Once they were inside, they waited.
For the hum to settle.
For the rhythm to even out.
For the hive to forget them.
The moment the pod hit the hive platform, the trio burst free—
Celeste unsealed the hatch in one smooth motion.
Arcade overrode the lock mid-spark.
Bracer kicked the door off its hinges like it owed him money.
They spilled out into a honeycomb nightmare.
The interior of the gumball was a vast, layered structure—like a candy-coated beehive turned inside out. Chambers stacked endlessly, hex upon hex, each cell glowing softly with bioluminescent light. Zombies moved within the walls themselves, eyes lit, bodies swaying in perfect synchronization to a rhythm that wasn’t theirs.
C.H.I.P. chimed in through Arcade’s wrist screen.
“TRACKER LOCKED. BONBON IS… UH… HIGH. LIKE REALLY HIGH. CHAMBER B-17, WALL CLUSTER SIX.”
Celeste squinted upward.
There.
Tucked into the wall like an afterthought—Bonbon’s pod. Her eyes were closed, her tiny form curled inside like a marshmallow left too long in the cold.
Surrounding her were dozens more.
Villagers.
Purebloods.
Mythics.
Hybrids.
All unconscious. All suspended in glowing sugarfilm.
“We get them all,” Bracer said immediately.
Arcade nodded. “I’m hacking the clamps. Chip—loop the system noise. Buy me time.”
“This is your dumbest plan yet,” C.H.I.P. blurted cheerfully. “I LOVE IT. LOOPING NOW.”
Bracer moved first, already climbing—hauling freed villagers toward the slowly descending emergency lift. One by one. Quiet. Efficient. Like he’d trained for this exact nightmare.
Celeste didn’t wait.
She pried open Bonbon’s pod herself.
The sugarfilm hissed as it peeled apart.
Bonbon slumped forward, dazed and weak—but alive.
Her lips parted.
“Mam…”
The sound shattered Celeste completely.
She caught her, clutching her like the most precious thing in the world, tears spilling freely as she pressed her forehead to Bonbon’s.
“It’s okay, bonnie,” she whispered, voice breaking. “I’m here. You’re safe now. I’m sorry—I'm so sorry—I should have—”
Bonbon was already slipping back into sleep, warm and real in her arms.
Thirty villagers.
Thirty hearts beating.
Thirty lives saved—
Before the roar shook the hive to its core.
The gumball walls trembled.
An alarm shrieked—sharp, violent—flooding the chamber in blood-orange light. The lullaby cut off mid-note, replaced by a warped scream of distortion.
The zombies snapped out of rhythm.
Heads twitched. Jaws unhinged.
Then they surged.
Something huge moved deeper within the hive—each step sticky, wet, and wrong.
Celeste spun just as the wall split open.
A bloated monstrosity forced its way through—a pig-shaped zombie the size of a truck. Its body was made of dripping jelly-glaze and fried dough, candy-cane teeth jutting from a gaping maw. Pink steam hissed from its snout.
Worse—
It dragged a chain of fused zombies behind it like a butcher’s garland.
Arcade stared. “…What the custard-fried hell is that?”
“GLUTONNE!” C.H.I.P. squeaked. “VERSION THREE! BUT WITH BACON UPGRADES!”
“Why is it still alive?!” Arcade barked, snapping his wrist. “Chip—go big. Go maximum.”
“BEEFED-UP MODE—ACTIVATED!”
C.H.I.P. exploded outward, armor panels locking into place as his frame expanded into a hovering tank. Four hard-light limbs snapped out. Jet vents flared. His face screen flashed a furious red emoji.
“LET’S DONUT, COWARD!”
Arcade and C.H.I.P. charged left, flanking the beast.
Celeste summoned her twin katanas and went right—blades igniting with raw flame.
She carved through the tendrils dragging corpses, each slash a clean, burning arc. Arcade hurled sonic disks into the creature’s flank, stunning it mid-roar.
C.H.I.P. hit it head-on—
A candy wrecking ball colliding with a nightmare.
