It was a perfect day to take a walk, but Kale was not doing that. His long arm hung limply at his side, dragging his shovel along, and his Volchurro mask was tied securely in place on the off chance that anything happened. In his free hand were two papers, each one with the same picture on it, taken in different angles. The paper was frayed and crumpled, the pictures themselves in the neutral tone of cameras from decades ago. What he was specifically looking for was a statue of three Cinnamonkeys, for his own gains of simply seeing it over something Pester wanted him to do.

He took a deep breath, looking around with bright green eyes. It had to be there somewhere, no one had moved them since the pictures were taken. With a sigh Kale stopped walking, hearing the bushes rustling nearby. He would have to stop and pretend he was just taking a walk, and as the two people came out of the bushes, he stuffed the papers into his pocket.

"Kale! What are you doing out here? Oh my God, you're huge." Rhea ran up along side him, coming up to barely his shoulder. "We haven't seen you in a while; I supposed Pester hasn't got you doing things. But why did-"

"No," Kale mumbled, looking into the sky. His voice was deep- far deeper than before, startling Rhea. "I'm just on a walk. Do not ask me more than that."

Rhea frowned, not bothering to go farther. She was really curious, but Kale had his shovel, and she was trying to be somewhat nice to the poor kid. "That's awesome," she said. "You don't get to do much stuff, huh?"

"No."

"Is that an automated response?"

"No. Wait, what? Urgh, just stop asking me questions."

"Oh, never mind-"

"You brought the tinker."

Mark huffed. "Oi, don't be a jerk."

"Sorry," Kale said, continuing his walk. "What are you guys doing out here?"

"Actually, we're on a walk, too," Mark said, running a hand through his hair. "Business is slow today, and Rhea's kind of looking for a certain pinata. Wants to make sure it, you know, exists."

Kale nodded slowly, trudging on. He really wanted to find the statue before long, before the sun went down. Pester wanted him back before the sun went down, so he had two hours at most to get there, find the statue, stare at it for a while, and leave. It took years for him to find the area it was in, now he just had to find it.

The first person to say anything after a while was Rhea. She had wandered on ahead, following the tracks of a Fizzlybear.

"Think we can find a Galagoogoo out here?"

"They come out at night," Kale said with a sigh, switching his shovel to his other hand. His gaze was drawn to a hill nearby, where a tiny entrance could be seen just through the bushes. Intrigued, he began to wander near it, Mark following close behind him. Before long, Rhea had caught back up and was chattering away like nothing was going on. At least she was not too freaked out by Kale; it would have been unfortunate had she not.

The half-soured boy pulled the papers out of his pocket, looking at the scenery behind the statues. Yes, they were in a cave, so perhaps he should look there.

Rhea was asking him where he was going, but he did not answer. His feet were moving on their own, not allowing him to stop. All he wanted was just to see those statues, that was it.

When he got to the entrance, he pulled out a flashlight and began to look around. He was not afraid of anything that could be lurking in there, but the other two were; they were sticking close together, probably thinking a large Sour Bonboon or something would leap out at them. Kale scoffed, turning along the tunnel.

"You guys can go back if you're scared," he said. "No one's telling you to come in here with me."

Rhea snorted. "Yeah, right," she said, voice shaky. "I'm not scared!" She trudged on ahead, suddenly tripping on a ledge. Sherbats went flying everywhere and a startled Fizzlybear growled from deep within the tunnel branching off from theirs. Kale rolled his eyes and stepped up next to Rhea, but the combined weight of him and the girl caused it to sink down. Rhea yelped and crawled backwards, looking up to see three figures.

Kale gritted his teeth. The statue he wanted to see was right there, but something was wrong. It was indeed the three Cinnamonkeys, carved out of stone with worn paint. Two of the three monkey's eyes were different colored gems, staring down. Every moment that went by, their eyes began to glow more vibrant.

"We need to get out of here," Kale began quickly, taking a step back, eyes growing wide. "Just don't look at them-"

The entire room was illuminated now. Kale lifted his shovel to go and destroy the statues, but he was frozen. On the left, one Cinnamonkey was covering his eyes; in the middle the Cinnamonkey was covering his ears, and the last Cinnamonkey was covering his mouth. Their tails were curled up into large S's identically, the same, pained looks on their faces.

