CHAPTER [[GARY]]
STORY


You wanna know how it all goes down? Well, you're in the right place. This is the ENTIRETY of my Deltarune Au written down; a script of each route, each interaction, each fight, every little thing all put together into one big package, all organized with a neat table of contents.
I wrote this down so I could keep my timeline straight and iron out any plot holes and continuity errors. Plus for y’alls reading pleasure.


BEFORE THE STORY

(Pacifist route w/ Spamton NEO)
Spamton fails to join Kris as an item after the NEO fight due to a game error. Gets left behind because of that as the Fun Gang goes on to fight GIGA Queen and close the dark fountain. Kris and Susie leave the Dark World as in-game. At the end of the day, as Kris prepares to open another Dark Fountain in their living room, they get stopped as the world suddenly goes black. The next day, Kris and Susie wake up separately despite Susie crashing at Kris’ place. The beginning of Chapter 2 repeats itself until they revisit Castletown, which also seems affected, every recruited Darkner from Cyber City mysteriously disappearing overnight. Realizing that something is very wrong, the Fun Gang returns to the library, its Dark Fountain somehow still open.

NEW CYBER CITY INTRO

The group find themselves back in the Cyber World, a place much different than what it once was. Night blues replaced with sharp contrasting shadows in the distance, TV screens spying on everyone down below. Someone else had taken control over the city. While making their way out of Cyber Fields, the group would be stopped by a walking TV screen, a giant colored eye staring back at them through the screen. With a familiar booming voice, it welcomes them to the new and improved Cyber City, that “he” had been expecting them to show up eventually. This walking screen would be the chapter’s opening bossfight.

After defeating the first bossfight, Kris and the gang get congratulated by the broken screen, being invited to visit “the big one” at the skyscraper in the middle of the city. With that, they venture deeper into the metropolis. Things still feel familiar, some Darkners changed, others completely replaced with new ones. Their main goal now is to find a way inside the skyscraper structure in the middle of the city and hopefully ask whoever opened this new Dark Fountain to close it. During the exploring, mini bosses and puzzles, the Fun Gang realize that they can’t see a Dark Fountain anywhere. Their best guess is that said skyscraper was some kind of tower covering the entire beam of Darkness, so getting inside became even more of a priority now.

MEET BEN

Eventually the gang figures out that the whole city is connected through a giant elevated railway system that runs over the buildings and roads of the place. They decide to try to get on in hopes of finding a way into the tower. Luckily, they came to the right place. Before they can form a plan, a rail cart passes by, swooping them on board the open rail cart that speeds down the railways. Aboard, they meet Ben, a kid who welcomes them into the city and aboard the “Ride Around Town - Neo City Guided Tours -name pending trademark-” railway. Ben says he’s the son of the man who invited them into what he calls the NewsStation Tower, and that he’s very excited to meet them after hearing years of stories about them. Before they could ask about that, they’re dropped off at an opening on the side of the NewsStation Tower, Ben waving goodbye to them as he goes on his way to finish his shift.

MEET GARY

As the gang ventures deeper into the studio, they get lost in long uneven hallways, fighting overworked lawyers and guard dogs. Eventually they make it into a news filming set, the steps and news anchor desk too tall for anyone they know to use. The lights blinded them as they turned on seemingly unprompted, the whole set coming to life as if part of an organism. Standing behind the giant desk sat a giant robot identical to the little crazy salesman Kris and the others had fought back in the basement of Queen’s Mansion. The robot introduces himself as Gary and welcomes the gang into his NewsStation Tower. He rambled about how he’d finally done it; he was on top again, and he’d cut his own strings. He temptingly offered to do the same for Kris, much to the confusion of Susie and Ralsei. Susie interrupted Gary, telling him how they didn’t need his help while Ralsei inquired about the Dark Fountain. Gary seemingly didn’t know where it was either. Not believing the robot, another bossfight commences; the Fun Gang against Gary himself.