The pig-thing shrieked and rolled—slamming into the side wall.
Cracks splintered across the hive’s exit tunnel.
“Uh oh…” Arcade muttered.
“Chip’s too big! He’s destabilizing the exit frame!” Celeste shouted, cutting down another wave of smaller infected bursting from hidden hatches.
More walls buckled. Support struts groaned, candycrete shedding in sticky chunks.
“CHIP, MINIMIZE!” Arcade ordered. “NOW! We’re going to get caved in!”
“BUT I’M WINNING,” C.H.I.P. protested, punching the Glutonne straight through a sugar wall.
“NOW.”
With a sulky fwoosh, C.H.I.P. shrank mid-air, bouncing back into his compact mode and landing with an indignant clank.
“I WILL REMEMBER THIS IN MY THERAPY LOG.”
The Glutonne staggered—but didn’t fall.
It sucked in a massive breath, jelly-glaze body swelling as it charged its next attack.
Arcade swore. “All right. Enough.”
His chest plate irised open with a sharp mechanical whine.
Blue-white light bloomed inside him, growing brighter—hotter—until the air itself shimmered.
“CLEARING MY THROAT,” Arcade said grimly.
Arc Furnace Beam.
A sustained beam of crackling energy erupted from his chest, sweeping in a wide arc across the Glutonne’s torso. Candy flesh melted on contact, glaze boiling away in smoking sheets as the beam carved deep channels through the monster’s bulk.
C.H.I.P., hovering nearby, tilted his head as he scanned.
“OBSERVATION,” he said calmly. “SUBJECT IS APPROXIMATELY SIXTY-TWO PERCENT MORE DURABLE THAN EXPECTED. THIS IS RUDE.”
The Glutonne screamed, stumbling backward, half its side slagged and dripping.
Celeste spun—
—and saw Bracer ushering the last wave of terrified villagers toward the lift.
She made a split-second call.
“Go!” she shouted, voice tearing. “Take her and run!”
She pressed Bonbon into Bracer’s arms, hands lingering for just a heartbeat too long.
“Be safe, babygirl,” Celeste whispered, forcing a smile through the tears. “Mam’s right behind you.”
Bonbon mumbled something soft and unintelligible, already half-asleep.
Bracer nodded once, jaw tight.
He scooped Bonbon up like a knight carrying royalty and vanished down the descending lift, shepherding the final villagers behind him.
Celeste turned back toward the roaring Glutonne.
“Arcade,” she said, breathless. “One last combo?”
Arcade rolled his shoulders, chest plates sliding back into place. “You read my mind.”
Then—
THWAP.
A glob of enchanted chewing gum slammed into the floor behind them—spreading, stretching, locking their boots in place.
Celeste cursed, hacking at it with her blades.
Arcade raised his gun—
Too late.
From the far wall, a figure stepped forward.
A Cat-o-Wrap.
Its lollipop head tilted as its mouthless face opened into sound—not a scream, but a soft, echoing lullaby.
“Sleeeep… sleeeep… hero heart, melt away and fall apart…”
Celeste’s arms grew heavy.
Her knees buckled.
Arcade’s datapad slipped from numb fingers and clattered uselessly to the floor.
C.H.I.P.’s voice wavered as his systems dimmed.
“WAIT—WAIT—I JUST FIGURED OUT—DISCONNECTING—”
He despawned mid-sentence.
Celeste’s vision blurred.
Her legs gave out.
The last thing she felt was the sticky floor pressing up to meet her—
And then—
Nothing.
At the bottom of the web, Bracer turned back.
Just once.
Through the lattice of gum and shadow, he saw it—
Celeste.
Her body sagged, limp, as dark shapes swarmed around her. Candy-coated hands caught her before she hit the platform, dragging her backward into the hive’s glowing throat like she weighed nothing at all.
Gone.
Bracer’s chest locked.
“…No,” he breathed.
A rush of air—
Kirrin dropped beside him, wings snapping as she landed hard. “Where is she?” she demanded, eyes already searching the sky. “Where’s Celeste?”
