Okay, here's the Alternate One. For new readers, this fanfic is a continuation of where my other fic, Attack Of The Space Lizards, left off. So I'd advise you to read that one first if you haven't already done so.
I'll get the rest of the chapters back up in bunches. Enjoy.

Prologue

He’d always remembered the day, all those years ago, when he’d first been truly incited to begin his rebel movement. He’d always hated the suffering that the tyrant forced his people to live with.
But then he’d seen a much greater evil, and knew immediately that this time, something had to be done.
Finn Felix lay back on the moth-eaten burlap sacking that he used as blankets for his sleeping bunk. He was still fully clothed, except for his black bowler hat, which sat on a small wooden crate next to his bunk, alongside a brightly lit lantern.
Finn stared up at the ceiling above him, lost in his thoughts. Another weary day had passed, and still the Felix Faction – his rebel movement – was nowhere near to overthrowing the tyrant. And with the shadows of a darker evil drawing in, Finn felt helpless and lost. But he had to stay strong. There was still time yet…
The old Swampanite reflected back on the time when he’d first made the courageous decision to form the Felix Faction. Back then, he’d been an ordinary slave labourer, toiling under the whips of the tyrant’s Imperial Golden Guard. He’d been working, along with masses of other oppressed slaves, on the construction of a large landing pad for some form of aircraft. Just like everyone else, he’d wondered what the tyrant could possibly want with it. But of course, the tyrant didn’t like anybody who questioned him. The punishment for that was usually always death.
And it wouldn’t be a simple, quick death. Finn had always feared the two nightmarish killing zones that the tyrant had built specially for disobedient slaves or political prisoners. Neither of the two zones had proper names – they were simply known as the ‘Funfair’ and the ‘Casino’. Anyone who went into these two places never came out again.
Both of these zones were like things out of a demented cartoon. But after the tyrant had utilised them to nasty effect, nobody laughed at their strange names or the sort of things that could be found within them. After all, they were places of death, where creatures could die in some of the most gruesome ways imaginable. Finn remembered the time when the construction of the Funfair and the Casino had been completed. He remembered especially what the tyrant had said to all of the slaves under his rule. If you’re going to die, you might as well have an interesting, exotic death…
Finn continued to look back on the day he’d made his final decision to form the rebel movement. He’d been labouring on building the landing pad, when he’d had a slight… accident. He’d been stood high up on a girder, when he’d lost his footing and fell down. He’d been lucky that day – he could have died from his fall. But by a miracle, the landing pad was being built over a lake. He’d fallen outwards and dropped straight into the water.
When he resurfaced, he knew immediately people had seen him fall, for he could hear the frightened, babbling voices of slaves and the harsh bellows of the tyrant’s Imperial Golden Guard. He knew that, despite the fact it had been an accident, he’d been punished severely for his mistake.
Well, screw them, Finn had thought to himself. I’m not hanging around to be beaten or whipped…
He’d swam into the cover of the landing pad, beneath a network of pipes and girders. And, walking slowly along a grilled ledge, in the company of two of his Imperial Golden Guard and a third, unknown person, was the tyrant himself.
Imperial Emperor Rayman.
He must have been inspecting the construction of the landing pad. Finn had quickly moved himself to a position where he was out of their sight, but could still see and hear them clearly.
Dressed in his flowing golden robes, and with his hair combed neatly over to one side, Imperial Emperor Rayman had been talking to the unknown creature with them. Finn was curious to know how he was.
He’d been taller than Emperor Rayman or the two Imperial Golden Guard by far, and wore a slightly crumpled, battered grey top hat that made him seem taller. He wore a long greatcoat of the same grey colour. His hands were clad in work gloves of a lighter grey, which had cuffs that extended all the way to his elbows. His feet were clad in stiff, large work boots of the same colour as his work gloves, and the ankles of his black trousers had been tucked into his boots.
But what had made this creature appear most frightening had been his face. For, apart from the eyes, it was completely out of sight beneath a black gas mask. The creature’s two eyes – full of red veins and with slit-like pupils – stared out from behind a circular eyepiece each. And as the creature inhaled and exhaled, his breath drew in and came out in long, mechanical rattles.
Finn had listened to everything that Imperial Emperor Rayman and this creature discussed together. And he hadn’t liked one little bit of it.

Chapter 1

Bleak. Lifeless. Deserted. Dead.
Those were the words that best described the hills. At one time, they had been covered in a lush, dense forest, but quite a long time ago the entire woodland had been eradicated. At one time, the ground across all of the hills had been covered in thick green grass and an assortment of vividly-coloured shrubs and vegetation. But those too had been removed. Now the hills were nothing more than bare heaps of rock that had been compacted together into one. The hills were now a series of bleak, craggy, steep cliffs where no plant life grew.
The sky was a midnight blue, two moons gazing down amidst a field of stars. Even the moons seemed dull – grey and lifeless.
The only signs that life had once existed here were the bones. There weren’t many of them, but they could be found strewn throughout the hills – dusty skeletons of animals that had starved and died when the woodlands and their natural habitat was unjustly removed. Skulls stared sightlessly over the hills that had once provided their jaws with edible fruits and plant life.
Throughout the craggy rock hills ran large metal aqueducts and vast pipelines, coming out of one hill, spanning a valley, and entering another. But they too seemed dead and abandoned. No water ran along the aqueducts. The pipes were empty, with no water, gas or chemical of any kind flowing along them. Every aqueduct and pipe was rusting away.
A thick, cerulean fog hung in the valleys and gaps between the hills, obscuring the views of whatever was below. Faint wisps of cerulean mist swirled along the surface of the ground higher up the craggy hills.
On the far horizon, dense columns of smoke and other dark, poisonous gases could just be seen, drifting up into the night sky from tall, thin, grey funnels, and tall, wide cooling towers. The entire horizon seemed to be taken up by smokestacks exhaling their poisons into the atmosphere.
This landscape was located somewhere on Rayman’s world. Yet at the same time, it wasn’t on Rayman’s world.
And from a point high in the sky, there was a tiny flash of light, out of which flickered several bolts of electricity. It lasted only a split second, but something big and bulky appeared out of it, falling swiftly downwards.
The bare, rocky hills rushed up to meet it, and this ‘something’ cannoned into the rock with so much force that it blew out a small crater. Flames arced into existence several metres all around the object – a long, vast stone craft of some form, with four tailfins, and more fins along its bodywork. At the very rear, powerful space engines of incredibly advanced technology glowed an eerie blue.
The pilot of this craft hadn’t quite known how to handle it properly, for parts of it were burning from when it had hit this world’s upper atmosphere. And as it struck the ground, parts of its stone bodywork were disintegrated.
It lay in the small crater it had made for a few seconds, nothing happening.
Then a hatch slowly slid open, and a fierce blue glow seeped out from within. The occupant of the craft was trying to come out of it.
A hand clamped around the edge of the hatchway, followed by another. A creature hauled himself painfully out from the craft’s interior, squinting in discomfort due to the blue glow.
He was a strange creature, for, despite the fact he had hands and feet, he had no visible limbs or neck. He had quite a big nose, and large eyes. He was wearing a purple top with a white ring shape on the front of it. A red neckerchief was settled on his shoulders around where his neck should have been, with two drawstrings dangling down to his chest. His hands were clad in white gloves, and his feet were clad in yellow shoes with white rims.
He pulled himself along with his hands and tumbled off the craft’s stone hull, to the ground below. He crawled painfully away, past the fires that were hungrily beginning to consume the vehicle.
And as he hauled himself to his weary feet, he suddenly recognised where he was, and felt a jolt of shock.
These were the woods around the Fairy Council. Except there were no longer any woods at all. And as his tired eyes picked out the derelict aqueducts and pipelines, and the various animal skeletons strewn about nearby, he instantly knew something was wrong here.
But then his exhaustion overcame him.
Rayman sank to his knees, fell onto his front, and blacked out.

Chapter 2

“Who is he?”
“What the heck is this?”
“Has he got any identification on him?”
“I couldn’t find any…”
“What’s he doing in this area?”
“He looks just like Emperor Rayman… what the devil’s going on?”
“This must be some kind of Felix Faction plot…”
Rayman’s eyes slowly opened. He felt the heat of flames on his back, and his vision was hazy and distorted. There were several people stood over him – creatures, of different sizes, all clad in the same golden uniforms, with bronze breastplates. Their hands were clad in large bronze gauntlets. They wore heavy, large bronze boots. They all wore golden helmets with black visors over their eyes. The helmets had been specially adapted to cover the entire head and face. They all carried long metal combat staffs slung across their backs by golden bandoliers.
As his vision came back into focus, Rayman saw that, despite their gauntlets and boots, they were all limbless, and he felt a jolt of surprise.
“He’s waking up…”
Rayman gasped as he felt a boot thump into his side. A hand grabbed him by the chest and hauled him upright.
“Name.”
Rayman looked blankly at the one who’d spoken. It had been more of a demand than a question.
“Huh?”
The creature shook him, and repeated what he’d said.
“Name. Give me your name.”
“Rayman…”
The creature shook him again, harder this time. Rayman could tell he’d said something wrong.
“Don’t lie to me.” His interrogator spat. “And don’t you ever dare besmirch the Emperor’s name by passing it off as your own. You might look like him, but you damn well aren’t.”
“But my name is Rayman…” Rayman trailed off, clenching his teeth as another of the creatures suddenly lashed out with his fist, hitting him painfully on the shoulder. Rayman was startled to see that the creature’s fist seemed to detach itself and fly out from his body… exactly like how his fist worked…
“If you wish to continue with your lies,” his interrogator told him, “then we can always be a bit rougher with you…”
The burly creature clenched his fist, preparing to throw another thump.
“Now. Perhaps you forget who we are, you filthy peasant.” His antagonist growled. “We are the Imperial Golden Guard, loyal servants of the Emperor. If we tell you to do something, you’ll damn well do it. If you don’t do it, then we’ll teach you a lesson you won’t forget…”
Well, screw you, Rayman thought to himself. I’m not standing around and letting you bully me like a bunch of idiots…
He pushed off with his feet and somersaulted backwards. His interrogator was evidently surprised, for he let go. The other creatures quickly drew their metal staffs out of their bandoliers and held them.
Rayman landed on his feet, all of his tiredness and the dull ache in his body forgotten. His adrenalin was flowing.
He lashed out first with his left fist, then with his right, left again, followed through with the right, kick out with one foot, uppercut with the right, curved shot to the left…
He took down almost their entire team with incredible speed. But then one of them charged at him, whirling his metal staff. Rayman felt it strike him heavily across the cheek and he stumbled backwards…
All his tiredness chose that precise moment to come flooding back. Rayman felt his balance shifting, and he fell over backwards, gasping for breath. He shouldn’t have done that. He was still weak from…
From when?
That was odd… he couldn’t remember anything that had happened before he’d crash landed in that craft…
He was slowly blacking out again. And as he did, Rayman cast his mind back a minute or so before.
The creatures were limbless. Their fists could be launched in the same manner as his. And from the design of the helmet, he could quite easily imagine them having big noses, like himself…
Hold on… were these creatures of his own, unknown race?
And they’d said he looked just like their Emperor. Plus they’d accused him of besmirching this Emperor’s name by passing it off as his own…
Before he blacked out, Rayman had time for one last thought.
What the heck was going on here?

