Samuel pulled himself out of his containment unit. For reasons the spectators surrounding him couldn't explain, his eyes illuminated a large portion of the pitch black environment.

"Samuel...?"

He turned his attention towards Matilda. He wasn't angry or afraid. He was simply...Curious...

"How do you know my name...?"

"My name is Matilda - Matilda Snow. We came here primarily to investigate the disappearances of your father Raphael and the lost townspeople."

"Raphael's missing!?"

Matilda winced. Sarah walked over to him and knelt down.

"Hey bud. Sorry about the wake-up call. My name is Sarah. I'm tagging along with the squirts over there. They've been working on this case for a good while now."

"How long have I been out...?"

"What's the last thing you remember?"

Samuel looked up at the ceiling. He became lost in his own thoughts.

"I remember...Raphael. We were talking about something."

"Do you know what it was?"

"It's a bit hazy, but I think we were talking about a monster."

"A MONSTER," the girls shouted simultaneously.

"I think he called it the dread something-or-other. I can't remember the full name."

"Dread...," Matilda reflected, "Do you mean a dreadnought!?"

"Yeah! That's it! The dreadnought."

"Anybody wanna' fill me in," Sarah voiced impatiently.

"Dreadnoughts are the vengeful spirits of grief-stricken humans who died violently," Matilda informed her, "They exist solely to spread pain and fear wherever they go."

"Oh. That's nice. Totally not gonna' lose any sleep over that at all."

"Do you think it got Raphael," Samuel asked.

"I don't know. You've been asleep for a long time. There's no telling what's happened since then."

"How long?"

"Raphael disappeared in 1999. It's 2020 now."

"You mean...I've been frozen for over twenty years...!?"

"I'm sorry..."

Samuel chuckled and shook his head.

"Talk about a cruel twist of fate, huh...?"

"Mattie," Carol warned, "If this started with one dreadnought, the entire city is probably infested with angry ghosts by now."

"Which means we're in deep trouble. We need to come up with a plan. Let's fall back."

"Follow us, Sammy" Sarah instructed.

"Where are we going?"

"We're holing up in a hotel for a few days. Might wanna' get the rest of your clothes first, though."

"Right."

Samuel pulled a white t-shirt, a black duster coat, and a necklace from a nearby desk. The party exited the room. Had he rotated himself just a few more degrees, he would have seen the collection of yellow proteins and minerals not far away...

Bubbles picked up her camera and pressed the stop button. Rainbow followed suit.

"That ad lib was insane," Blossom praised, "Never in a million years would I have dreamed that up!"

"Thought you might like that," Rainbow remarked with a smirk, "Twilight tells me I have a brash personality sometimes. Figured I could play into that and get a genuine reaction."

"I seriously thought you were gonna' break the camera!"

"It was something I picked up from a movie called As Above, So Below. There's a scene where the main character picks up one of her crew's video cameras and cracks a demon across the face with it."

"That sounds awesome!"

"It's more killer than it sounds. The demons are made out of solid stone."

"No way!"

"Yeah. That's what I said."

"We should probably clean this up before the professor gets back," Boomer acknowledged.

"Do you guys wanna' film another scene," Rainbow asked.

"Nah," Blossom rejected, "Let's clean this up and grab something to eat in town. I'll message the professor and let him know where we're going."

"I WANT A MILKSHAKE," Bubbles squealed.

"Let's go get Buttercup."

Author's Note

"AND THEN IT RANG IN MY HEAD; 'LOVE IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT'! SOME HANDS, WE HAVE TO FOLD, AND THE HARDEST LESSONS YOU'LL LEARN ARE THE ONES YOU'VE BEEN TOLD!"

-The Ghost Inside, Downbeat