Act 5

## SUMMARY

This chapter picks up after the Cursor defeats the rest of the fighters, demonstrating great strength.

Boxers: "Wow, dude... that... was AWESOME!" "I'm sure all the Handy Pals loved it too." "It's been a while since I've seen them like that." "Actually, before you showed up, one of our fighters literally disappeared." "But thankfully, you showed up at the right time." "I would've given you the costume too, but I had to get you ready in time." "Anyway, now that the show's over I guess you can wander around the place for a bit." "But if y'wanna take a nap, you should go to the room down the hallway." "Oh, and you can also use the elevator now if you want." "That's it. Have fun, my dude." "...and thank you."

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After the conversation with Boxers the Cursor is free to explore the hideout or sleep and continue the story, making this an act with mostly optional content. Immediately it can be seen the lower floor lobby is pretty much empty.

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Going to the left entrance of the lower area we can go back to the training room with Stewart. There he's seen head bonked off after the Cursor knocked him out. If you interact with Stewart it brings up the following prompt... "Train with Stewart again?"

After that it gives a YES or NO choice. Selecting YES restarts the tutorial fight with Stewart.

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Further up is a room with two side rooms. There's the planning room, and the fighters' hall.

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In the fighters' hall are several smaller rooms for each fighter with their costumes.

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Each of the signs in front of the side rooms is in the following format with fighter number on the left:

- "02 - Fingertaker's room" - "03 - Hand Sight's Room" - "04 - Handle Banks' Room"

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Going in Handle Banks' room there's a board with a drawing of her face, her wig, and the head box.

Interacting with the mirror reads as follows... "A mirror. It's so high up you can't even see yourself on it."

Interacting with the wig reads as follows... "This must be one of Handle Banks' wigs"

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Further up and to the left is Hand Sight's room. Walking into it we see one of his transparent gloves staring at the costume, mostly invisible. It then seems to be startled be us and walks away fully invisible. After which the narration states... "Who was that?"

This specific Handy Pal is important to keep in mind, as Hand Sight's head glove follows us into

Interacting with the costume narration reads... "This is Hand Sight's costume."

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Just to the right is Fingertaker's room, which is much different from the rest. Instead of being covered in lavish decorations and with costume stands, the room is mostly empty, with a mattress and blanket in the middle. This implies that the Handy Pals that make up Fingertaker almost never go out of costume, and sleep in the fighter's hall instead of just prepping there.

The sign on the wall is somewhat sunken down, and rubble litters the floor. A note from Boxers which was left on the floor also lets us know that Fingertaker has recently been shutting himself away from the rest of the group...

Boxers (Note): "Hey dude, I know it's been a hard couple of days but I'm sure he will be back by tomorrow. Please stop avoiding us, we miss you man. -Box"

The note also has a smiley face at the bottom. This is alluding to Number 8 being gone, which seems to be greatly distressing. Fingertaker is the second fighter and long time rival of Iron Punch who Number 8 controls the head of.

At the top of the room is the door for fighter 01. It's notably locked. Reading it the narration states... "The door's locked." "Maybe the key can still be found somewhere in the hideout..."

The key to this door can be found in a hidden room next to a flickering light in the long hall coming off the entrance. This room is also accessible as early as Chapter 1 Act 3 - Meet the Handy Pals.

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Inspecting the boxes at the top... "Why are there so many boxes here?"

Inspecting the lone box at the VERY bottom, out of the light... "There's something inside the box." "Grab it?"

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Here the cursor is presented with another YES or NO option. Choosing yes we get the following... "You found a mysterious key!" This key is also acts as a clue.

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The description of the key points out it's hidden nature and suggests someone may be hiding it to cover something up.

Going back to the door... "The mysterious key you found earlier appears to be intended for this door." "Use the mysterious key to unlock the door?"

The Cursor is prompted with a YES or NO choice again. Clicking yes the door opens and the music is paused for a dramatic sound cue. Inside of the door is the first fighter's room.

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To the left are unopened presents in red blue and green, perhaps representing the colors of the other fighters, being one gift from each. Inspecting it... "Looks like the other fighters left some presents here."