Chapter 3

He didn’t remember much of the journey.
They’d dragged him bodily for what seemed like endless miles, and by the time they’d reached their destination, Rayman’s body was aching all over.
They dumped him on the ground and stood over him, and through his tired, strained eyes, he peered at his surroundings. They’d taken him away from the hills, with the cerulean mist in their valleys and the aqueducts and pipelines running between them. Before his eyes was a large palace built of purple and gold crystal, built on the top of a large plateau of solid rock that must have been about one hundred or so metres high. By the smoothness of the sides of this plateau, Rayman could tell this wasn’t a natural formation. It had been laid down. It appeared that the palace built on it was accessible only by an aqueduct.
This aqueduct was different to those that Rayman had seen so far. Whereas the ones back in the hills had been rusting, ugly metal pieces of construction, this one was formed entirely from more purple crystal, and beautiful, magical plants grew along the sides of it – large, cyan and purple leaves sprouted out of gnarled, blue branches, and vast toadstools that glowed a warm orange were set into the crystal.
Rayman looked along the length of the aqueduct. It ran from the large archway entrance of the palace, all the way into the distance, to a line of steep, craggy cliffs, the tops of which metamorphosed into a weird variety of formations that couldn’t have occurred naturally – large heads had been carved out of the stone, all depicting the same person. Even from a great distance, Rayman could make them out clearly, and he felt surprised.
With a jolt of shock, Rayman realised that these stone heads were replications of himself.
Even though they were stone, and were without colour, the details chiselled into them were identical to his features.
Rayman was feeling more and more curious by the second. A sliding gate formed of silver crystal in one of the vast supports of the aqueduct slid open, and he was hauled into the cramped, box-like room beyond by his captors. The doors slid shut, and Rayman felt the floor shudder beneath his feet. They were in an elevator…
They rose swiftly up a high shaft, and another set of silver crystal doors hissed open. Rayman was pulled through onto a grilled metal pathway running along the side of the aqueduct. A wide canal ran along it, and as he watched, a squat, copper-coloured, ugly steamboat with three funnels belching black smoke into the air chugged past. It was driven by a large, rusty paddle wheel mounted on the rear, which battered down on the water, sending it spraying everywhere.
Rayman saw firing ports along the sides of the steamboat, with the muzzles of cannons poking out of them. Whoever inhabited this palace and could afford to defend it with steam-powered, gun-toting riverboats was obviously someone important. That was for sure.
“Where are you taking me?” Rayman’s voice was a dry rasp. He was incredibly thirsty.
“Shut up.”
They dragged him along the walkway, heading for the archway into the palace. As they drew close, another armed riverboat grumbled is way out of the arch and along the canal flowing across the aqueduct. This time, Rayman saw a crewman aboard it, just before he disappeared through a hatch.
He looked just like the creatures pulling him along. Except his uniform and helmet were blue, and his breastplate, gauntlets and boots were silver.
Rayman had no time to watch this second boat draw past, for at that moment, one of his captors saw him watching it and belted him across the face with one fist.
“What the heck are you staring at?”
Once again, Rayman blacked out.

Chapter 4

He slowly regained consciousness, and his head was pounding with pain.
Rayman was lying on the cold, crystal floor of a vast hall. At one end of the hall he saw a large statue, and like the stone heads he’d seen before he’d been knocked unconscious, it was a lifelike depiction of himself. He saw a figure stood silently in front of it, and watched as whoever it was turned around to face him.
He felt a jolt of shock as this person stepped towards him, and he was able to distinguish him.
A big nose. Wide, bright eyes. Two strips of bright orange hair. An absence of limbs.
Rayman was looking at a mirror image of himself.
Apart from the slight difference in appearance – this creature’s hair had been neatly combed over to one side, and he was wearing golden robes – Rayman could tell they were definitely the same as each other.
And then he became acutely aware that there were other people in the vicinity – troops. Not just the ones who had captured him, but many others as well. Apart from the ones clad in gold uniforms, there were ones in the blue uniforms, like what he’d seen before he’d been knocked senseless, plus there were others in red variants. Although they were all of different heights, they were all definitely limbless beings. And as they lifted away their helmets at a signal from the creature in golden robes, Rayman felt a further wave of shock – for all of these troops were mirror images of himself as well, despite their differences in height and build. It was unmistakeable.
“Who are you?” Rayman croaked. “What are you?”
“Silence.” The one in golden robes spoke imperiously, with a snobbish upper class accent. “You are in my presence. You speak when spoken to. If you fail to comply with that, you will suffer the consequences.”
He stared hard into Rayman’s eyes, and Rayman felt nervous, like a little insect being probed under the gaze of a scientist.
“Do you know who I am?” The creature asked.
“No…”
“Is that so? Then perhaps it would do you good to know that I am Imperial Emperor Rayman, ruler of this world, and you will show respect in my presence.”
Rayman couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Imperial Emperor Rayman? What the heck was going on here?
Imperial Emperor Rayman looked up to several of his troops.
“Has he given you his name?”
One of the golden-clad troops stepped forward, heavy bronze boots thumping against the crystal floor. He saluted by holding a fist upright and covering it with his other hand.
“Your Excellency,” the trooper began, “he gave a name, but in doing so committed an act of blasphemy that would merit a sentence of death. He besmirched your name by passing it off as his own…”
Imperial Emperor Rayman gasped, drawing a sharp intake of breath, holding up a hand in a gesture for silence. He spoke just three words, in a tone of surprise and alarm.
“The Alternate One…”
Rayman looked about, afraid. The emperor was regarding him with something akin to a sick, disgusted fear.
“You…” Imperial Emperor Rayman pointed at Rayman, his hand quivering slightly. Rayman heard the danger in his voice. “Where have you come from?”
“I…” Rayman tried to think. But strangely, he couldn’t find the answer. “I… came…” What was happening? He couldn’t seem to remember anything, nothing more than the vessel he’d crashed in. There didn’t seem to be any memories in his mind. “I don’t know…”
Imperial Emperor Rayman gazed at him for a few seconds. One of the golden-clad troopers strode over to him and began murmuring in his ear.
“We carried out a standard magic scan when we brought him in.” The trooper whispered to the Emperor. “We found him when we were investigating some kind of crash site, in the hills not far from here… we checked over him. He has some form of amnesia…”
The Emperor beckoned the trooper to stand aside, and he walked cautiously over to Rayman. The expression in his eyes was one of deep loathing, but Rayman saw that fear was present as well.
“Take him away.” Imperial Emperor Rayman’s voice was filled with disgust, but it wavered slightly. “I cannot stand to have him in my presence! I will deal with him when the time comes…”
Rayman felt hands clamp hold of his shoulders, and he felt himself being dragged away. He heard the Emperor speaking as he went.
“Deploy all of my Imperial Golden Guard – ensure patrols are staged around my palace, and have Suction City placed under heavy watch. Ensure the Imperial Turquoise Guard are mobilised in force across the artificial waterways, and pass on my commands for the Imperial Scarlet Guard to monitor all of our strategic points from the air. I cannot stress how important this is. If the Felix Faction gets word that he’s here… if you fail me, you can expect dire punishment. Lastly… get me a secure line with Mr. Vorgen…”