Rhea was quite intrigued by the violet eyes of the Cinnamonkey covering his ears; Kale was entranced by the variant colors of the Cinnamonkey covering his mouth; Mark was looking at the Cinnamonkey covering his eyes, wondering exactly what the statues were.

When Kale was able to move again, he ran. He ran as fast as he could, not daring to look back. The light was beginning to dim now, thankfully, and he held out his flashlight to see the rest of the way.

"Kale! Kale wait!"

He turned around. When he opened his mouth, nothing came out. Confused, he tried again. It was as if he forgot everything he learned about speaking.

"Rhea, where am I going!"

"What?"

"Where am I going?"

"I can't hear you! I see you talking but I can't-"

"Where are you!"

Kale gritted his teeth- they had stayed too long! He ran back into the tunnel, looking at the statues, but they were vacant. There was another statue...they needed to be brought together...but how was he supposed to do that? Where was the other one? Agh, he knew it was a horrible idea to allow those two to come along! He should have told them to go home.

He shook his head and grabbed Mark's wrist, gesturing for Rhea to follow. When they got back to the jungle, Rhea collapsed where she was.

She could not hear anything.

Mark was blind.

Kale could not speak.

"What happened," Mark breathed, rubbing his eyes. "I don't... Why can't I see!"

Kale tried to speak, shaking his head in defeat. The sun was beginning to set. Pester would be mad.

"We need to get back to the village," Rhea said, her voice much louder than it usually was. Mark flinched, covering his ears.

"You're really loud!"

"What?"

"Never mind!"

Huffing, Mark turned and began to walk. The affects of his blindness only fully set in, and he stopped in his tracks. He took a few deep breaths, covering his face with his hands.

"Where am I going?"

Kale's eyebrows furrowed. He had Rhea follow him again and guided Mark to the village, but he was abandoned soon after. Ugh, it was not his fault that they wanted to go with him, but if they wanted to try and explain it to everyone, so be it. He was not going to sit around and watch, he was going to go straight to Pester and...

And tell him what?

Oh he was just not going to go back to that volcano, nope. He just ran off into the forest, wondering what he was going to do.

"Where's my Sherbat?" Mark demanded the moment he walked in the door to his house. Rhea was with him, the one guiding him, unable to do anything but watch him talk about something she could not here.

"I don't know where your pet is," came Bart's reply.

"Where is my Sherbat?" Mark asked again, wandering around the house. "I need him where is he?"

"Maybe if you looked-"

Rhea frantically shook her head.

"I can't," Mark grumbled.

Bart rolled his eyes. "Sure," he said. "What makes me think I should not believe you?"

"What did he say?"

An awkward silence settled, and Mark twitched nervously. When Bart halfheartedly waved, Mark did not respond. In fact, when Mark spoke, he was looking in the wrong direction, speaking to a bookshelf. Rhea was staring at the wall, but she was looking for something to do rather than just stand there like a moron.

No one knew for sure exactly what to say. However, the silence was broken by a really loud, "WHAT ARE YOU SAYING, WOMAN."

Confused, Rhea went to the door, Mark and Bart behind her. The two who could hear recognized the voice as Gretchen's- and she herself was never very loud. It was coming from down the street, so the three walked that way, only to find her holding a cage with a Newtgat. A friendly villager was right next to her, trying to converse, but Gretchen was shaking her head, pointing to her ear with her free hand.

"I don't- suddenly I can't- hey!"

Rhea turned a glare to Bart.

"Yes, I see," Bart grumbled, only just then realizing that Rhea was deaf. Instead he nodded, crossing his arms.

"I believe we have a problem," Mark said.

"Only an idiot would point out the obvious." There was a sigh.

"W-w-who is there!" Patch exclaimed. His heart was racing a million miles a minute for one reason only; he was unable to see. "\Wh-why c-c-can't I see? Wh-where is e-everyone oh my..."

At first he just thought his helmet fell too low on his head, but after lifting it up and moving his bangs from his eyes, all he could see was the scattered colors one saw in the dark. He could hear someone in front of him flailing up a storm, but that was it.

"Come on, s-s-s-say your n-name!"

"He can't."