Due to being protected behind set pieces, they only manage to destroy Gary’s set, but not hurt the man himself. Somewhat cornered, Gary makes a deal with the gang. Insisting that not even he knows where the Dark Fountain is, he encourages the kids to roam around the studio as much as they please until they find said Fountain. If they find it, they’re welcome to close it. This is the part where the player can choose to follow two routes: to either stay in the tower with Gary and exclude almost the whole city from their available map, or decline the deal and get kicked out into the streets, severely limiting how much of the tower they can access. This will greatly affect the ending and stories the player will learn about in-game.

> Accepting the deal

> Declining the deal

ACCEPTING THE DEAL : INSIDER ROUTE

If the player accepts the deal, Gary will be delighted to have Kris and their friends around. He’d recommend them to stick to the higher levels of the tower since the lower ones were in need of renovations. Gary would also comment about Ben, confirming that he was indeed his son. He’d tell the kids to let him be as he was too busy doing tours and running the NewsStation GiftShop, so as not to bother him too much. The player would then be allowed to roam the tower freely, to go where they pleased; from the back of the building all the way to the top of the tower. Susie and Ralsei are confused at first as to why Kris would take such a deal, until Ralsei calms their own nerves by guessing it’s all part of a plan by Kris to give them more freedom to look for the Dark Fountain. With that, the gang decides to split so that they can look for the Dark Fountain faster. If any of them find something, they’ll just get the others and Kris to close the fountain.

The player is guided to investigate many locked rooms by finding alternative ways to get inside, like doing puzzles to unlock air vents and fast-travel systems to get from one end of the tower to the other. This would be great to unlock some of the hardest puzzles, which play around with time mechanics and how the player needs to travel from one end of the tower to the other very fast. Accompanied by these puzzles would be small encounters with Gary himself here and there, seemingly being able to spawn wherever he pleases despite his massive size. He lightly taunts Kris for snooping around his tower so much - despite being given permission to do so - but never stops them from going off to snoop around some more. He’ll also sometimes ramble about his job or how he keeps things organized. A few puzzles later and no sight of the Dark Fountain still, Kris runs into Susie, who also found nothing. They decide to stick together in hopes of getting things solved faster if they work together, Susie now being part of the party if the player runs into more enemies. However, as soon as they pass a few zones by themselves, Susie and Kris get separated as part of the corridor ceiling falls down, destroying the floor and leaving Kris to fall down to the lower floors of the tower.

RGB: RED GRILL BBQ

At the bottom of the facility, the player would recognize the blocked off entrance of the building as being similar to the entrance to Queen’s Mansion. While trying to enter what once was the Color Cafe, they’re met instead with RGB: Red Grill BBQ, with Swatch still behind the counter. This is the first shop the player would find in this route.

Interacting with Swatch will reveal how not even he knew what was going on. One day he was in Castle Town, the other he was back in his Queen’s Mansion, or at least what remained of it. Swatch would seem confused, not completely aware of how long it had been since he was last in Castle Town. He’d still try to look his best and sound presentable for the player. Swatch had been forced to ditch his pristine butler status and work all day and night at a cyber grill place by Gary’s orders. Swatch is also accompanied by Queen, who’d been turned into a banana battery - she’s mostly comic relief. If asked about Ben, Swatch will say that he knows the boy, but he hasn’t seen him in a very long time. It is implied that Swatch used to be allowed near Gary and Ben, but something happened in between the two and Swatch was banished to the bottom of the tower.

As Kris exits the shop, they find another fast-travel passage that takes them back to the higher levels of the tower, Swatch now being an open shop the player can visit at any time. Gary shows up after a few more puzzles, warning Kris about “going in too deep” and venturing into areas that weren’t meant to be accessed, implying that all the puzzles the player had been solving were meant to be solved to reveal nothing behind them. He lets them go with a warning, and another small teasing about how they too can “be free of their own strings” if they “follow along”.

GIFTSHOP

While exploring the upper floors of the tower, the player is led to return to the place where they’d first entered the tower. While there, they’d realize a previously closed door was now open. When entering it, they’d find Ben behind the counter who welcomes them to the TV Studios GiftShop. This is the second shop of the route.

Talking to Ben would make him explain how he has two jobs at his dad’s business: he’s both a tour guide and a shopkeeper. He’ll tell you how it gets tiring sometimes, but that he’s always happy to take some work off of his dad’s back. When asking about Gary, Ben will tell you how his dad told him he’d saved everyone by creating a “better city”, and how his dad also told Ben to never leave the tower unless he’s up on the railcarts. Ben would explain how Gary himself never leaves the tower, but that he has eyes everywhere.