Chapter 5

In a remote area in the hills, a meeting was taking place. The Felix Faction’s leaders and their superior had gathered, along with many of the faction’s guerrillas, to discuss recent events.
They were crouching down in one of the valleys, out of view from the hills around them due to the thick cerulean fog hanging in the air. They were stood, also, beneath an aqueduct, which also offered some cover.
Stood on a hastily erected platform formed of wooden crates was the Felix Faction’s leader himself, the Swampanite Finn Felix. He wore his usual attire – his black bowler hat, black waistcoat, black boots, black trousers, his blue trench coat, his twelve-foot long grey scarf and his discoloured white shirt. As usual, he clutched a long smoking pipe in one hand. A wisp of blue smoke trailed out of it.
Finn Felix’s guerrillas were all a variety of creatures – fairies, Teensies, Knaaren, Swampanites, Frostenites, dryads… the one thing they all had in common was that they were clad in rough, makeshift uniforms and carried blunderbusses.
They were all dressed in pretty much the same way. Brown trousers, brown boots, white shirts, brown waistcoats, brown overcoats…
“Friends,” Finn Felix began, “I’ve summoned you here this night because of an event that has occurred which will mark a turning point in this world’s history of oppression and misery. Several hours ago, my intelligence reported the crash-landing of a bizarre space vessel of some form, an engine with technology so advanced that we couldn’t comprehend it. My intelligence believes it came down from the direction of the nearest black hole…”
A murmur ran through the crowd of guerrillas stood before Finn.
“Friends, freedom fighters, loyal patriots, this can only mean one thing.” Finn continued. “The Alternate One has arrived on this world to liberate us all from the harsh tyranny of Imperial Emperor Rayman. Our moment of victory is drawing closer. I can sense it. I can smell its sweet aroma of freedom. I can almost taste it…”
He paused, letting his words sink in.
“But we must move fast. My sources believe that the Alternate One has been seized by the Imperial Golden Guard. We believe he has been taken to the Imperial Palace. This cannot go unheeded, my friends.”
Finn lowered his pipe from his mouth and let out a breath of smoke.
“We must move fast. If the Alternate One is imprisoned in the Funfair or the Casino, then goodness knows what may happen to him… if he’s just crashed down, he’ll most likely be weak and exhausted, in need of recovery. I ask you to stage not an all-out attack on the Imperial Palace, but a swift hit-and-run strike. We will infiltrate Imperial Emperor Rayman’s own turf and rescue the Alternate One from right under his nose…”
They all feel silent for a few seconds as they heard something moving along the aqueduct above. One of the Imperial Turquoise Guard’s armed steamboats. Finn heard the chugging of its engines and the regular swish-swish-swish of the paddle wheel battering against the water.
It went by after several seconds, and when it did, Finn resumed talking.
“Be mindful, though, of the Emperor’s defences. He too knows of the prophecy that the Alternate One shall be his downfall. If he has captured our saviour, then he will have ensured there will be plenty of security around to stop us taking him. Avoid combat wherever you can. Stay in the shadows, my friends. You must strike like the piranhas in a murky river – in force, but unseen and lethal. The time is drawing closer, and we can make it come faster if this plan is carried out precisely…”
The guerrillas shook their weapons in loyalty and murmured a few courageous words. Finn smiled wisely and delivered his last sentence of the briefing.
“Go, my fellow patriots, freedom fighters and comrades. You fight in the name of freedom and the liberation of the people living in poverty and slavery under the cowardly Imperial Emperor Rayman. Deliver our message and show the Emperor that justice shall triumph over his evil ways…”

Chapter 6

They’d locked him in a cramped cell onboard one of their steamboats.
This one, however, had been different to the ones Rayman had already seen. It was larger, wider, and didn’t carry as many cannons. He was on some sort of prisoner transport boat.
The cell he was currently trapped inside was dark, and water sloshed about on the floor. There was a single porthole from which light filtered into the cell. There was no glass covering it, but there were bars over it. A large iron fan rotated sluggishly behind a grating on the ceiling. Rayman felt cold wisps of air blowing weakly against him.
Through the porthole, he could see that the steamboat was crawling slowly along an aqueduct heading away from the crystalline palace. Two of the smaller steam gunboats were escorting the prison boat he was locked onboard. The aqueduct, like all of those Rayman had seen so far, were extremely wide – capable of holding up to four prison boats side by side. As he’d learnt so far from observing everything around him as he was roughly manhandled to the prison boat, the artificial waterways ran not just around the crystal palace – known as the Imperial Palace – but across the hills too, leading to a place named ‘Suction City’. As for the pipelines he’d seen around the aqueducts… they were probably just special pipes for feeding water into them.
Rayman had also learnt more about this Imperial Emperor Rayman fellow. He was ruler of this world, and from what he’d experienced so far, this guy didn’t seem very decent.
He’d also learnt more about the Emperor’s private army. It was divided into three sections. The Imperial Golden Guard, distinguished by their gold and bronze uniforms, were a land-based force. The Imperial Turquoise Guard, distinguished by their turquoise and silver uniforms, were a naval sect. It was this section that operated the steamboats used to patrol the aqueducts and artificial waterways. Finally, there was the Imperial Scarlet Guard, distinguished by their scarlet and magenta uniforms. This section was an air force.
It was surprising, really, just how much you could work out by simply listening and watching, Rayman thought to himself.
He heard the sound of droning engines high up in the night sky, but due to the limited view offered by the barred porthole, Rayman wasn’t able to see where they were. He listened to it as it moved slowly by and receded into the distance, then sighed with frustration at his current position.
Well, screw this, he thought to himself. I’m not standing around and waiting to be executed or whatever…
He reached through the bars of the cell door and grabbed the padlock with one hand. And then, with his other hand, he began charging up a fist. Faster and faster and stronger and stronger…
Rayman released his fist, at the same time letting of the padlock to avoid hurting his other hand. His shot tore the padlock off the door with a screech of metal chains being ripped apart.
“What’s going on down there?” A gruff voice called.
An Imperial Golden Guard rounded a corner and stopped in surprise. It cost him his life, for Rayman quickly knocked him down with two fists in quick succession.
“Hey! He’s escaping! The Alternate One’s escaping!”
It was another Imperial Golden Guard, who’d heard the commotion and guessed what was happening. Even as he attempted to take hold of his metal combat staff, Rayman launched a heavily-charged fist straight into him and he fell.
Rayman allowed himself a crafty smile. The tables had turned.
Now his foes were going to discover just who they were dealing with.

Chapter 7

“Get him under control!”
“He’s fighting back! He’s fighting back!”
“Need some help down here!”
“Overwhelm him! Use your combat staffs, you fools!”
All hell had broken loose on the prison boat as the prisoner being transported attacked with speed and strength.
“Stop him! He’s heading for the control room!”
Rayman released a heavily-charged fist, then followed through with a swift, lighter one, knocking one of the Imperial Golden Guard off the steamboat and into the water of the aqueduct. He was stood on the narrow deck of the steamboat, at the very rear of the vessel, facing out to port. To his side, the boat’s paddle wheel thrust it’s mighty blades down into the water, pushing the craft slowly along the aqueduct.
Another Imperial Golden Guard burst out of the hatch Rayman had taken to get to this point of the boat. He was quickly taken down by a volley of fists that caught him right in his helmeted face.
Rayman ran over to where several metal rungs led up onto the roof of the boat. He mounted them and scrambled up. Now that he was on the offensive, he felt truly alive. This was more like it!
When he was on top of the boat, he could run right to the bows and use an escape hatch to drop right into the control room. If he did that, he could then bring the boat under his control. Rayman smiled smugly to himself.
The escape hatch ahead opened, and an Imperial Turquoise Guard clambered out, holding a metal combat staff. Rayman rushed at him, taking him by surprise, and butted hard with his head. The surprised creature stumbled backwards, lost his footing and fell heavily down the side of the boat and into the water.
Rayman looked over the side, and recoiled in disgust. Apart from the patrol boats used by his army, the Emperor also made sure there was a constant defence system on every aqueduct and waterway that nobody would spot until it was too late. The Emperor had released shoals of vicious piranhas into the water to prevent divers or swimmers from using them to gain access to his palace.
But now this nasty defence was being employed on the Emperor’s own troops.
Rayman watched in revulsion as the Imperial Turquoise Guard who’d just plunged into the water was attacked by large piranhas with teeth like blades.
He didn’t have time to keep looking at it, though. He had to keep moving.
“He’s on the roof of the boat! Get up there and get him!”
Rayman ran forward again as another three Imperial Golden Guard came up out of the escape hatch. He rammed into one of them, sending him reeling into another. The two of them fell off the boat into the water, where the piranhas attacked them immediately. The third trooper, however, swiped at Rayman with his combat staff, catching Rayman across the face.
Rayman gasped as a throbbing pain grew in his cheek. He retaliated with a quick fist, then a second, and a third. The trooper reeled back, accidentally stepping onto the open hatch and falling backwards with a sickening crunch.
“Stop him! Stop him!”
Rayman threw himself down the hatch, sliding down the ladder, into the control room of the steamboat.
Several Imperial Turquoise Guard closed in on him, whirling combat staffs menacingly. The first of them leapt forward boldly, only to be quickly knocked down by one of Rayman’s mighty fists.
The rest of the Imperial Turquoise Guard put up a fight that was desperate, but short. In just a mere matter of minutes, Rayman had eliminated all of them.
Rayman flipped open a second escape hatch on one side of the control room, and one by one, he dragged the bodies of the troopers to it, lifted them and threw them out. The piranhas quickly disposed of them.
He had to get away, and fast. Rayman knew he couldn’t stay around. If the Emperor got word that he’d managed to escape, he’d be after Rayman’s blood.
Rayman slammed down several copper levers on the boat’s control panel, increasing the strength of the paddle wheel. He needed to get this thing moving at full speed – the more distance he put between himself and the enemy, the better.
He also knew that he couldn’t stay on the boat forever. Once he found landscape that had some form of cover in which he could efficiently hide himself, he’d abandon the boat. In fact, it would probably be best to destroy it.
But all of the tiredness that Rayman had forgotten about during that swift skirmish came flooding back. All he wanted to do for the moment was sleep, and regenerate his strength.
Rayman slumped down by the wall, and in just several seconds, he was asleep.