Bracer didn’t look at her.
“She’s… done,” he said, voice hollow. “They took her.”
Kirrin swore viciously.
The web lurched.
A thunderous crack echoed as the dragon shifted above them, the entire structure trembling like it might tear itself free from the sky.
Kirrin grabbed Bracer under the arms and hauled him back as the platform tilted.
“Up—move!” she barked. “You’re not fallin’ after her!”
He didn’t resist. Didn’t fight.
She half-dragged, half-carried him down to solid ground just as—
“EVACUATE!” Bartleby shouted, voice ripping across the plaza. “Everyone off the platform! NOW!”
Topsy’s rockets screamed overhead, detonating in a wall of noise and colour as zombies surged again. Survivors scattered, running where they were told, fear finally overpowering shock.
Kirrin pulled Bracer into motion, boots pounding the earth as they retreated.
“Everyone move!” Bartleby shouted, voice carrying across the plaza as he waved survivors toward the roads. “Back to the base! Follow the lights—do not stop, no matter what you hear!”
He positioned himself at the edge of the platform, ushering people past with frantic efficiency, shoving weapons into shaking hands, pushing children forward.
“Go! Go! You’re safe now—run!”
Behind him, the ground erupted.
Zombies poured in from broken alleys and shattered stalls, drawn by noise and blood and fear.
Topsy whooped, already bracing her launcher against her shoulder.
“Oh no you don’t,” she chirped. “Queue’s closed!”
She fired.
Rockets streaked overhead, bursting into confetti and concussive blasts that sent zombies sprawling in tangled heaps, glitter and candy shrapnel raining down as she reloaded with manic speed.
“Evacuation fireworks!” she yelled. “Very festive! Very violent!”
At the bottom of the web, Mezzo helped the last of the survivors off the platform, breathing hard. Cuts lined his arms. Sugar-burns blistered his hands where the webbing had burned through his gloves.
Then he saw Bracer—
Holding Bonbon.
Arcade wasn’t there.
Celeste wasn’t there.
Mezzo’s heart stopped.
“Where is she?” he demanded, panic ripping through his voice. “Where’s Celeste?! Where’s Arcade?!”
Bracer didn’t answer right away.
His silence was a blade.
“They stayed behind,” he said finally. “To cover us.”
No.
Mezzo refused that reality.
Without another word, he bolted.
He sprinted for the sticky remains of the gumline, scrambling up the support structure like a madman. His boots slipped on syrup-slick resin. His fingers tore open as he clawed for purchase, blood smearing across the web as he climbed.
“I can do it!” he shouted hoarsely. “I can get her—I won’t leave her—!”
A massive roar split the sky.
The dragon moved.
High above, its eyes flared like furnaces as it stirred, tail uncoiling from the dome. The web shuddered violently, strands snapping and recoiling under its weight.
Kirrin ran after Mezzo and caught him just as the structure lurched. She wrapped her arms around his waist and dragged him back, boots skidding as he kicked and fought.
“LET ME GO!” Mezzo screamed, voice shredded raw. “SHE’S STILL UP THERE—SHE’LL DIE—!”
“Mezzo!” Kirrin shouted, holding him tight as tears streamed down his face. “You’ll die too! We can’t lose all of you!”
“I can’t—” His voice broke. “I can’t leave her…”
“She wouldn’t want you to die,” Kirrin snapped fiercely. “She trusted you to protect Bonbon. Don’t waste that!”
Behind them, the ground shook again—zombies charging in waves, drawn by the scent of blood and the echo of grief.
Topsy fired another rocket, laughing a little too loudly as it exploded into chaos. Bartleby dragged the last stragglers into cover, shouting directions until his voice cracked.
Kirrin hauled Mezzo backward into the trees, his limbs still flailing, fingers stretching helplessly toward the towering hive above.
He screamed her name as they vanished into the dark—
And the gumball above, glowing like a captured moon, loomed on in silence.