"Oh my God, i-is that you, Bart?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

"W-w-who is in front of m-me?" Patch asked, about ready to rip his hair out. He was breathing so hard he could barely hear the answer.

"Eddie. I'm just going to assume it was absolutely useless to come here and turn around to leave."

Patch nervous tapped his fingers against his desk, a nervous wreck. Just another few moments and he would pass out.

"W-w-who else is h-here?"

"Me," Mark said.

"What?" Rhea asked.

Patch could actually hear both Bart and Mark face palming.

"And Gretchen," Mark mumbled. "You know a problem? I'm blind, Rhea can't hear, Gretchen can't hear, Eddie can't speak, and Kale can't speak."

"Kale? Th-that one k-kid?"

Mark nodded, then said a 'yes'.

Silence filled the room. In the world of sight, Eddie was flailing, trying in vain to get his point across. He was trying to tell Patch what was wrong, but he guessed that Mark kind of sort of explained it well enough. There was a P-Factor event going on tomorrow morning, and if he could not speak-! There was going to be a huge problem.

He sat down on the nearby cot, pulling his knees to his chest. Whoever did this-

"Where is that brat!"

"Dude, like, calm down. There's not much places he can go."

Pester let out a chuckle. "He was told to be back here at dark. Do you see him anywhere?"

"No."

"Exactly. That brat is in for a world of trouble-"

The door burst open, Kale running inside and falling to his hands and knees, gasping for breath. A large, sour Volchurro landed next to him, spreading its wings in an awesome way and then standing more comfortably next to his owner. Kale took a good few moments, taking chastisement from Pester, before he weakly stood up.

"Explain where you have been, child."

Kale shook his head, pointing to his mouth. If only Pester had taught him to write! He could read brilliantly, read books in most of his spare time, but forming letters was foreign!

"Come on now, speak up!" Pester demanded, crossing his arms. He gave a menacing glare and walked forward to punish him-

"Pester, I don't think he can," Dastardos said, floating through the air in an arc so that he was lounging next to the boy. After just a couple of months, and a few pieces of Pester's experimental sour candy being slipped into his food, Kale's eyes had turned from beautiful blue to sick green, he had aged at least four years, and swirled marks were beginning to form more prominently on his face, snaking down around his cheek and under his mask.

After a moment of thought, Pester turned to Dastardos. "Dastardos, don't get into this conversation-"

"No, I'm serious, just look! Can't you see him straining to speak? Is your mind so shallow you can't see the simplest signs?"

The professor gritted his teeth and went to shove Dastardos away, but the pinata reaper laughed and turned into an intangible form.

"Well, if you can't speak, find a way to tell us HOW you cannot speak."

Kale's eyes grew wide, and he dug through the pockets of his red and black shawl. He tried to bend over to get to Pester's height, but he was still so freakishly tall that he ended up just handing his pictures to him. Pester snatched the crumpled papers from him and looked them over, his eyes narrowing.

Only someone who got yelled at every day would be able to stand what was coming.

"Are you stupid, child!"

Kale flinched.

"I told you not to do that! I told you bad things would happen! Why don't you ever listen!"

But I do Kale wanted to say, instead shaking his head. I follow your every order.

He let out a sigh, trying to say sorry. His eyebrows furrowed, shoulders drooping.

"I should punish you for this, but who knows who else got affected." Pester threw the papers to the ground, walking away. "Let's go see whose lives we can destroy, Dastardos."

The reaper let out a loud 'uuuuuhhhhhhh' and followed. "Yes, sir," he grumbled. Summoning his whacking stick, he clapped it against his hand a few times.

Kale found himself sitting in a lone room that night, reading a book. His Volchurro was asleep beside him, and everything was quiet. He flipped through the pages, as silent as ever, with his Volchurro mask off to the side and a black mask covering his eyes. While Pester and Dastardos were off doing there things, Kale was actually wondering what was going on with Rhea and Mark, and which others had gotten hit.

Because as soon as that statue was activated, another, smaller, one nearby affected three random people, and the only way to get themselves back together was to bring them together.

And only Kale knew this.

Shinzu: OKAY this idea came to me randomly. I thought it was a good idea. And by the way- Patch fainted just after the cut off. BI