Chapter 8

His sleep was an uneasy one. His mind was full of images that kept flickering in and out of existence, and he had no idea what they meant.
A creature in a black cape.
A swarm of what appeared to be robotic pirates, with a flying ship in the background.
Another robotic pirate, this time with a razor-lined chin and fierce yellow eyes.
A plump creature with blue-green skin.
Rabbids.
Robots in imperialistic red uniforms and bearskin hats.
A fairy girl with no wings.
Large, muscular, blue-skinned reptile creatures clad in armour, carrying huge guns.
And, most frightening of all, another of these reptiles, though bigger and nastier than all the others by far.
And then finally, a vast black hole. He felt as though he was falling through space towards it. He flailed about with his hands, trying to stop himself from being pulled into it. But it was no use…
Rayman woke up.
He felt warm, and strong. As his vision cleared, he became aware that he was no longer aboard the steamboat. He was somewhere else… a small wooden room. He was lying on a bed of moth-eaten burlap sacking. A small wooden crate by this makeshift bed had a lantern perched on it, casting dim rays of light through the room. A few cobwebs hung in one corner of the ceiling.
“How are you feeling, my friend?”
Rayman was startled as he realised there was someone sat by the bed, peering closely at him. A girl. Before he could stop himself, he blurted out a name.
“Samia?”
Where had that name come from? He didn’t know anybody called Samia…
It was a girl sat by his bed, though. A slender human girl, clad in a pale, shabby dress that had once been purple but was now discoloured and grey. Her long, dark hair had been tied back in a single braid that hung down her back. She looked at Rayman through calm, deep eyes of a rich brown colour.
“Samia?” The girl raised her eyebrows. “No, I’m afraid not. Here, let me help you up…”
Rayman didn’t need help, but this girl was obviously in awe of him. So he allowed her to slip her arm around his shoulders and take one of his hands, then help him up to his feet.
“Thanks.” Rayman nodded with a grin. “Who may I have the pleasure of addressing?”
“My name’s Rosa.”
“Rosa… a pretty name. Nice to meet you, Rosa.”
“You too.”
“My name’s-”
“No need to tell me, my friend.” Rosa smiled. “I already know who you are. You’re Rayman.”
Rayman looked at her curiously.
“How do you know that?”
“Just about everyone on this planet knows who you are, Rayman…”
At that moment, there were footsteps coming from outside the room. Seconds later, a Swampanite stumped into the room, entering through a door that Rayman hadn’t noticed. Not that he would of; it was cunningly disguised as part of the wall.
He was a tall, thin fellow, but any creature could tell immediately, just from his appearance, that he was a wise person. He was very old. Rayman could tell that easily from his hair and his goatee beard, which were almost white. A smoking pipe protruded from one corner of his mouth. In one hand he clutched a walking stick. His other hand was in one of the pockets of his blue trench coat. The ankles of his black trousers were tucked into stiff black boots, and he wore a black waistcoat over his white shirt. He wore a black bowler hat on his head.
“Rayman,” Rosa gestured to the Swampanite, “allow me to introduce you to my leader.”
“Leader?”
“That’s right. His name is Finn. Finn Felix.”
“I am excited to be able to finally meet you face-to-face, master Rayman.” Finn Felix held out one hand, and Rayman shook it. “It’s been a long time waiting for your arrival.”
“You’ve been expecting me?” Rayman frowned.
“Oh, yes.” Finn thrust his hand back into his trench coat pocket. He nodded to Rosa. “I trust Miss Rosa has introduced herself? She is my advisor, as well as a close friend. More than that, she is also a valuable asset to us all. She has second sight.”
“You mean…” Rayman turned to Rosa. “You can, like… see into the future?”
“I know it sounds silly.” Rosa replied with a smile. “But yes, sometimes I can see things that are destined to happen. Mainly, I have psychic abilities that enable me to see things in the present, things going on far away. I can communicate telepathically too.”
“It was Miss Rosa who first found out you would be coming here.” Finn added. “I shall explain. No doubt, master Rayman, you will have a lot of questions…”

Chapter 9

“For years, our world has been under the tyrannical rule of Imperial Emperor Rayman and his clone legions,” Finn Felix began, “the entire population of the planet has been enslaved and now lives in poverty and suffering. There was a time when we were all too afraid of the Emperor to resist him. But now we have become desperate for freedom. And that desperation has given us strength.”
“His troops are clones?” Rayman asked.
“The Imperial Golden, Turquoise and Scarlet Guard troops are merely clones of the Emperor himself. They also have replications of the Emperor’s powers…"
So the Emperor’s troops aren’t individual beings, Rayman thought. The idea that maybe he’d found his own race at last was diminished in an instant.
Finn carried on with his explanation.
“It was I who formed the resistance army that would do all it could to fight for the freedom of every denizen on this world. That resistance army is known as the Felix Faction. My followers named it after me. Our primary goal is to overthrow the Emperor and put an end to his harsh regime.”
He took a deep breath.
“Over the years we have worked hard, and now the Emperor is at his weakest. More than that, our morale was recently boosted by a prophecy that Rosa here foretold…”
Rayman saw the way things were going.
“The prophecy,” Finn continued, “is simple. In her visions, Rosa saw that, one day, a being would come down from a black hole out in the great vastness of space, and he would land here, on this world. The prophecy stated that this being would lead all of the oppressed forward, and a mighty victory would ensue… that being’s name was given only as the Alternate One.”
“Victory?” Rayman peered at Finn intently. “Does that mean the Felix Faction is destined to win?”
“We don’t know.” Finn replied. “All the prophecy told Rosa was that a victory would be achieved, but it didn’t say who would achieve that victory. To boost the morale of our troops, we told them that the prophecy says we will win. We have to be careful. We don’t want to misinterpret the prophecy and rush into battle only to be slaughtered and defeated.”
“But… you just said the Emperor is currently at his weakest…” Rayman frowned. “If you devised cunning tactics, you could overthrow him…”
“Oh, the Emperor himself and his army are at their weakest, that’s for sure.” Finn answered. “But not his ally.”
“Ally?”
“Rosa had a vision, in the same year that I first formed the Felix Faction, warning her that Imperial Emperor Rayman had enlisted the aid of a much stronger force to support him. It coincided with something that I saw once… I saw the Emperor with a strange being… a frightening being. His presence was sinister. I overheard his name. He is known only as Mr. Vorgen…”
Finn paused momentarily, and Rayman saw the anxiety in his eyes.
“I listened to them as best as I could. I managed to overhear part of their meeting. But I unfortunately missed several crucial parts of the Emperor’s plot, so I still have little idea as to why he’s enlisted the help of this Mr. Vorgen. Since then, none of us have heard or seen much of this being or whatever force was at his command. But in the last year, he’s suddenly been cropping up everywhere. Reports have come in of zeppelins landing in an area of strategic significance close to the urban sector of Suction City, and unknown creatures building a dark factory complex in that zone… at first we believed Mr. Vorgen was merely here to protect the Emperor, but now it seems he might be here for another reason. The question is, why is he here?”
Finn clasped his hands.
“Not long ago, just prior to the arrival of Vorgen and his force, part of Suction City, as well as a vast area on the outskirts, was struck by a freak earthquake. We believe that the Emperor may have had something to do with it. But it coincided with Vorgen’s arrival about a week later, and Vorgen’s force has landed in that area alone, and nowhere else. In fact, we’ve never seen Vorgen or his force venture outside that area… but what we have seen frightens us. Apart from the factory complex Vorgen is constructing, we saw monsters, vicious beasts that appeared shortly after Vorgen’s arrival.”
Finn sighed.
“It looks like there may be darker forces at work on this world than we first thought.”
“And so you want the Alternate One to help you get rid of these forces.” Rayman had worked it all out. “Or rather, you want me to help you. After all, I’m this so-called Alternate One. I’m right, am I not?”
Rosa and Finn nodded.
“And now, master Rayman,” Finn smiled, “now that we’ve told you all you need to know, why not tell us a little about yourself?”

Chapter 10

Suddenly, it all came back.
Memories, masses of them, flooded back into Rayman’s mind, and instantly, everything became clear to him.
It had started with that name, the Alternate One. The name used by the prophecy, which referred to himself. And then Rayman remembered how he’d come down to this world – in a spaceship of some form, falling out of a black hole…
Only to find himself on his familiar, home world that seemed somehow… different.
Of course. It was simple.
And as these pieces of information connected, his memories returned.
All of those images that had appeared in his dream, when he’d been asleep only minutes before, immediately he knew what they meant. He recognised old friends, old lands, old enemies…
Names were swirling around in his mind, and suddenly he knew what they all meant. Globox. Samia. Ly. Murfy. Queen Gloria. The Grand Minimus. Colonel Flareaux. General Sedgewick. Diego.
He remembered Colonel Flareaux and the Realm Elite, compromising his home world’s defences. He remembered General Sedgewick and the Space Lizard war machine landing on his world. He remembered the Land Of The Goners and the Dark Gates. He remembered that terrifying moment as Diego was finally freed from his prison. He remembered being transported from his own world to Reptillica to fight Diego.
And finally, he remembered being sucked towards the gaping black hole that had torn Reptillica apart…
And as all of these memories came back, Rayman began to recount his history to Finn and Rosa.
He started at the very beginning of his life. His quest against Mr. Dark, quickly followed by Admiral Razorbeard and the Robo-Pirate invasion of his world and the mission to find the Four Masks of Polokus. Then Andre and the Hoodlums. The war against the Rabbids. Colonel Flareaux and the Realm Elite. The Space Lizards and their war machine landing on his world.
He finally finished his tale at that nightmarish moment on Reptillica.
“…I was being sucked upwards.” Rayman could see it clearly, in his mind’s eye. Finn and Rosa were listening with rapt attention. “I must have been trapped in a pocket of air from Reptillica’s atmosphere… I knew that, at any moment, the air would disperse and I would be hurtling through space – and if that happened, I would certainly die. But I was lucky… some kind of abandoned Space Lizard craft drifted close by, and I managed to sort of steer myself towards it… the pocket of air surrounding me, by a miracle, drifted inside it through an open hatch, and I went with it. I closed the hatch and sealed it. I reactivated the life support generators of the craft. And I sat tight, praying that the craft would hold out… and then I must have blacked out. I was woken up when the craft suddenly jerked sharply and fell out of the black hole, down through space… and then it crashed here, on this world…”
And as he said that, a fresh realisation hit Rayman immediately.
“Of course…”
It had all happened when he’d been sucked into the black hole above Reptillica. He’d entered it… but then, after a long time, the craft he’d commandeered had fallen out of it… but it hadn’t been the same black hole he’d fallen out of. It had been a different black hole…
And this piece of information connected with another; the name that Rosa’s prophecy had bestowed upon him. The Alternate One.
“This isn’t my world…” Rayman murmured. And as he spoke the words, he felt a crippling, icy fist of fear hammer into his heart. “This is a world that’s similar to mine but isn’t actually mine…”
He looked at Finn, and his eyes were full of horror.
“I’ve fallen into a parallel universe… I’m on an alternate version of my home world…”

i can't wait until it gets back to where it was up to.