As soon as Kris leaves the shop, they find Susie who, after the floor collapses, went to get Ralsei to help her find Kris. The group decide to stick together from here on out, realizing Gary had practically sent them on a wild goose chase. With that, they decide to confront the man and get to the bottom of this.

GARY FIGHT

When returning to the top of the tower where Gary’s filming set is, he’s not there. The gang find a secret passage behind the filming set that leads to the rooftop of the tower. Once they get there, they find Gary looking over his city; he knew they’d be coming after him. He exclaims that yes, he did send them on a silly quest that he knew would have no end. In the end, Gary reveals that someway, somehow, he was the one to open a new Dark Fountain, much to Ralsei’s shock and disbelief. He leaves it ambiguous on how he managed to do it, but it’s implied that out of sheer will to keep living after being left in the basement after Kris closed the first Dark Fountain, he managed to open one himself. Or… become one; his will to continue fuelling a whole new city that he could shape to his will. However, by doing that, he’d angered whoever it was that had control of things before Gary did. He’d been keeping himself safe, tucked away in his tower with all of his security systems, but after Kris and their friends arrived, he realized that they too could become a problem. The game’s final bossfight begins: Gary and his will to keep living against the Fun Gang.

The second time around, Gary is much more aggressive and sleazy with his attacks, sometimes pulling mechanics that border on cheating, like teleporting bullets that didn’t hit the SOUL back inside the bullet board. He’s desperate to end the Fun Gang one way or another. During the battle, he’d spew nonsense at Kris and the player, defending his decision to take matters into his own hands when nobody came to save him, and that he too deserves to live on like most other Darkners did after their worlds got erased. It is unknown how Gary knows about other Dark Worlds, but he’s aware of what Kris and the Player have been doing and actively shames them for keeping that will all to themselves.

The player can both deplete Gary’s health bar down to 10%, or fill his Mercy up to 90%. FIGHTing leads to Gary trying to pause the fight and pretend to beg for mercy from the player. ACTing leads to the battle pausing with Gary too tired to keep fighting. He acknowledges that Kris isn’t doing this out of their own free will to an extent, but that even knowing that, he knows where this situation is going. Regardless of how you chose to go about it, both routes lead to the same outcome, the aftermath being the differing part. Once one of the endings is achieved, Gary will melt into the floor and disappear from the rooftop. A few seconds of confusion later, the Studio Tower begins to shake and crumble apart. The Fun Gang jumps onto a passing rail cart as the tower reshapes itself; Gary using his own broadcasting tower to create a bigger version of himself to finally defeat Kris and the gang. The second phase begins: GIGA Gary.

In the second phase of the fight, the Fun Gang stand on individual moving rail carts that travel around GIGA Gary like they did the original TV Broadcasting Tower. The attacks are the same as in phase 1, but combined with one another (ex. two attacks or mechanics happening at the same time), making his battle a horrid bullet hell. FIGHTing and ACTing work the same as well.

FINALE

At the end of phase 2, Gary’s body crumbles apart as the screen fades to white with an explosion. In the white void, text from an unknown source will appear on screen, apologizing to either Kris or the player about the mess that Spamton made, that he was never meant to be more than a cautionary tale, that he was never supposed to make it through like the rest of the Darkners you can recruit to Castle Town. But not to fret, as whoever is speaking promises to fix this whole mess. After the fight, the player will spawn in the aftermath of the Spamton NEO fight, going through the failed cutscene of Spamton turning into an item for the player to connect. It seems Kris and Spamton are the only ones aware of what has happened and, forced to follow the script imposed onto him and with no way out, Spamton says his final speech and disappears, the game not going through the same error it did before. If Gary is defeated through FIGHTing, the player receives the Wing Axe; an ax resembling Gary’s wings and stretchy arms. If he’s defeated through ACTing, the player receives the NewsBreaker; Gary’s red tie with a blue gem at the knot. The game ends with the implication that Kris has to finish the Cyber City world again, preventing Spamton from ever getting a chance to do this again.