Inspecting the plaque where the costume it reads... ""Iron Punch""

There's also a fallen poster on the right of the floor. Inspecting it... "It's an Iron Punch Poster. It looks pretty old."

This poster also acts as a clue called The First Fighter. Here it says "The main Handy Pal that controls his head has been missing for a couple of days, and hasn't come back since." This adds some interesting context to the narrative of Number 8's disappearance. In the note to Fingertaker the language used is "gone", but here it explicitly says he's been "missing" for days. Important is the difference between gone and missing. If the characters thought Iron Punch's head glove was gone, that might mean he's gone, but they could know where he is. Here though, the word "missing" is specifically used, which means they don't know where they are. Since the public seems to have no idea whatsoever that Iron Punch is missing until the night of the fight, this must be referring to other characters who haven't known where he is. Those people would have to be Boxers and the rest of the fighters, who have planned the Handy Pals' escape in relative secrecy.

We know that Boxers would have been aware of Number 8 being on the surface, since we see him spy on the Cursor as they follow Number 8 into the garden on the morning of Day 1. He'd be aware of where Number 8 is at least that early. Since Fingertaker is still isolating, and staring silently at graffiti art praising Boxers, it appears he's been left in the dark about this. Since we can deduce the fighters believe Number 8 is missing, but Boxers must know otherwise, this must mean Boxers is withholding knowledge of Number 8's location from them as well.

This makes Boxers the most likely candidate, besides maybe Number 8 himself, to have hidden the key. Considering it's his hideout, who else would know about the hidden room. The frustrating thing to me is what the heck in Iron Punch's room must be hidden. Since neither the presents nor the poster are particularly incriminating, I imagine it's to give the impression to the public that Iron Punch is in his room during prep. After all, the hall itself is publicly accessible to everyone in the hideout, and people would notice if all the other fighters were there getting ready but Iron Punch's room was just empty.

We can see in Boxers' attitude that he's probably not that worried about Number 8, trusting him to do find on his own away from him.

"Hey dude, I know it's been a hard couple of days but I'm sure he will be back by tomorrow. Please stop avoiding us, we miss you man. -Box"

"So Eight it is then." "Heh, reminds me of a close friend of mine... I wonder where they're at."

"Actually, before you showed up, one of our fighters literally disappeared." "But thankfully, you showed up at the right time."

His attitude here seems to be relatively tame towards the situation until later, which will be discussed further down...

At the top of the lobby we can see a few Handy Pals in the crowd. Boxers also remains at the ring, and if we talk to him he'll allow us to replay any previous fights.

Talking to him...

Boxers:

"Sup, dude. Y'wanna get on the ring and fight again?"

This presents the Cursor with another YES or NO choice, bringing them to a menu with each of the three fighters, fighting them again just acts as normal, really it's there for getting the achievements.

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At the very bottom of the floor is a massive bedroom for all the Handy Pals being kept safe in the hideout to sleep in.

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Interacting with it we get the warning... "If you go to sleep now, you won't be able to go back to the hideout." "Go to sleep anyway?"

and are presented with another YES or NO choice. Selecting YES will progress the story, with us waking up in the middle of the night.

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Here we can see all the other Handy Pals here are fast asleep. Walking back to the lobby, Boxers waits for us in the dark, looking out from the elevator. Compared to his earlier attitude, his tone is much more serious.

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"Hey, so um... " "I know this is sudden, but..." "I... need to let you know about something." "Come."

After an elevator ride, Boxers takes us to the room where he's been feverishly planning the Handy Pals' escape.

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He then exposits to the Cursor about the escape plans, and Number 8 going missing that morning...

"You see..." "We're actually planning to get out of this place." "And I don't just mean the hideout, I mean the garden in general." "I'm sure you're wondering why and... well..." "...Skye has been slowly killing some of the Handy Pals." "Or at least that's what we think." "Recently, she's been guarding the labyrinth like crazy." "And after some research, we figured out that it was made to hide some kind of... way out of this place." "But ever since we found that out, Handy Pals have been going missing." "In fact, this morning, Number 8 also went missing." "And we can't just leave without him, this was his plan after all." "So... I'm gonna ask you for a lil' favor." "Please look for him when you get back there." "Look, I would NEVER send any Handy Pals to the garden, but you're not a Handy Pal." "I don't even know what or who you are, but I do know one thing..." "You... are strong, and I know you can do this." "So, please, bring him back to us." (Boxers pauses for a moment as the hand signals it agrees) "Thanks a lot." "The fighters already know about this, but we need one more day to prepare ourselves." "So you'll have to stick with Skye for tomorrow." "It's ok though, we'll meet you at the labyrinth the next day." "Be careful out there, my dude."