Chapter 11

Rayman looked out over the vast fields of crops from his position on the ledge mounted on the side of a large wooden building that resembled a multitude of barns that had been all fused together. A single, stony dirt track led away from the complex, through the fields, which were all surrounded by rows of gnarled, tall trees, some with treehouses built in their boughs to act as sentry platforms or observation points. Rayman could just see Felix Faction guerrillas in brown uniform stood in them, watching over the surrounding area.
This was Finn Felix’s farm. It was also the Felix Faction’s main base. With powerful magic, Finn’s senior commanders had made it invisible to the senses of any enemy. Imperial Emperor Rayman and his troops would need strong counter-magic in order to find it.
Many creatures were out in the fields, even though it was night, tending to the three-metre high layer of crops. Rayman had learnt that this land seemed to be forever shrouded in perpetual night. If he had to hazard a guess, he would say that this land, including all of the hills and crags around it, was the parallel version of the woods around the Fairy Council back on his home world. It was hard to believe that this was a parallel version of his world, because it seemed so… different. Rayman could only just make out the denizens working in the fields by the way the crops shifted about as people squeezed in and out of them. The Felix Faction’s base was entirely self-sufficient; there was no need to forage for food and water supplies outside the farm due to the immense fields with their magical yields of crops. The farm even stood on the remains of an old mine. Finn had put this to use as well, extracting whatever resources could be found down there.
The sky was a dark, midnight blue, and was dotted with thousands of bright stars. Red and green lums darted through the air. Rayman liked this farm. It had a comfortable, homely aura to it, and it felt safe, offering protection from any enemies.
Finn and Rosa had filled him in with some extra details just an hour ago, before letting him get out of bed and explore the farm for himself. Apparently, after he’d fallen asleep on the steamboat, they’d found him when the boat had become stuck in a narrow waterway. He’d been lucky that they’d decided to check the boat out, otherwise they might not have found him.
There was a footstep behind him. Rayman looked around to see Rosa standing a few metres away. She smiled.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” She came closer. “You’d hardly believe that outside this farm, the rest of the world’s ruled by a tyrant.”
“On my world,” Rayman told her, “this land is completely flat. No hills or crags. An enchanted woodland, in the centre of which lies a place called the Fairy Council…”
“There was once a Fairy Council here too, you know.” Rosa informed him.
“Really?”
“The Emperor had it demolished when he came to power, and built his Imperial Palace over the ruins.”
“He did? That’s awful. What about the heart of the world?”
Rosa looked at him blankly.
“Oh, right.” Rayman understood. “On this world, the heart of the world’s not beneath where the Fairy Council stood, right?”
“That’s right.” Rosa looked at him imploringly. “Why? Is that how it is on your world?”
“Yes. So where is the heart of this world located? Or is there no such thing?”
“There is one. It’s in a sealed vault beneath Suction City.”
“Suction City?”
“It’s a great big super-city several dozen miles away from here. There are aqueducts and artificial waterways linking it to the Imperial Palace. You should see it, Rayman! It’s amazing. It stands on top of a tranquil lake, and every building is a skyscraper constructed from silver and clear crystal…”
“Why’s it called Suction City?”
“Because suction is the main form of transport for getting around it. There are masses of suction pipes connecting every street. If you want to get to one place, you find a suction pipe that goes to it, you climb into a special suction-capsule, you hit the activation switch, and off you go! There are special fans at either end of each suction pipe – as you head down a pipe, the fan at your side blows air out whilst the one at your destination sucks air in. It’s clever. You go shooting along the pipe at incredible speed… when I was younger I used to love the sensation of being propelled along them at high speed. They’re like great big water slides… except without the water, of course.”
Rayman smiled at her enthusiasm.
“Finn might want you to go there, sometime in the future.” Rosa smiled. “If you do, then I’d love to come with you.”
“Oh don’t worry.” A cheerful voice spoke behind them. “You’ll both go to Suction City one day. But first, I have other plans.”
They turned around to see that Finn had joined them. He was smoking his pipe again.
“Other plans?” Rayman enquired.
“Yes. I’ve got a mission for you, master Rayman… if you’d like to follow me to the briefing room, I shall give you thorough details on what I want you to do…”

Chapter 12

“Tell me, master Rayman. What do you know about two places known quite simply as the Funfair and the Casino?”
Rayman stared at Finn, surprised by what he’d just said.
“Pardon? Funfair? Casino?”
“You haven’t heard of them, then?” Finn sat back in his wooden seat. “Then I shall proceed to tell you what they are.”
He, Rayman, Rosa and several Felix Faction commanders were sat around a wooden table in the large briefing room – which also doubled as a kitchen and dining room for the faction’s senior personnel. Rayman could tell this from the vast, blazing fireplace, with rusty cauldrons of bubbling soups and steaming stews hung over it. A few pipes crisscrossed the four stone walls of the room. Several glowing lanterns hung from the ceiling, all in a neat row. There was a stack of wine barrels at one end of the room.
“When Imperial Emperor Rayman came to power,” Finn began, “he faced a lot of opposition. A lot of the planet’s denizens realised his true agenda, and there were riots and small rebellions. They were unfortunately crushed – many of them were unorganised, not properly coordinated. So when the Emperor’s legions rounded up the rebels, he decided on put them to work. He had them construct two massive execution zones, purely for dealing with people who opposed his regime.”
A Felix Faction guerrilla who was also in the kitchen handed out tankards of foaming ale. Rayman politely declined the one offered to him.
“Those two zones were built one on top of the other. And these zones are called the Funfair and the Casino…”
Rayman raised his eyebrows, and a grin appeared on his face.
“He built two special zones for executing political opponents and he named them the Funfair and the Casino?” Rayman gave a slight laugh. “No offence, but… are you being serious, Finn?”
“I know they sound stupid.” Finn replied. “But I am telling you this in all utter seriousness. These two places do exist. And they’re dangerous. Nobody’s ever managed to escape from them. Once you go in there, you don’t come out.”
From the look on Finn’s face, Rayman stopped laughing and knew that the Felix Faction leader was telling him the truth.
“They’re both cruel, evil places.” Finn carried on. “They’re both a veritable labyrinth of passages, scattered with all manner of traps designed to kill. Only a sadistic maniac like Imperial Emperor Rayman could have thought up places like them. Do you want to know what he said when they had been built? He said ‘if you’re going to die, you might as well die an interesting, exotic death’. Crazy, yes?”
Rayman nodded.
“So, do you want me to infiltrate these two places?” He guessed.
“Of course.” Finn answered. “You’ll infiltrate the Funfair zone, then systematically move through it, into the Casino zone.”
“So, what’s the objective of this?”
“Several days ago, one of my movement’s best spies found information regarding the mysterious Mr. Vorgen. Unfortunately, he was caught whilst trying to make his way back here. He sent us two last messages. The first one he sent shortly after he was caught. It told us that he had been thrown into the Funfair zone. We replied with a secret message of our own telling him that we had devised a plan to rescue him. We were going to send an agent into the Funfair, who would help him escape by heading up through the Casino zone and commandeering an aircraft. You see, the Emperor’s Imperial Scarlet Guard operate in that area and have a small launch pad on the very top of the Casino zone. Now that we have you, master Rayman, we might be able to pull it off. Our spy’s last message told us that he would be waiting in the Casino zone. Rosa, the images…”
Rosa pulled a gemstone out of a pocket in her dress and placed it in the centre of the table. At once a magical image beamed out of a large, oddly-shaped fortress of some sort.
The base of the fort was shaped like a vast dome, and was built of some sort of purple crystal. Searchlight beams of many different colours beamed up into the sky, mounted along the rim of the dome. In the very centre of the dome, a tower formed of silver girders had been built. Balanced on top of this tower was an immense, saucer-shaped structure built of the same purple crystal as the base dome. And on top of the saucer structure, at one side of it, Rayman saw what appeared to be a cluster of hangars with a control tower and a warehouse, also built of purple crystal. And from these hangars, right to the other side of the saucer structure, stretched three runways, each one lined on either side with blinking gold lights. There were more searchlight beams of different colours around the rim of the saucer-shaped structure.
“This is the place itself.” Finn pointed each part out. “It’s divided into four zones. The dome at the bottom is where you’ll enter – the Funfair zone. Then, this tower is a transfer point – there is an elevator of some form that allows access from the Funfair, up into the Casino, which is the saucer-shaped part. And then, on top of the Casino, you have the Imperial Scarlet Guard’s minor airbase. You will link up with our spy in the Casino zone, and from there you will find a way up into the airbase. Commandeer an aircraft, and get away. It would be advisable to sabotage any other aircraft just to make sure you aren’t pursued.”