> Secret Boss

DECLINING THE DEAL : OUTSIDER ROUTE

If the player declines Gary’s deal, this will enrage the man and make him order Ben to throw Kris and the gang out of the tower. With that, Ben escorts the team back onto the rail cart and sends them off back onto the streets. The player can no longer enter the TV Broadcasting Tower, locking that part of the map away until the final bossfight.

Now stuck outside, the gang decide to split and look for clues around the city for ways to get back inside, still sure that this is all some evil plan from Garys’. Going back into the city, Kris travels alone, solving puzzles and talking to NPCs scattered around the streets. From some investigating, the player will come to learn more and more about Gary and how he got to where he is. They’ll tell the player that Gary and Ben have somewhat always been there despite not remembering exactly where they came from. Gary has been in charge since they can recall, acting as the City’s only TV channel and news station; a celebrity before a ruler. They’ll also reveal that strange things started happening in the last 3 or 4 years; random power outages spanning entire blocks would happen almost every month, and with them, rumors of new mysterious inhabitants started spreading.

MEET SUL

With this information, Kris continues on their way around the city until finding an open store; a lonely pharmacy at the edge of the city. When entering, Kris is met with a storefront. A masked pharmacist at the counter welcomes Kris into the shop. Talking to the man would make him introduce himself as Mr.Sul. He runs the pharmacy by himself, happy to provide “new and alternative miracle cures” for the miserable and the hopeless. This is the first shop of the route.

When asking about the city, Sul will tell you it’s such a flashy place to live in, though Sul laments its ruler being such a distant person. When asking about the pharmacy, Sul will happily hype himself and his business up. He’s sure he’s got what you need plus what you don’t know you need yet. When asking about Gary, including the fact that you’ve met the man, Sul will suddenly get very interested in you. He’ll be happily surprised that you know the man, and that you once were inside his broadcasting tower. With that extra information, Sul proposes a plan. He too has been trying to break into the tower. He mentions that there’s something he and his “team” need that’s buried deep deep down into the studio’s basement. He calls it “their ticket back home”. He proposes you two work together to break into the tower and, once that happens, you go your separate ways. The player is forced to agree to this deal since they already lost their first chance to snoop around inside the tower.

With that settled, Sul tasks Kris with fetching the rest of the team for him; three other Darkners, two of them always sticking together. Once they can deliver the message to everyone, Sul will help them break into the place. With that, the player can leave the store and go off on their way. After returning to the busier streets of the city, Ralsei finds Kris and joins them for a while. He updates them on how they still don’t know where the Dark Fountain is, but have new information on Gary and Ben. Ralsei confirms that, besides the railways Ben uses to do his guided tours, there’s supposedly a secret entrance at ground level to the tower. If they could find it, they could get back inside and solve this whole mystery. You can choose to tell Ralsei about Sul and the deal you made with him, getting different responses from Ralsei. Whichever characters the player finds first is left up to the player’s wandering and where they decide to go.

MEET KINDER

The player can venture down into the outskirts of the city, the place surrounded by tall metal poles and dangling green cables, mimicking a deep dense forest full of trees. Enemies were scarce if not none in this area. The further into the forest they went, the more the player would find what would look like crayon scribbles on the cold metal floor. While that happens, Ralsei would speak to Kris about how this place - the whole dark world - gave him a very bad feeling. Darkners here didn’t seem to serve a Lightner or even know what they are, something a Darkner is practically made for; Gary seems to live for himself, Ben lives for his dad, and most Darkners Ralsei spoke to seem to live to watch Gary up on the big screen. To the dark prince, this was unnatural, dangerous even, questioning if a Darkner should even live in such a way.

