Alex, Sodol and Lily came into Spiral HQ, to be welcomed by a knight with 5* Cobalt armor.
"Welcome, to Spiral HQ!", the knight said with pride.
"Who are you?", asked Alex.
"I am Pine, Head Commander of SF Operations in planet Cradle."
"I know you!", Sodol glared.
"Oh! Sodol! Welcome to SF my boy!", Pine said as if Sodol is family.
"So, does this mean we'll be doing operations in this Cradle planet?", Lily asked.
"Yes. You three were put in helping the knights at Cradle to repair their spaceship and take it back here. Just in case you were wondering, it's called "The Skylark".", said Pine.
"If you look to your right, you'll see the entrance to the Armory. Take these permissions. They'll give you basic Spiral armor."
"I hope it's not strudy and heavy...", Lily said with a face resembling >:L
"Not at all! It's made of Galium alloys, making it considerably durable, cheap, lightweight, and kind of flexible too.", said Pine.
"Also, you can get a Tailed helm."
"Goody!", Lily said with a renewed spark of joy, and started hopping towards the armory with her permission.
"Well, good luck to you guys. I think Lily's joy will be a good tool for you to use.", said Pine.

[Several Months later, after our knights have settled on better armor...]
...
The Gloaming Wildwoods were silent.
...
The Snarbolax was lying dead. Alex stared at it with deep despair.
...
"I... Can't believe it...", said Alex before spraying out with tears.
First Lily, who treated the beast as no different, and got devoured like butter. Then Sodol, running to it with rage, forgetting it's still invincible, only to act as another treat for the beast. Luckily, Alex has slow "digestion", so he remained resolute and resourceful, succesfully killing the beast just to come out with a non-fatal flesh wound.
...
Alex calmed down a little, but then...
"Hey, speak for yourself!", suddenly a rather high-pitched voice came out of nowhere.
"...*sob*, who are you? *sob*", Alex couldn't stop his tears.
"It doesn't matter now, but listen. Sure, your friends are dead, but they did good, now get over it and get some better armor. You're going to have a good journey towards the core."
"*last sob*, how do you know?", Alex said in disbelief.
"Because we know you can do it.", Suddenly a calm girl's voice talked.
"Hey don't get into this!", said the squirmy voice.
"Calm down now Faust...", the soft voice said, remaining resolute.
"Hmph. Fine.", said the squirmy voice, appearantly named Faust.
"But...But...What is all this??", Alex asked with confusion.
...
No response. Just the usual silence from before.

____________________-
IT BEGINS!
By the way, jmtheawsome's fanfic (the other side) contains some more Alex. Feel free to go there too. Alex's appearance there happens between the end of the prologue and the beggining of the story, in year 2QK. [EDIT]
Also, the counting is on Base 36, not the usual decimal base, so be aware. (lolsupahneerd)

I had an internet malfunction and lost episode 1 D': SOOOO SORRY ;-; Too demotivated to remember what I did, so I have to delay it for tommorow >_<

I had no time to think about episode 2 :(
Maybe I'll altogether make it one episode per 2-3 days.
Meanwhile, enjoy this:

A porcupine walked in the forest.
It started thinking how to breathe.
It died.

(Genome narration)
We started walking towards the Arcade, and just before entering, Amber stopped dead on her tracks with a puzzled look.
"Wait, does everyone here have enough crystal energy to do this?", she said with care.
Everyone put their arms up except for me.
"No problem then. I have 15,000 crowns on me which should cover up 200 more crystal energy for you.", said Alex.
"Wait, I have 8,000. I'm coming to help you.", said Amber.
They both went off into the market, leaving us in the arcade's entrance.
"Well... What should we do now?", Dusk seemed to get bored.
"How about we check the gates?", Lana suggested. Mystic nodded and went inside. We followed.
Each one of us took place in a gate checking its map, but before either could finish diagnosing, "Uhh...Guys...I think you'd wanna look at this...", Mystic said nearly scared. Everyone rushed over to his gate, Ruby Trojan, and what we saw was astonishing: The Gloaming Wildwoods, Jelly Kingdom AND Firestorm Citadel in the same gate, with question marks instead of proper levels and emblems.

(Alex narration)
"So final deal is 12,500 crowns for 200 energy, or quit it.", Amber bargained the knight with steam mask.
"Bah, fine, just take it...", the knight seemed desperate, though this was around his limit, so he still gave it up.
"Sheesh, what was he so whining about? That's above the regular inflated price of energy!", Amber being critical while we were walking towards the Arcade.
"I always knew steam knights as overpricing ones...", I said.
We reached the Arcade's front entrance, to find nobody. I suggested going in, and we saw our group huddled around the same gate.
"I see you've found a path.", I said in a welcoming tone.
"You'd wanna check this out.", Dusk said while clearing his checking podium.
A single determined path. 3 out of 4 boss stratums. This is overboard. "I wanna investigate inside.", Lana said with curiousity.
"Did I say this is going to be an adventure? THIS, is going to be an adventure.", I said in a raised tone.