Chapter 13

“Take this with you, master Rayman.” Finn handed Rayman a glistening green emerald the size of an egg, attached to a thin gold chain. “Hang it down your front.”
“What does it do?” Rayman did as Finn instructed.
“Remember what I told you about Rosa – she has second sight. She has a psychic link to that emerald. Place your hand on it, and she will be able to see the area around you in her mind’s eye. She can then telepathically give you instructions.”
Rayman whistled, impressed.
He, Finn and a small group of Felix Faction guerrillas were stood on a narrow, rocky ridge with a large pipe running down from it, across the slopes of the craggy hills and into the base of the nearby execution zone. Looking at it now, Rayman could make out every part of it – the Funfair, the connection tower, the Casino, and the Imperial Scarlet Guard minor airbase on top of it. Multi-coloured searchlights – green, red, yellow, orange, blue, purple, pink, silver, gold, and white – lined the rim of the Funfair and the rim of the Casino zones.
What looked like a formation of aircraft were swooping through the air above the entire complex, descending towards the runways. Rayman squinted through the night air. The aircraft were copper-coloured and spherical in shape. Six metal arms protruded out from the spherical body of each aircraft, and at the end of each arm was a cylindrical engine. And out of the bottom of each of these engines beamed a large circle of scarlet energy. To Rayman, they didn’t look the most efficient of aircraft. But then he saw the turrets mounted on their undersides. These turrets carried an array of scarlet searchlights, and weapons – large, stubby cannons.
Finn had one last thing to say as he pulled a gemstone out of his pocket. An image automatically beamed out of it.
“This, master Rayman, is the creature you’re going to help escape.”
Rayman gasped.
He was looking at an image of Globox.
But it wasn’t the Globox he knew. This was, no doubt, an Alternate Globox, for his eyes were sharper and shone with intelligence rather than the usual dopey gleam Rayman knew from his old friend. This Alternate Globox wasn’t quite as plump, and his arms carried more muscle than the Globox of Rayman’s universe.
“His name,” Finn continued, “is-”
“Globox.” Rayman ended the sentence.
“Why, yes, that is his name. I guess that means there’s a Globox in your universe?”
“Yeah. He’s a friend of mine.”
“I believe that’s all, then.” Finn smiled. “Good luck, master Rayman!”
He gestured to a metal ladder leading up onto the pipe. Rayman mounted it and climbed up to where a hatch with a locking wheel was situated. He spun it around, opened it, and dropped through into the pipe.
Rayman landed with a thundering splash, the sound amplified by the echoing space within the pipe. Water was rushing along at great speed, and already he was being carried along by the flow. Rayman felt excitement pumping through his veins. Once again, he was going to be plunged into a new adventure.
He held the gold chain with the emerald tightly, making sure it didn’t slip out of his fingers.
At one point the pipe suddenly changed angle and he was falling at a steep angle, down, down, down, until he reached the bottom. The pipe curved gracefully back to an almost horizontal level, and he was being swept gently along.
He could see something ahead. A large metal grating that blocked the pipe. This had to be it then. On the ceiling in front of the grating was a second grille, with a metal ladder leading up the wall to it. Rayman was swept up against the larger grating, and he clung on.
Carefully, he hauled himself to the side of the pipe, grabbed onto the ladder, and began pulling himself up to the second, smaller grating.
As he got close to it, he saw that it was rusty. Good. That probably meant it would be weak and easy to break away. Rayman charged up a fist to the maximum, then released it into the grating. It broke away with a clanging of metal. Rayman levered himself through.
As soon as he stepped foot on firm ground again, he was in the Funfair.

Chapter 14

Rayman took one look at his surroundings and, despite the knowledge that this was a place of killing and torment, almost laughed incredulously.
He was stood on a circular plinth in the midst of a deep pool of water shaped like a whale. The plinth was positioned where the eye of this ‘whale’ would be. There were smaller, circular stepping stones running across the pool to a large archway that led into a passage. The plinth and the stepping stones were painted with swirling yellow and blue patterns, as were the walls. From the ceiling far above came multi-coloured beams of light – blue, purple, orange, pink, red, green and yellow. There was a vast screen on one wall, depicting Imperial Emperor Rayman’s face. Every few seconds, the Emperor’s face would speak.
“If you’re going to die, you might as well have an interesting, exotic death…”
Rayman peered into the water of the pool. He recoiled as he saw shoals of spiny yellow fish swimming around. By the looks of them, they were aggressive. And their spines looked venomous.
Swiftly, Rayman began jumping from stepping stone to stepping stone. As he went along, the fish swam along after him, as though waiting for him to fall in. What made it harder was that the stepping stones would start sinking as soon as he landed on them.
But he’d done this sort of thing before. In no time at all, Rayman had crossed the line of stepping stones, and had reached the passage at the far end of the pool.
The walls of the passage were blue in colour, and were painted with white musical notes of different types. Rayman came to a corner, and was about to go around when he stopped abruptly.
There were skeletons on the floor. Teensy skeletons.
That could only mean one thing. If he stepped around the corner, he could be stepping into a booby-trap…
Rayman peered carefully around the corner. At the far end of the passage was a small chamber. And, stood in the middle of the chamber, facing his direction, was a silver jukebox. Rayman wondered what might happen if he stepped into view…
He reached down and took one of the bones lying on the floor. Then, standing back, he chucked it around the corner.
At once, the jukebox blared into life. Loud music thudded down the corridor. Electric guitars and a steady, regular drumbeat. And on each drumbeat, an amplified soundwave travelled down the corridor and smashed into the wall. Rayman realised what would happen if the jukebox detected him. The soundwaves it’d emit would probably smash into him with enough force to break his bones…
So how was he to get past it?
Rayman grabbed onto the emerald Finn had given him. Rosa might know what to do…
He heard her voice in his head, and knew she was communicating telepathically with him.
“Hi, Rayman. Need help? Show me the area…”
He raised the emerald and inched it around the corner, hoping she would see the jukebox.
“Right. You’re facing one of those sonic bone-crushing jukeboxes. Be careful with those, they’re dangerous. Here’s how you can get past it – see the front of the jukebox? The metal covering’s extremely thin, so that there’s nothing to absorb part of the soundwave when it leaves the box. Because it’s so thin, it doesn’t offer any protection for the circuits underneath. Here’s how you can get to those circuits – if you can whistle by sticking two fingers in your mouth, then do that, but make sure you whistle at as high a note as possible. If you can create your own powerful soundwave, you can damage the circuits in the jukebox enough to neutralise it. Got it?”
Rayman let go of the emerald. Rosa’s advice sounded crazy, but if it would help him get through, then he’d do it.
Rayman stuck his fingers in his mouth, leapt around the corner, and whistled as hard as he could.
The result was spectacular. Before the jukebox could react to his presence, Rayman’s own soundwave smashed into it. The fragile covering crumpled slightly, and sparks showered out of it. Obviously the circuits beneath were damaged.
Rayman ran down the passage, into the chamber. He ran past the wrecked jukebox. There was a staircase beyond. He went up it, delving further into the Funfair.

Chapter 15

An hour passed by, followed by two, then three.
The Funfair was huge. It seemed to go on and on. Rayman was impressed by the scale of it.
For the last few hours he’d been working his way through the nasty obstacles of the Funfair. After passing the jukebox, he’d headed up a staircase into a long hallway with more jukeboxes, lined along the walls. Each of these jukeboxes was emitting sonic soundwaves every few seconds, and he’d had to dodge his way across to the other side of the hallway. Then he’d worked his way down corridors with more jukeboxes, and he’d used the whistling trick Rosa had told him to do whenever he faced these lethal music players. After that, he’d come out into another hallway – except the floor had been shaped like the keys of a piano. Every so often, one of these keys had lit up. He’d had to jump from one glowing key to another, playing the correct tune to open the door at the far end of the hallway. If he’d put a foot wrong, he’d have activated another load of killer jukeboxes.
Rayman sighed with relief as he reached the end of the piano hall safely. This place was mad. Really, utterly mad. Only a psycho could have thought up and created a place like this.
He moved down a corridor until he came towards a vast, circular chamber with a flashing gold floor and walls that pulsed with psychedelic colours – yellow, red, orange… what would be waiting for him in here?
Rayman spotted that there were several more jukeboxes lined around the walls. Not more of them! He almost felt as though they were making him bored. All he had to do was emit a high-pitched whistle to propel a destructive soundwave of his own, and they were neutralised.
But at the same time, Rayman couldn’t help feeling that there was another danger in the chamber ahead. But what? There didn’t appear to be anything else in sight…
Rayman stuck two fingers in his mouth and gave his ear-splitting whistle. He heard sparks showering out of the jukeboxes as their thin metal coverings crumpled like paper bags. Then he wandered forward slowly.
There was a large metal circle hammered into the floor in the centre of the chamber. Rayman wondered if it had some special purpose. A hatch, maybe?
He stepped into the chamber.
And at once, the metal circle slid into a socket. Something raised up from underneath. Rayman felt his breath catch in his throat.
The first thing that came to his mind was a distant memory. A memory of his first ever adventure, when he’d been on a quest to defeat the villainous Mr. Dark. And one of the various enemies he’d faced on that quest had been a weird but horrible, saxophone-shaped creature named, aptly, Mr. Sax.
And it was Mr. Sax who was now standing in the centre of the chamber, towering over Rayman.
No, wait. It wasn’t the Mr. Sax he’d fought. It was an alternate version. It had to be.
“Halt!” The alternate Mr. Sax shouted, though there was no need to – Rayman was only several metres away.
Rayman knew instinctively what was coming next. Even as he leapt sideways, the alternate Mr. Sax fired forth a stream of purple musical notes – each one with horrible, bulging eyes and sharp, razor teeth. They came flying at Rayman at incredible speed, nearly hitting him.
The hero responded by launching a volley of fists that struck the nearest notes, sending them flying back at his assailant.
The alternate Mr. Sax reeled back, stunned, but not defeated. In a split second he spouted forth another stream of vicious notes that came hurtling through the air. Rayman cried out as one of them grazed the side of his head, drawing blood.
Perhaps that galvanised Rayman into proper action. The next minute, Rayman leapt forward, fists whirling and powering forward through the air. Snapping purple musical notes were sent flying straight back at the creature who’d launched them.
Alternate Mr. Sax was showered by them. Masses of them. It was enough to produce the effect Rayman desired.
The great monstrosity toppled backwards. Not dead, but injured. And as Rayman ran past him, he stopped, looked down at him and spoke.
“A word of advice, my friend. If you ever get the chance, try and learn how the version of you in my universe fought. Even he was tougher than you.”