Before he could continue that thought, Kris and Ralsei get ambushed by a large creature that quickly engages in combat with the two. After a quick CHECK, the player learns that this is Kinder, one of Sul’s “team members” who they’re supposed to recruit. Kinder is a mini bossfight exclusive to this route. Despite being a very hostile enemy, Kinder’s attacks are mostly themed after childhood iconography, like arts and crafts, toys and books. Kinder can be defeated by depleting his HP to 10% or filling his MERCY up to 100%. Defeating him through FIGHTing will get Kinder to collapse on the ground, ending the battle, followed by Ralsei quickly healing them. If defeated through ACTing, Kinder will become much calmer after realizing he’d been fighting literal children. Regardless, Kris will be prompted to explain Sul’s plan to Kinder. Realizing they can trust them, Kinder decides to follow along, giving them one of two items before running off to presumably meet Sul at the pharmacy. If defeated through FIGHTing, Kris will receive the Paper Blade; a sharp pale blade that gives its opponent papercuts. If defeated through ACTing, Kris will receive the StickerSheet; a sheet of colorful stickers to go on your face.

MEET DOLLIE & SWEATER

The player can venture down into the sewage area of the city, long concrete tunnels that run all under the city. Enemies were scarce if not none in this area. The further into the tunnels they went, the more the player would find patches of ice and snow covering parts of the concrete. During this walk, Ralsei would speak to Kris about how weird this whole situation was. A Dark World without a Dark Fountain was practically unheard of, but the more they looked, the less likely it seemed that a Dark Fountain existed here at all. Ralsei tries to brainstorm how that would even be possible, or perhaps, how else a Dark Fountain could manifest itself if not in the usual way. If it wasn’t the usual pillar of flowing darkness they knew, what else could it look like? What other shape would it take? Before he could continue this thought, Ralsei and Kris were chased deeper into the tunnels by someone following behind them. Eventually, they reach a dead end and find themselves cornered by two Darkners, one quickly engaging in combat with them. After a quick CHECK, the player learns these are Dollie and Sweater, the other two members of Sul’s “team” who they’re supposed to recruit.

Dollie and Sweater are a duo mini bossfight exclusive to this route. In battle, Dollie is the more aggressive one, Sweater following behind only to assist her, which makes him easier to spare. Dollie’s attacks are themed after haunted dolls and chainmails, trying to scare the player into running into her attacks. Meanwhile, Sweater’s attacks are very minimal ice themed bullets that go along with Dollie’s more complex attacks. Dollie can be defeated by depleting her health bar down to 10% or filling her MERCY up to 100%. However, it is easier to fill Sweater’s MERCY, which would also end the battle. If defeating any of them through FIGHTing, the other one would stop the battle to defend the other. If defeated through ACTing, Sweater will be the one stopping the battle regardless, begging Dollie to stop fighting as well. Regardless, Kris will be prompted to explain Sul’s plan to Dollie and Sweater. Realizing they can trust them, the duo decide to follow along, giving Kris one of two items before running off to presumably meet Sul at the pharmacy. If defeated through FIGHTing, Kris will receive the Doll Scarf from Dollie; a black and purple scarf, the thread screams. If defeated through ACTing, Kris will receive the IceBreaker; old desaturated glasses, the lenses damaged by frostbite.

THE ADDITONS

Following the clue Ralsei gave Kris, the player can find a secret path that leads all the way to the back entrance of the TV Studio Tower. When trying to interact with the door, the player finds that it is locked. After trying to interact with it, a nearby garbage container swings open to reveal four little guys living inside. They call Kris over, seemingly knowing who they are and welcoming them back like an old friend. This is the second shop of the route.

The dumpster shop is run by four Spamton-looking Darkners: Blue, Yellow, Orange and Pink. Each one of them seems to be inspired by a specific type of online scam; Blue is inspired by fast fashion, Yellow by investments, Orange by health supplements and Pink by sweetheart swindles. When asking the shopkeepers who they are, they’ll tell Kris they’re just trying to make it in the world like everybody else, to not be shy and come on by. When asking about Cyber City, they’ll answer that it’s a wonderful place to live in… if you’re not on the streets, and tempt Kris to let them stick around their party. When asking about Ben, the Additons will express empathy and lament how blind the kid is to how his dad treats him. When asking about Gary, they’ll shame and mock the man for presenting himself as “the cure for all evils”, Pink even throwing in how Gary’s “such a heartbreaker”.

