[POS Industries]

"I hate this elevator..."

"You designed this elevator, Pe-chan," Rei giggled at the visibly uncomfortable Pedro O'Sullivan.

POS shifted nervously as he looked out through the plexiglass at nothing in particular, "Well, yeah, but I thought it would look cool. You know, this single transparent tube carrying us down here through the darkness, which is great from outside. From the inside, though, it's like you're both trapped in a confined space and about a nanosecond away from falling to your untimely horrible demise. Like a ski lift."

"Well, now that you mention it," Rei pondered aloud, "You could have just done that and used up an extra life. It would be quicker. Or we could have just taken a hyperlink portal."

"Yeah, but this looks so much more dramatic."

"Who's going to see it?"

"I don't know! But that's not the point!"

"Then what's the point?"

"That we're here already," Pedro grinned as he stepped out of the elevator and walked along a lighted path in the cavern, glancing at the unmoving shadows surrounding them with disdain, "I rather wish they'd stop staring. It won't do them any good, after all..."

"I could just have them removed, you know," Rei suggested, eyeing the dully glowing structure ahead of them as they approached.

"What, and let them loose? No, I'd say we're all better off keeping them here."

A moment later, POS and Rei arrived at their destination, a number of monitoring stations positioned around a strange device that appeared to be based off a crystalline structure on the ground with a smaller such artifact suspended about fifty meters above it, both with a small amount of violet light glowing faintly from within.

"Mr. O'Sullivan," one of a pair of lab technicians greeted Pedro nervously, "We are ready to begin when you are."

"Fantastic, just the way I like it. The last thing I'd want to do is wait around right now," POS nodded with satisfaction as he reached into his jacket, pulling out a small wand of sorts, "And since time is of the essence, it's best I get on with it: NEGATIVE KAMEN POWER... TRANSFORM!!"

Thrusting the wand into the air, a dark energy surrounded Pedro O'Sullivan and, in a long drawn-out sequence that looked like it took about a minute and a half but was actually in the blink of an eye, shifted his attire from his usual business casual to an elegant, black tuxedo. A matching top hat adorned his head, out from which his long hair hung loosely, changed from it's natural brown to a stark white.

His normally hazel eyes now glowed red, looking out from a dark grey metallic mask as he emerged from his transformation as Negative Kamen.

"Are you sure about this, Pe-chan?" Rei asked him, showing more than a little concern.

"Absolutely," Negative Kamen nodded, "We don't really have much of a choice anyway. If the others fail, this may very well be the NPF's only hope. If they succeed, well, then it works out well for us anyway. Honestly, what I'm going to miss most is having these powers. They were honestly a lot of fun.... Anyway, you know what to do when I'm done, Rei. Don't let me down."

Stepping toward the larger crystal on the ground, the Kamen clenched his fist before his face, a shadowy magical energy building up on the Heart Ring adorned on his finger, before thrusting it forward and shouting, "NEGATIVE HEART CRUSHER!!"

A massive wave of energy erupted from the ring, the concentrated darkness in Pedro O'Sullivan's soul forming a devastating, unstoppable attack that barreled toward the crystal, striking it with full force. Usually this would result in everything in the path of the attack being pulverized to atoms, but this time it was different: Upon impact, the wave was immediately absorbed into the crystal.

As the energy was fed into it, the machine activated, a field of ultraviolet light forming between both crystals and swirling to life. The pair of lab technicians worked furiously over their monitors, making sure to keep the energy levels under control until suddenly everything settled down. The energy field hung in the air, dark energy cycling in and out from it between the two crystalline artifacts.

And it was slowly growing.

It's energy expended, the Negative Kamen transformation faded away from Pedro O'Sullivan, his soul now (temporarily) purified by the effect of the Heart Ring. He stared at what he had just created, still dazed from what had just happened before suddenly being overtaken by pure horror.

"No! I can't let y--" was all POS could utter as he turned to run, only to be felled by a quick chop to the back of the head by Rei.