

We all leaned forward to hear what this suspicious mayor had to say. My nervousness grew as Hayward began to explain himself.

"About a year ago, S.W.O.R.D. began to lose money. Our funds were dropping due to a project we were working on long ago, which required a source of energy, and we almost went bankrupt trying to get it up and running. I had a friend who works in the field of energy, and asked him if he could supply us for a time until we got back on our feet. He said he could, because of my position with the government."

"Who was the man?" I asked.

Hayward looked up at me as if seeing me for the first time. Something seemed to click for him, and he leaned forward. A smile grew across his face, one that was devoid of warmth, which caused a chill to run down my spine.

"Can't you guess?" he asked. "Who, in The Big City, is the only one with access to mass amounts of energy and money, who would help a man with a high position with the government solely for the sake of power?"

My eyes widened at his words, and I gasped as I realized exactly who he was talking about.

"Monty Burns..." I whispered, barely able to believe it. Our arch-nemesis, working with the mayor of The Big City...who knows what dastardly plans lay in store for us. I felt Techno stiffen from beside me, and Glitch drew a sharp breath as they, too, realized the horror of the situation.

"Right in one!" Hayward laughed. "Monty has told us a lot about you, Wonder, and your friends. He had never planned to let you go, and he still plots to take over the world. You can't stop him, now that the Project is finished."

"The Project..." I repeated slowly. "What happened?"

"Monty had always had a strange fascination with reanimation," Hayward remarked. "that is, the act of bringing people, or things, back to life. He had made some sort of breakthrough recently as he was figuring out how to do that successfully. An associate of his, Quackity, had some friends who were killed recently, and Monty used them for the Project. It went successfully."

"You mean-"

"Those people that were with Quackity, they were brought back to life." Hayward said simply.

We all looked at each other, a frightened expression imprinted on each of our faces. Monty had brought back all of those people that we had killed at Las Nevadas; Purple Guy, Squidward, Comet, Mabel...and Ballora. A shiver ran down my spine at the thought of meeting her again.

"Don't bother trying to fight him," Hayward advised, his words only adding to our fear, uncertainty and doubt piercing the last bits of courage I had left. "There's nothing you can do.

"Just give up."