Once the player has all Sul’s team members recruited and sent off, Susie finds Kris and Ralsei around the city and decides to stick with them. She’ll inform the group about a rumor that started going around about a group of people who are gonna try to break into the TV Studio Tower tonight, and that maybe they should follow along. Depending on what Kris told Ralsei about the plan they have with Sul, the dialogue here will be different but result in the same outcome; they’ll follow behind these people and break into the studio. Visiting any shop before the break-in will have the characters hinting that, after they break in, both stores will be permanently closed. Before entering the tower, Sul waits for Kris at the door to give them a somewhat heartfelt thanks for their help. He explains that this is something he’s been trying to do for much longer than Kris could ever imagine possible, and that Gary will pay for what he’s done… to everyone.

When the gang decide it’s time to break in, they’ll have to make their way up the floors of the tower all the way to the top. If Dollie, Sweater and Kinder were defeated through MERCY/ACTing, they’ll spare the player some fights against enemies inside the tower. Not all fights will be skipped, but enough to make the task significantly easier on the Fun Gang.

GARY FIGHT

When returning to the top of the tower where Gary’s filming set is, he’s not there. The gang find a secret passage behind the filming set that leads to the rooftop of the tower. Once they get there, they find Gary looking over his city; he knew they’d be coming after him. He exclaims that yes, he did send them on a silly quest that he knew would have no end. In the end, Gary reveals that someway, somehow, he was the one to open a new Dark Fountain, much to Ralsei’s shock and disbelief. He leaves it ambiguous on how he managed to do it, but it’s implied that out of sheer will to keep living after being left in the basement after Kris closed the first Dark Fountain, he managed to open one himself. Or… become one; his will to continue fuelling a whole new city that he could shape to his will. However, by doing that, he’d angered whoever it was that had control of things before Gary did. He’d been keeping himself safe, tucked away in his tower with all of his security systems, but after Kris and their friends arrived, he realized that they too could become a problem. The game’s final bossfight begins: Gary and his will to keep living against the Fun Gang.

The second time around, Gary is much more aggressive and sleazy with his attacks, sometimes pulling mechanics that border on cheating, like teleporting bullets that didn’t hit the SOUL back inside the bullet board. He’s desperate to end the Fun Gang one way or another. During the battle, he’d spew nonsense at Kris and the player, defending his decision to take matters into his own hands when nobody came to save him, and that he too deserves to live on like most other Darkners did after their worlds got erased. In this route, he’ll also add that he knows Kris made a deal with someone to help them break into the tower. Gary doesn’t know who it is, his insane paranoid rambles continuing as the fight goes on.

The player can both deplete Gary’s health bar down to 10%, or fill his Mercy up to 90%. FIGHTing leads to Gary trying to pause the fight and pretend to beg for mercy from the player. ACTing leads to the battle pausing with Gary too tired to keep fighting. He acknowledges that Kris isn’t doing this out of their own free will to an extent, but that even knowing that, he knows where this situation is going. Regardless of how you chose to go about it, both routes lead to the same outcome.

FINALE

Before Gary can do anything to continue the fight, he’s swarmed by the Additons who crawl up his legs and arms to distract him. Stumbling and tired from the fight, Gary ends up slipping and falling from the rooftop of the tower and crashing down somewhere in the city below. As he does so, the tower itself begins to crumble and fall apart, the Fun Gang crashing down with it. When they come to it, Kris is separated from the group. They find Gary's broken body, lying next to debris and trash, seemingly trying to keep itself alive, but unable to move. As Kris collapses still far away from the body, the player watches as a figure shrouded in darkness approaches Gary’s body. It seems to scold Gary - calling him Spamton - on “having made such a mess”, that none of this was supposed to happen. That he above most people should know that “nobody can choose who they are in this world”.

After the cutscene, the player will spawn in the aftermath of the Spamton NEO fight, going through the failed cutscene of Spamton turning into an item for the player to connect. It seems Kris and Spamton are the only ones aware of what has happened and, forced to follow the script imposed onto him and with no way out, Spamton says his final speech and disappears, the game not going through the same error it did before. If Gary is defeated through FIGHTing, the player receives the Wing Axe; an ax resembling Gary’s wings and stretchy arms. If he’s defeated through ACTing, the player receives the NewsBreaker; Gary’s red tie with a blue gem at the knot. The game ends with the implication that Kris has to finish the Cyber City world again, preventing Spamton from ever getting a chance to do this again.

