[Scene 1: Home Base, Internal Threat]
The sudden, brutal warp from the Pizza Nebula didn't return Team Sloth to the pristine Dream Weaver Sanctuary; instead, they were dumped unceremoniously onto the plush softness of the Toasted Blanket Fortress. They had been dragged back to the source of Leo's Cosmic Inertia—their home—but the atmosphere was now thick with suspicion.
Leo's defeat—the failure of his Inertia and the stolen Memory Tuner—was forgotten, replaced by the chilling truth of the dark, crushed unraveling marble in his hand.
"Someone on this team is working with Dmitri Fox," Leo stated, his voice flat, devoid of sarcasm. He tossed the crushed psychic dust onto the nearest blanket. "This marble was a tracking beacon and a psychological stressor. It was hidden on my snack packet—my most intimate comfort zone. They knew exactly where to plant it."
Astrid's face was pale. The statistical probability of having a traitor in their core group—Tank, Lulu, Lys, Sanaa, and the two of them—was an efficiency nightmare. "Facts first, feelings later! Fact: We were all together for the temporal jump. Fact: Someone on this floor is a liability."
Tank immediately bristled, thumping his chest. "If you think I'm a snake, Laura, Let's smash AND grab! I'll smash the traitor first, then smash your data tablet!"
"Tank, stand down!" Astrid commanded, her voice cutting through the tension. She immediately seized control of the crisis, her analytical mind thriving on the need for internal quarantine. "We lock down. We run diagnostics. We rely only on data that can be verified. Lys, use your Echo Lens to scan for lingering psychic corruption."
[Scene 2: The Spy's Objective and the Missing Artifact]
Leo, however, didn't need a lens. He needed Consciousness. He achieved a rapid, low-level state of Inertia—not to stabilize the room, but to perceive the emotional landscape. He became The Observer, pushing himself into Powerlessness to perceive truth.
He saw not physical residue, but trails of faint, dark anxiety emanating from the Void Whispers. The marble wasn't just a tracker; it was meant to corrupt the mission's spiritual core.
Leo focused on the source of their emotional strength. His gaze fell on a cushion where a key artifact should have been—a plush, colorful toy.
"It's not just a tracker, Laura," Leo said, his voice coming from deep in his Inertia state. "The target isn't the memory anymore. It's the Comfort Cruncher. It's gone."
The Comfort Cruncher was a bite-marked plushie that granted healing and cleansed fear when chewed. It was the team's vital asset for emotional recovery, typically held by Sanaa or Lulu for comic relief.
Astrid stared at the empty space, her logic registering the severity. "Targeting emotional healing... That's psychologically sophisticated. The objective isn't power; it's fracture."
Lulu gasped, clutching her Pocket Puffin. "It was just here! I saw it by the snack pile!"
[Scene 3: Recruiting the Tech Wizard]
The investigation required more than just intuition and logic; it needed specialized technology.
Astrid made a calculated risk, deciding which outsider had the highest statistical probability of being trustworthy. "Vance, we need a tech specialist who can track psychic signatures and temporal residue—someone who doesn't care about our emotional baggage."
Leo knew exactly who that was. "We need Petra Vale. She's the only one capable of deciphering Molly's chaos code."
Astrid reluctantly used a secured channel on her tablet. A hyperactive, high-pitched voice responded instantly.
"Hello? Is this the Protocol Activation Emergency? I just finished debugging a holographic K-Pop concert! I'm Petra Vale, tech wizard, 19, ready to troubleshoot! Sock it to 'em!"
Petra Vale burst into the Fortress—pink pixie cut, neon leggings4. She was exactly the kind of chaotic, focused energy Astrid usually despised, but desperately needed.
"Data dump," Astrid ordered immediately, ignoring Petra's appearance. "We need a full spectral analysis on this dust and residual temporal flux. We need to know who was closest to the source when it was activated."
Petra, surprisingly efficient when dealing with pure data, produced a glove that crackled with static—her Static Netcaster. She scanned the room, her eyes wide with technological delight. "Ooh, psychic residue and temporal echoes? That's messy! I love messy data!"
[Scene 4: Interrogation and The Double Bluff]
While Petra ran the deep scan, Astrid conducted a tense, rapid-fire interrogation of Tank, Lulu, and Lys.
"Lys," Astrid pressed, her voice sharp. "When you retrieved the coordinates, did you see any shadow? Any betrayal?"
Lys, holding her Dreamweaver Scepter, shook her head slowly. "My vision was pure, focused on comfort. The betrayal is internal, a choice they have yet to fully make."
"Unusable data," Astrid muttered, turning to Tank. "Tank, where were you before the marble was planted?"
"I was grabbing the boss. Protecting him! Lulu was right there! I didn't steal the puffin plushie, whatever it is!" Tank roared, his loyalty blinding him to subtlety.
Leo watched the exchange, using his low-level Consciousness to monitor the emotional field. He realized the power of the spy's move: they hadn't chosen a known antagonist like Tank or Lulu; they had chosen someone who was trusted but harbored a hidden, fragile flaw (e.g., Sanaa's distractibility, Dice's recklessness).
Astrid, overwhelmed by the lack of clear data, slammed her tablet down. "The logic is broken! Every fact contradicts the motive! The spy would have stolen the Red Teapot itself, not a plush toy!"
"No, Laura," Leo said softly, pushing himself to stand. "The Red Teapot is a key to the future. The Comfort Cruncher is an anchor to the present. You break the present, you break the team. The spy is smarter than Fox."
[Scene 5: The Escape and Temporal Sabotage]
Petra's voice suddenly cut through the tension, high and urgent. "Anomaly detected! A massive, anomalous energy spike occurred exactly 01:00:00 ago—the moment of your temporal jump! The marble was a distraction! The spy activated a delayed energy rupture."
"What does that mean, Petra?" Astrid demanded, her green eyes wide.
"It means they used the time jump to set a bomb!" Petra shrieked. "The spy initiated a controlled dimensional shift using the Comfort Cruncher and the residual energy from the Protocol activation. They escaped to a new coordinate before the rest of you even landed!"
Astrid immediately tracked the anomalous residual energy trail from the Cruncher. It led straight to the ceiling, where a faint, shimmering, closed portal signature was fading. The spy was long gone.
"Inefficiency! They escaped during the exact window of our temporal loss!" Astrid yelled, pushing her platinum hair back. She stared at the faint portal signature. She now knew two things: the identity of the spy was hidden by the time jump, and the Comfort Cruncher was actively being used to corrupt their network.
CLIFFHANGER:
The Fortress suddenly groaned, and the fairy lights flickered violently, turning the aggressive neon green from Chapter 1. Petra's Static Netcaster crackled with overload.
"The residual energy from the dimensional shift—it's destabilizing the Fortress itself!" Petra cried. "The whole room is going temporal-static! If we don't fix it, we lose the base, and all of Leo's latent Inertia energy with it!"
Astrid realized the full depth of the betrayal. The spy didn't just steal a toy; they sabotaged their only place of rest and power. She turned to Leo, who was swaying, fighting the immediate urge to use his exhausting Inertia to stabilize the room.
"The Protocol is escalating, Vance!" Astrid ordered, the panic finally entering her voice. "We have no time for logic! Use your Inertia to push the static out! Now! Save the base!"
But Leo, exhausted and weakened by the spy's psychological corruption, couldn't find the strength. He collapsed, his head hitting the soft blanket, his consciousness fading.
A final, terrifying thought echoed in his mind: The spy used my desire for comfort against me. The base was collapsing, and Leo was powerless.