Chapter 16

Another hour passed. The Funfair was huge. Utterly massive.
Rayman knew, however, that he wasn’t far now. Just a little further on, he would find what he was looking for – an elevator that would take him up the connecting tower and into the next stage of his mission; the Casino zone.
He passed along a rotating corridor, jumping from one hovering, rectangular orange crystal platform to another. What made it harder was that the platforms were moving back and forth. One wrong jump would send him plummeting into a deep pool of some sort of acid, which churned as the corridor rotated.
Rayman timed his jumps accurately, and managed to find his way to the other end of the corridor. He ran down the passage and came out into a small, box-like room with luminous green walls, covered in spiralling patterns.
Opposite was a hole in the wall – several feet across – leading into an orange tube that sloped gently down for a few metres, then dropped diagonally all of a sudden. Rayman peered as far down as he could. There was a small flow of water cascading down the tube, being fired out of several pipes at high pressure. A waterslide?
Knowing that the purpose of this place was to kill, Rayman had horrible feelings about what could be awaiting him at the bottom of the waterslide. A jumble of sickening images appeared in his head – ones of all manner of grisly things happening to him. Acid pools. Killer fish. Sharp spikes. Fire.
But he had to keep going.
Rayman took a deep breath, pulled himself into the tube, and pushed himself off down the waterslide.
He reached the sudden drop, and then he was rocketing downward at an incredible speed.
He spotted the traps before he got anywhere near them.
First there was a grille on one side of the tube, with flames spurting out of it. Rayman twisted his body around and he slid to the other side of the tube, narrowly missing them. Then came several holes in the ceiling, with grotesque tentacles stretching out of them. Rayman lay flat immediately and shot by beneath them. As he did, they seemed to sense that they were about to miss a victim, and seemed to jab out, trying to grab him.
But they missed. Rayman was already hurtling onward.
Once or twice the waterslide levelled out, then shot down again. On another occasion, it suddenly rose steeply upwards. For a nightmarish second, Rayman envisaged himself not having enough momentum and speed to carry on upwards, and sliding back down into the area of the tube where he wouldn’t be able to get out.
But he was lucky; he did have enough momentum. He shot upwards, slowing down slightly, but reached the top of the tube and was literally spat out of the waterslide into a small pool.
Rayman quickly swam to the ledge opposite and hauled himself to safety. There were aggressive-looking fish in the pool, and he didn’t want to hang around near them.
Once he was on the ledge, he ran down the next corridor. There were multi-coloured, circular lights mounted along the left wall. As he ran past the first of them, it suddenly flashed brightly. Rayman stopped in his tracks and staggered back, hands clasped over his eyes in pain.
He had to be careful. The obvious aim of the lights was to blind him. Had he not been checking the right wall as he passed that first light, he would definitely have permanently lost his vision.
Slowly, it came back. Rayman squinted ahead, glad that there didn’t seem to be any other traps in the corridor, then closed his eyes, covered them with his hands, and ran past.
He didn’t see the flashes of the lights, and so he knew he was safe when he ran smack into the wall at the end of the corridor.
Rayman removed his hands and opened his eyes. He looked left – he’d come to a corner. He set off down the next corridor.
And he reached a small chamber with the elevator leading to the Casino zone. It was guarded – by several Imperial Golden Guard.
Rayman, after everything he’d seen so far, wasn’t surprised to see them. But his presence took them by surprise. Before they knew what was happening, he was among them like a whirlwind, smashing at them with his fists, knocking them to the floor. One of them raised his combat staff feebly, only to have it batted straight out of his hands.
The fight lasted less than a minute. Rayman surveyed his handiwork. All of the enemies were lying on the floor. Quite dead.
He went over to the elevator, checked it for booby-traps, and, satisfied there weren’t any, pressed several pink buttons. The doors opened. Rayman stepped through, pressed another button, and the doors closed. The elevator set off upwards.

Chapter 17

The elevator shuddered to a halt.
Rayman stepped gingerly out as the doors opened, and he gazed around him. He was in a small chamber with black walls and a floor covered by a rich red carpet.
He had arrived in the next zone – the Casino.
In the centre of the chamber a hologram was beaming out of the ceiling, depicting cards and dice. And there was a screen on either side of the chamber, showing Imperial Emperor Rayman. Every few seconds, he would speak.
“If you’re going to die, you might as well have an interesting, exotic death…”
Rayman stepped around the hologram and went down the corridor beyond.
He saw the first traps that awaited him immediately. Giant, circular yellow gambling chips inscribed with various one-digit numbers, oversized versions of the real things, protruded out of the ceiling. And as Rayman drew further down the corridor, they suddenly began whirling round and round, and there was a click as huge razor blades flicked into position along their edges. They began lowering up and down, from ceiling to floor. Littered along the corridor were skeletons, except they were fractured and broken.
Rayman tensed himself, then ran past the first one as it retracted up into the ceiling. The second one, retracting temporarily into the floor, he jumped over. The first four were easy to avoid, though Rayman found that, the further he went down the corridor, the faster the razor-edged gambling chips moved.
The last one nearly cleaved him as he leapt over it, but he had a narrow escape. Rayman ran on, away from the razor gambling chip traps. He came to a crossroads, with a route leading off to left and right, and one straight ahead. Not knowing which route to take, Rayman took hold of the green emerald around his neck.
Rosa’s voice entered his head.
“Stuck, Rayman? Let me see the area…”
Rayman held the emerald up and turned it around three hundred and sixty degrees, giving Rosa a full view of the area.
“You’re in the Casino? Well done! You’re doing fine. I’ll alert Finn when he next comes for a report on your progress… anyhow… take the passage on the left. But watch out for the sliding cards!”
Rayman went immediately left, and moved warily down the corridor. The black walls now had images of playing cards painted all over them – hearts, diamonds, spades, clubs, kings, queens, jacks, aces, jokers, masses of different numbers…
And he stopped immediately as there was a thump and a sliding door slammed down into place in front of him.
Rayman was glad he’d been moving slowly. Any faster, and he’d have blundered straight into it and been crushed as it fell down into place.
He examined the door with interest. It was white, and had been painted to look like an oversized playing card. The ace of spades.
As Rayman watched, there was a metallic click and the door began retracting back into its socket in the ceiling. As it did so, Rayman saw that the bottom edge was lined with black spikes – each one shaped like the spade symbols found on real playing cards.
As the door was reopening, Rayman ducked under it and went through. If his hunch was correct, there would be more of these doors – he guessed that from the way the passage stretched on for a short distance.
He was right – as he approached, a second white door – this time painted to look like the ace of diamonds – slammed down in front of him. Rayman just had time to see that the spikes lining the bottom edge of the door were diamond-shaped. After a few seconds, the door began opening again.
Rayman didn’t take long to dodge his way along the corridor, ducking under the doors as they reopened. All the doors were either painted to resemble the ace of spades or the ace of diamonds.
Once he was past these doors, Rayman came to a ladder that seemed to have been built entirely from small, circular yellow gambling chips. He was about to start climbing when he hesitated. Was the ladder booby-trapped? He looked upwards. The ladder went quite high. Rayman had an instinct warning him that the ladder might suddenly collapse whilst he was climbing it.
Not to worry, Rayman thought to himself. I can deal with this…
He began climbing.
Sure enough, as he was reaching the top, the ladder suddenly shattered. Yellow gambling chips went flying everywhere, but Rayman had been ready for this.
Only part of the ladder broke up – the part that Rayman was on. All he had to do was jump upwards, putting all his strength into it.
His hands grabbed onto the top rung of the ladder, and he heaved himself into the corridor above.
As he did, Rayman heard something that made him stop abruptly. Something that sounded odd. Something that sounded dangerous. A sort of faint buzzing noise… like bees…
Insects?
Rayman had to find out.