SECRET BOSS

To unlock the chapter’s secret boss, the player is forced to pick the Insider Route and visit Ben in the GiftShop many times during the run.

While exploring the TV Studio Tower by themselves, the player can encounter many employee break rooms scattered across the floors of the tower. Most of the time they’ll find non-hostile enemies lounging around in there and food items hidden in fridges or cabinets. While exploring and talking to the Darkners in there, Kris can collect conversation topics or objects to go talk with Ben about; things that challenge the way Ben sees his dad. With each time the player confronts Ben with these things, the less excited he becomes about seeing Kris, fearing he’ll have to keep defending his dad’s image and try to make all these conflicting thoughts make sense in his head. Ben firmly believes that his dad can do no wrong. He’s a little weird, sure, but he’ll chalk it down to simply being weird, but not unloving or, even worse, malicious.

After meeting Swatch in the lower levels of the studio, the player can buy a food item from Swatch. Something that, according to letters and notes spread around the break room areas, Swatch used to cook for Ben when he was still allowed to be around him and Gary. Bringing the food item to Ben will cause the boy to, in a desperate attempt to prove his dad isn’t some vile monster, give Kris the keys to Gary’s office, telling them to go look in there as much as they want and that they won’t find any secrets or evil plans from his dad. When entering Gary’s office, Kris will find the room dark and empty, save for a large dumpster and some trash spread around the room. When digging through the dumpster, the player will find a Shadow Crystal, practically confirming that Gary is indeed Spamton in disguise. Returning to the GiftShop and giving Ben the Shadow Crystal will be the point of no return and make the shop close down permanently. Giving Ben the Shadow Crystal will cause Ben to admit he’d seen it before, but never knew what it was. When holding the crystal up to his eye, Ben will freeze in place, his expression dropping. It’s not explicitly said what he sees, but it’s enough to make Ben start panicking and run out of the store.

If the player attempts to follow him to the lower levels of the tower, they can talk to Swatch, who’ll tell the player that Ben ran into the shop, crying and screaming that he didn’t know what was going on. Before Swatch could comfort the boy, he ran away, Swatch believing that he’d somehow made it out of the tower. Swatch says he’ll wander around for a while, trying to look for Ben, making his own shop close as well.

Ben isn’t seen or heard from up until the end of the route. It’s stated he ran away and is lost somewhere in the city, but it’s unknown what happens to him while he’s outside.

When preparing to face Gary at the rooftop of the studio, the studio begins to shake and crumble even before the fight can commence. Sensing that something is wrong, Gary immediately jumps ship, jumping onto one of the rail carts that circles the city. The Fun Gang follow closely behind, but lose Gary as the railway forks into two paths and both go separate ways, their cart following another one already ahead of them. On that cart is what appears to be Ben, before he morphs into a dark long creature; infected or possessed by something or someone. Whatever it was that Gary was trying to keep himself safe from had found Ben instead and, using him as a vessel, it returned to finish what Gary had started. This is the secret boss battle of the chapter: EggShells.

EggShell’s bossfight heavily references Spamton NEO’s; both take place on some sort of railway system, over a trashed city, with an Addison-looking opponent with a brand new body and power. Despite being limited by Ben’s body, whatever is possessing him is still incredibly powerful, surpassing whatever power the NEO suit had. EggShells can be defeated by depleting its health bar down to 5% or filling its MERCY up to 95%. If defeated through FIGHTing, the player will receive the Eggshell Blade; a flimsy, already cracked blade with a ribcage for a guard. If defeated through ACTing, the player will receive the Baby’s Blues; a pair of damp blue glasses. The player can ACT by calling out to Ben, who can be assumed to be inside the creature, though dormant or unable to get through it.

If defeating him through ACTing, EggShells will freeze mid-fight, Ben and whatever was in there with him struggling for control of the body. If defeating him through FIGHTing, EggShll’s body will simply start to fail and fall apart until he’s nothing but a black stain on the floor of the rail cart. In the end, EggShell’s body always falls apart, the screen fading to white and following the normal ending of the route without ever having to actually fight Gary himself.