After this speech the Cursor leaves past the bottom of the room.

This tells us A LOT of information all at once, so I'll try and break it down. For the most part, Gardener Skye has for the most part let the Handy Pals be in peace, and hasn't been particularly violent. However, after Boxers and some others found out the Labyrinth was created to hide an escape from the world of the garden. How long ago is unclear, but judging by C's Notes it's been around for quite some time, at least since they got there. This, the Handy Pals finding out that the Labyrinth hides an escape, that's the inciting incident that leads her to kill. This lets us know she doesn't seek violence against the Handy Pals under normal circumstances, but she sees the Portal being used as such a serious threat she's willing to kill people to stop it from happening. This harkens back to the end of Chapter 1 Act 3 - Meet the Handy Pals where Gardener Skye extensively scolds Number 8 for trying to go there, killing him only after he violates her trust again.

We also find out that Number 8 went missing just that morning, and that he was the one to come up with the escape plan in the first place. It seems ever since then, Boxers' Hideout has been used as a safehouse for Handy Pals. Boxers even says he'd "NEVER send any Handy Pals to the garden". Considering Number 8 has on the surface for days, it seems like he left on his own accord. It could be argued Boxers is lying to the Cursor and he actually made Number 8 leave, but I don't think so. Considering they've been long time friends, it'd be strange for Boxers to make Number 8 leave. Boxers barely knows the Cursor at all, but he still trusts him with all this very sensitive information, and asks the Cursor to please bring him back, and the cursor voluntarily agrees. I don't think he's lying. It seems like he had lots of faith in Number 8 to be safe in his journey. This casual attitude toward his leave, and confidence in his safety, makes Number 8's true disappearance all the more distressing to Boxers. He is panicked and is begging the Cursor to save his friend.

This also brings up some interesting questions about Number 8's relationship to the characters around him. He's the earliest Handy Pal whose number is pointed out to us. He's very popular with the other Handy Pals, is one of Boxers' best friends, another character beloved by the Handy Pals, and lastly he's the head glove for Iron Punch, the first fighter in their fighting competitions. Considering the relationship between Gardener Skye and the Handy Pals used to be non-violent, she probably has some sort of connection to the ones that've been around for a long time. We know that not only has she been killing Handy Pals for some time, but Number 8 is the one leading them to escape against her will. It's also implied that for some time he's been remaining in the safety of Boxers' Hideout, if him being gone is out of the normal and Boxers refuses to send Handy Pals to the surface. This means that not only should Number 8 be enemy number one, but he's returned after a long absence, which should be very suspicious. Despite this, Number 8 has been allowed to stay on the surface without Gardener Skye's disappearance. Heck, it's Number 8 bringing Gardener Skye's attention to the Cursor that starts DAY 1.

Another point brought up here by Boxers is the difference between the Cursor and the rest of the Handy Pals. We see through the fights that even without any special gear or training, the Cursor in its current form is especially strong compared to all the other gloves. Considering what's found out later in Silvie's house, it makes sense why.

Boxers ends by letting us know the escape itself is tomorrow, and tells us to be careful.

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Before moving on I'd like to draw attention to some things around the room. There's several notes connected by strings, probably for figuring out what's happening. There's also several papers and pencils scattered on the ground, giving the impression that they've been franticly planning. There's also chalkboards, one with the well (the entrance to Boxers' Hideout), and the layout to the Labyrinth. This tells us wherever they've been getting their info, they've been able to get the full layout of the area. Looking at the table, there's also a blueprint for what looks like a fighter outfit. This suggests the fighters or their outfits to some extent were planned as a defensive mechanism.

After Boxers sends us off we get some text exclaiming the proper start of DAY 2.

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