Chapter 18

Rayman crept forward slowly, and that strange buzzing noise filled his ears. What was it? Insects? He didn’t like what he was hearing…
He turned a corner and gaped in surprise.
He’d come out into a cylindrical chamber that stretched upward, quite high. There were archways at various heights on the walls, doubtlessly leading to some other area of the Casino. There were platforms floating up and down the height of the chamber, each one shaped like an oversized yellow gambling chip.
As for the buzzing noise, it was coming from what appeared to be a swarm of motorised playing cards.
Each card had a small propeller attached to one end, and a thin, sharp metal edge on another. Rayman knew immediately what would happen as soon as he leapt onto one of the floating gambling chips. The swarm of playing cards would swoop down on him, sharp edges first.
Rayman didn’t like the idea of trying to get up the chamber, but he had to go on. So he made a quick decision. He was going to go to the lowest archway.
He leapt into the air, and onto the first floating gambling chip.
At once, the playing cards stopped milling around and suddenly dived towards him, tiny propellers whirring. Rayman quickly jumped upward, grabbing onto the gambling chip platform above. He pulled himself swiftly onto it and heard several of the playing cards pinging off the underside of the platform.
No time to think, Rayman thought to himself. Just keep going…
He pushed off with his feet, propelling himself through the air onto another giant gambling chip. He went down into a roll, and several playing cards swooped past, narrowly missing the top of his head. Rayman threw out a sudden fist, catching several of them. His fist broke away the propellers and ripped up the cards, destroying them.
He was just a leap away from the lowest arch.
Rayman threw himself forward, hands outstretched. He cried out as a playing card suddenly battered into the back of one hand, and he swatted it away painfully.
But he’d done it.
Rayman fell through the archway. The playing cards stopped their pursuit and went back to drifting around the chamber.
Rayman picked himself up, rubbing the back of his hurt hand. It wasn’t too bad. Only a small cut and a tiny trickle of blood. He wiped it away and proceeded onwards.
He eventually came out on the edge of a wide, deep stream. The water was flowing at a snail’s pace. Floating platforms, each one shaped and painted to resemble a giant playing card, would drift by every second or so. Rayman guessed that he had to use them to head down the stream.
He leapt onto the closest one. The king of clubs.
At once, as if Rayman had activated some sort of motion detector or sensor, the stream suddenly sped up, flowing at a much faster rate. Rayman wondered what traps were awaiting him on this little journey.
He saw what was coming as soon as the floating card rounded a corner.
At intervals along the walls of the stream were holes in the wall, one above the other. And out of these holes burst a long, continuous jet of flames. Rayman gaped. These fire barriers came as low as the water itself. How was he going to get past this?
He had perhaps ten seconds to find an answer.
He couldn’t jump between the flames. There were no gaps.
Could he try swimming underwater? Rayman peered over the edge of his floating card and saw that the bottom of the stream was lined with rotating circular saws shaped and painted like gambling chips. As they whirled around, they created a suction force that would pull anything swimming in the water to oblivion. No chance there, then…
What then?
It came to him when he was perhaps three seconds away from death.
Rayman lay flat on his front, stretched out his hands and grabbed either end of the floating card. Then he jerked his body sideways, flipping the card over onto its other side. Now he was underwater.
He passed harmlessly under the flames. And, due to the fact he was clutching tightly to the card, he was able to avoid being sucked into the circular saws.
Under the water, Rayman looked down as he passed the saws. He let go of the card with one hand and pulled himself to the water surface, praying that he was past the flame barriers, too.
He was. He’d got through.

Chapter 19

More hours passed by. One, then two, then three.
Rayman knew he had to be getting closer to his goal. The Felix Faction agent – Alternate Globox – had said he would be up here.
In a circular chamber at the end of a corridor, Rayman stepped onto a raised plinth. Automatically it shot upwards, carrying him into a shaft above. It was an elevator. Rayman tensed himself, ready to dodge any traps lying in wait for him further up the shaft.
There weren’t any.
The elevator came out into a vast, circular room with patterns all over the walls – red and white lines twisting and undulating above and below each other, on a black background. Rayman looked at the floor. It was painted like a gigantic roulette wheel – covered in alternating red and black squares, and one green square, each square with a number in it, from zero to thirty-six. Rayman stepped off the elevator, onto the green square, which bore the number zero.
At once, there was a rumbling noise and the elevator continued upward without anyone on it. It clicked into a special socket in the high ceiling.
Rayman looked at his surroundings with sudden apprehension. He was stood, just as he’d guessed, on an oversized version of a roulette wheel. So what was going to happen here?
He heard something fizzing and bubbling beneath his feet. Rayman looked down and cried out in surprise, quickly jumping off the green square, onto the nearest black one. The green square seemed to be slowly melting into some sort of viscous, horrible liquid… acid?
And then suddenly every red square in the room began to glow, and Rayman felt an intense heat coming off them. He knew immediately that if he stepped on them, he’d be badly burnt. The black squares were inactive. They were the safe spots to stand on. Rayman felt the floor beneath his feet shudder, and suddenly it began turning. The entire room was starting to rotate. Just like a roulette wheel.
So what now?
Rayman gazed around, looking for an exit. There had to be one somewhere… but where was it?
The room was gaining speed, spinning faster and faster. Rayman closed his eyes, becoming increasingly dizzy. And, now that he thought of it, there was something missing from this giant roulette wheel. The ball.
He had a nasty feeling about this.
And then he heard it – no, not it; them – whizzing down through the air out of sockets in the ceiling. Not just one roulette ball, but several. He saw them, and he gaped in surprise. Normally a roulette ball was just a small, smooth silver ball. But these were different. These ones were even bigger than he was. And they were lined with spikes.
They had been catapulted at specific angles so that, every time they hit the floor, they bounced off one of the black squares.
Rayman, with a sick feeling of certainty, knew that he wouldn’t be able to last long here if he didn’t do something. As the room whirled around faster and faster, he became dizzier and dizzier. His vision was spinning before his eyes. It wouldn’t take long for it to interfere with his jumping, and he’d end up either being hit by one of the roulette balls, or he’d fall into the green or one of the red squares.
One of the balls bounced towards him. Rayman knew he was on a black square, and he leapt forward. The ball just skimmed underneath him, and he landed on the black square in front. Already there was another ball hurtling towards him. Not good…
And then, from a loudspeaker somewhere above, Rayman heard a familiar voice. Imperial Emperor Rayman.
“If you’re going to die, you might as well have an interesting, exotic death…”
Damn him, Rayman thought to himself. This isn’t fair… but then again, when are enemies fair to you?
Rayman jumped again, missing the roulette ball and getting onto the next black square. For a second he considered grabbing onto the pillar in the centre of the room and holding on tight. But no, it was too smooth. There were no possible handholds.
The emerald…
Rayman, in his dizziness, panicked as he couldn’t get hold of it. His spinning vision was making even this incredibly hard. He heard a whistling noise and jumped just in time as yet another roulette ball plummeted past him.
“Oh no!”
Rayman shouted in horrified dismay as he dropped the emerald. It clattered as it bounced away across the roulette wheel, well out of reach.
Rayman was in trouble.

Chapter 20

The emerald came to rest on a black square on the other side of the spinning room.
Rayman was relieved it wasn’t damaged, but now he was faced with a problem; he had to get to it.
As he became dizzier and dizzier, he began to lose control of his hands and feet. He was disoriented, light-headed… he could feel the blood pounding in his skull and his ears. Rayman knew that it was only a matter of time now before his dizziness finally took complete control of him. And when that happened, he would either be hit by one of the spiked roulette balls. Or he’d fall onto one of the red squares…
“Holy cow!”
Rayman dodged one of the roulette balls just as it span past his shoulder, nearly hitting him. It had been just several millimetres away.
His lungs felt awful, and he was struggling to breath. His heart was thumping a dozen times a second, and he could actually feel the blood rushing through his arteries and veins at incredible pressure. This was horrible. And the only chance he had to stop this was to reach the emerald and ask for help…
But it was on the other side of the room. And he was running out of time, as he became even dizzier.
Was this it, then? Was this how it was going to end? Rayman gritted his teeth. He felt helpless. Here he was, stuck in an insane execution zone in a parallel universe, on the brink of being killed. He was never going to see any of his friends again – not the ones he had in this universe, but the ones in his home universe. The Globox he knew, Samia, Queen Gloria, the Grand Minimus. They’d never know he was dead…
“Stop it!” Rayman suddenly shouted aloud. He wasn’t directing this at the room, though. He was directing it at himself. “Stop thinking like that, it isn’t helping!”
And then, with renewed strength and determination, he leapt forward, again and again and again, from one black square to the next. He flung out a fist. His wildly rotating vision prevented him from seeing what happened, but he was rewarded with the satisfying clunk that announced he’d hit one of the roulette balls away. It span into the acidic green square, where it melted and corroded away.
“I’m not gonna die here!” Rayman bellowed angrily. “No way! Are you listening to me, Imperial Emperor? I won’t let you kill me!”
He leapt forward one last time. Landed on the next black square.
And with a triumphant smile, he scooped up the emerald in both hands.
“Rayman!” Rosa’s voice echoed through his head. “What’s happening? Show me the area!”
Rayman held the emerald high.
“Oh no…”
What? Rayman felt his hopes suddenly sink. That hadn’t sounded good…
“We’ll work something out…” Rosa tried to reassure him, but Rayman caught a note of panic in her voice. “We will, I promise… there has to be a way out of there…”
Rayman felt crushed. He knew immediately what Rosa was saying. He’d obviously wandered straight into a dead end. More than that, he’d wandered into a dead end with the biggest, most lethal trap imaginable, with no way out. So it probably was going to end here.
Rayman went berserk. This wasn’t what was supposed to happen. It wasn’t supposed to end like this. He screamed angrily and lashed out in all directions with his fists. Left, right, centre, left, up, down, left, right, centre, right…
Something happened.
Rayman didn’t realise what he’d done. But suddenly there was a loud screeching of metal being torn apart, and the entire room shuddered and groaned to a halt. Several of the red squares blew apart, flames and sparks showering out of them. The roulette balls clanged uselessly to the floor.
His feet unsteady, Rayman closed his eyes. Slowly his dizziness vanished, and his vision corrected itself. Gradually, he began to regain his balance. Then he opened his eyes and looked around.
What had happened? Had he hit something?
“Gaseous gloops, now that was good, wasn’t it?”
That voice! It sounded like Globox…
Alternate Globox! Rayman’s face lit up with a triumphant grin as he realised who it was. It had to be Alternate Globox – the Felix Faction contact he’d been sent to rescue!
“Up here, pal!”

Alternate One's back! Yays! ^o^