(??? narration)
I saw the elevator come down, only to reveal another pirate knight with a Brandish. I quickly hid behind a small building, and circled it just to find myself behind said pirate. I snuck up to him, easily bringing him down with my endpoint, but he wouldn't give up, so he swung his sword, succesfully putting me down. Luckily, I managed to do enough damage to disable him from standing upright. "Arus, catch!", I heard Wedge say from a distance, just to see a Volcanic Tempest shock the pirate to death, me being just out of radius.
Daym, this is getting boring.

This takes place several years after The Other Side's end, after haven got completely recovered.

//I recited the characteristics of all the knights, and it appears I have mixed it up in the start, but I can't edit it now TΠT unless you let me...

(Dusk Narration)
Oh, did I mention ALL the levels had question marks over their usual symbols? Anyhow, the first is "Clockwork Tunnels: ???". Interesting.
The elevator landed in a quite dark room, leading out into what seemed into a blast furnace. We entered the blast furnace, and saw a bunch of Lumber rubble, and what seemed like a gremlin mender sitting in the corner. I headed up to the mender, and asked "Excuse me? What's up with the broken Lumbers?"
The stare he gave us would raise a thousand questions. His eyes were blank, puzzled, and derped at the same time. Yes. Derped. "Bah, why wouldn't they understand I'm not good with constructs?!?" the mender shouted near the top of his lungs and went to the nearby pile of Lumberubble. He kicked it and snarled at it "Y U NO WORK? ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)". Meanwhile, it seemed like Alex and Amber dug into the 2 other Lumberubbles, and then Alex exclaimed as an answer "Maybe because they have no internal Engine?". Amber answered from the other Lumberubble "They seem to have no bolts either...". "Oh that's it! Now they even take away vital parts! I'm gonna retire to haven. This is frustrating...", the mender muttered with anger, and went towards our elevator, somehow activating it upwards.
"Well, it looks like we have 2 ways to go...", Genome said while pointing his hands in opposite directions, with a shrug. Alex took a stare to the corridor near him, and saw it leads to a small dead-ended room. "Well, if you feel like exploring, we'll head this way.", he proclaimed. "SEE YA LATER SLOWPOKES" Mystic hollered as he broke the sound barrier again with his trojan charge, going into the small room, missing by a mile and making some holes in the wall nearby. "Uhh, I didn't mean that when I said explore", Alex chuckled, still in his Lumberubble. "I'll go check for Mystic, you guys check the small room." Genome announced. "Very well then..." Amber stammered her way out of her Lumberubble with a >:L face, as if she had fun exploring it.

(Genome Narration)
I headed Mystic's way, having to walk a mile across, and found a hole in the floor in the end of the alternative passage. "Please don't tell me..." I glared sideways to see Mystic hiding, ready to terrify me. "Okay, you got me..." Mystic groaned. We headed back through the corridor into the room, walknig a mile forth. Back in the blast furnace, we saw everyone gathering up ready to go the other way.

[Meanwhile...](Alex Narration)
Me, Lana, Amber and Dusk went into the dead-ended room, and found a bunch of Spiderwebs covering its corners, along a treasure pot in the middle, looking fairly clean. "I wonder what's inside", Amber getting interested, she smashed the treasure pot with her Metatron, to find 6 unusual lumps of heat. "Now why do these look weird to me?" Dusk stammered. I picked one up, and collapsed to the floor, feeling like dying, but it ended a moment later. "What was that supposed to mean?" Lana reached for helping me up. "I have no idea, but I don't want anyone to touch these, so let's get back now" I declared.

______________________________/
In order to understand how Alex felt, imagine you're on an extreme roller coaster, and one of the upward track pieces disconnected, so now you're soaring up into the air, feeling your heart rise to the skies as you start to fall down.
ALSO, LUMBERUBBLE IS MY EQUIVELANT TO JM'S SOMETHING.

(Mystic narration)
As me and Genome went out of my artificial tunnel, we nodded at the rest of our group outside and quickly dispatched towards the other way. I morphed into a trojan and charged all the way through (I had to ^v^") just to hit my head after a party button. "Will you ever grow up?", I head Dusk mutter. We all then stepped on the party button.
*slide*
The closing gate did close, but the opening one didn't. "Oooo-kay, when I said I wanted to test Claustrophobia, I didn't say I wanted to be the patient!" Alex panicked. "Hold on, lemme fix this...", since I'm still a trojan, I tried to charge at the opening gate again, and try to stab it too. A loud thump followed by a loud metallic cling deafened me for a second, only to realise I'm a knight again... "Soulwood.", Amber declared with a raised eyebrow.
"Greetings, and welcome to LOCKDOWN!", A voice of a sports broadcaster sounded our little room in a very welcoming tone. "Who are you?" Genome being paranoid... what? "If you haven't recognized my voice yet, you haven't been to my coliseum!", the voice said in a nearly mocking tone. "Krogmo, please don't tell me this is another one of your jokes.", Dusk sighed. "This is not a trick, for I want you to kill each other in a regular Lockdown game! But since the circumstances force us into a small room, this's gonna be SUPER HOOOOOOOOOOOOT!", the voice announced, probably that King Krogmo guy.
"Are you serious? You want us to kill each other for the sake of it? What do the survivors get anyway?", Alex trying to reason with Krogmo. "NO I AM NOT SERIOUS, FOR I DO WANT YOU TO KILL YOURSELVES. YOU'RE DOING NO GOOD FOR DOING THIS MISSION.", suddenly the voice turned deeply devilish one, scaring Lana. "...You're not doing youself any good in this. Show yourself." I taunted. "Well why would you think I'd risk myself standing in front of you? After all, from this safe place I can monitor the whole tunnels of this depth.", the devilish voice got pitched up a bit, while Alex seemed to search the walls. "*zzap* Ow.", Shaking his hand, he took a few steps back, and charged into the electrifying spot with his Lachesis, just to collapse a tunnel small enough for us to see through, finding a figure looking like Krogmo.
"...You're wiser than I thought.", Krogmo announced with a lawyer's tone, literally bringing up a notebook and a pen as if he's about to write something. "Listen, Crapmo. Nobody's gonna kill nobody, so take your hopes down. Now open this gate, or face the consequences.", Alex taunted. "You really think I'll obey that?", Krogmo sounding like a bureaucRAT this time. "I'm not gonna. And this gate will stay shut until I see blood.", Krogmo got a little angry, I say. "You want blood?", Alex asked while secretly charging his Freezing Vaporizer. "Well take this!", he threw his freeze bomb and then shouted at the top of his lungs "ALL GUNNERS, OPEN FIRE!"

(Amber narration)
Alex' open fire command took me on my heels, causing me to almost not noticing myself picking up my Argent Peacemaker and shooting at Krogmo. I don't think that's Krogmo at all. I saw Mystic and Dusk take out their Pulsars as well, blindening fake Krogmo. "Well, I shoulda put up a shield system after all...", Krogmo's voice started to twist, sounding more and more like a trumpet solo, which gave me confidence because I knew I could put in an edge. "Hey look! The gate's opening a bit every time Krogmo's damaged!", Genome proclaimed while pointing at the opening gate.
"Ugh you won't get away with this!", Truly sounding like a trumpet solo, Krogmo left his booth, along our opening gate freely open, simply waiting for us to pass through. Really, that's how I felt it.
"Well, moving on I presume." I announced, taking a step specifically with my right foot.

__________________________________-
Yes, Dusk had some bad time with Krogmo, and he knows Krogmo as a pranker.
Also, school's getting more and more demanding lately, so episode production rate is dropping. Sorry D:

(Alex narration)
The progress gates fell, and up ahead was a Gun Puppy shooting range, yet their mouths were wide open, as if trying to charge a bolt, inable to for one reason or another. I went close to one, only to see it close its jaws and implode. Guess that gremlin had their gears reversed. Odd. "I'm not going to be suprised if the scuttlebots will walk backwards.", Amber proclaimed. And indeed they did walk backwards, although nothing else seemed wrong with them.
Up ahead Genome saw a mineral deposit, but he reported something wrong about the formations. "I can't explain it, but you've got to see this." Everyone walked up to the mineral deposit, just to see the minerals in a haywire, one color mixing with the other, forming gray crystals. "OW!!", Mystic yelled when he touched one. "This might have something to do with the weird heat we found...", I wondered. "Weird heat?", Mystic asked. "Yes, in the tunnel we went through there was a present box with bundles of weird heat that would give you torture.", I explained.
"Torture crystals.", Lana said in a grim tone. "Torture crystals?", Dusk questioned, trying to poke one with his voltedge. "Yes. Combining all minerals together in perfect ratios will produce Torture crystals, or Maladium for short.", Lana said with a tone of despair, only to look like she snapped out of something. "Uhhh.... What're these weird crystals?", Lana asked, poking one with Raphael. Personality split? Who knows. Luckily, there are still bundles of all the minerals separately, so I took some to experiment with.
"Well, heading for the elevator I see.", a familiar bark echoed in my head.
I suddenly fainted to black. Just pitch black. That's all I saw. Some meters up front, I saw a blue orb morph into a Frostifur in razor-sharp armor. Tony.
"So, what're you doing in my head?"
"Nothing, just coming for a visit. I see you've got yourself a nice mission eh?"
"We're barely into it, but yes. Upon success, we could allow transportation out of Cradle."
"Well, good luck with that, but I warn you - the Gloaming Wildwoods are not the same."
"Noted.", I said. Tony evaporated, and an elevator came into vision, with a good smell of Tendercook Snipe. "I'm not sure holding it up against his nose is good for your hand.", Lana chuckled. I took a big bite from the Snipe, enjoying the slight Blaze Pepper as I sat upright. "Like my snipe?", Amber said with a grin. "We sure do.", Mystic announced as he held his Snipe up high, then taking a bite. Well, time for the report I guess. I'll make sure to make it Snipe flavored.