The Games of Papa Ghede - Reawakenings
Jun. 3rd, 2007 07:39 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsThe group in Vegas finds themselves split again - this time in two groups.
Consciousness came slowly and with a fair amount of pain from the accumulated bumps and bruises suffered on the way here. The liberal use of gas and the diabolical nature of Murderworld's traps had left the residents of Xavier's grimly reflecting that the saying was right; waking up is hard to do. Unlike the last time, this awakening found them in the dark, laying cramped inside, after a moment's fumbling search, some kind of plastic sphere. What could possibly be in store using such a strange prison? Only dim light gave them any kind of view.
Medusa rubbed her eyes, waiting for them to adjust to the dark. She could make out several other globe shaped objects and could only assume several of the otherXavierites were contained within them. The last thing she'd remembered was finding Mondo almost killing himself and stopping him. Then they'd walked out into the hallway to find the rest of the group and now here she was, in a new place yet again. Flailing out with her hair, she struck out at the sides of the ball in attempt to break it open and relieve the indignity of the small cramped interior. Before the first stand could connect, she felt the impact as her ball was propelled forward. Quickly adjusting, her hair connected with the sides of the ball, this time to stabilize theAttilani as her ball careened wildly, hitting things and setting off a series of bells and whistles.
This was not even remotely cool. All that work to get out of the chamber of pork, and now he was stuck in a hamster ball. Kyle barely had time to figure out that it -was- a giant hamster ball when it shot forward, sending him tumbling around the interior as the ball bounced off walls and spun wildly. Every time the ballricocheted off an obstacle, Kyle was thrown against the other side of the ball, until all he could do was curl up and cover his head with his hands and pray it would stop soon.
Sam grunted in surprise as his own ball began to roll. After the initial shock, he was able to reach out far enough to press his hands and feet to the sides of the ball, looking something like a rotating and spinning version ofDa Vinci's famous sketches of the human form. Once he was able to brace himself, the rest was simply attempting to relax and not get motion sick from the sudden movement, a task that was simplified when Sam realized what the movements reminded him of: the "human gyroscope" attractions at theme parks where you were strapped in and spun quickly and violently about all three axes. With that, he was able to free enough of his brainpower in an attempt to analyze what exactly this new trap was.
The blips and blings barely registered on Tabitha's brain. Not getting smashed to a bloody pulp inside the giant plastic ball seemed to be more of a concern. The blasted thing was too large for her to brace against the impacts. And the wild theory that constantly jumping up and down might work was a bust. Instead she rolled around like wet laundry.
Kurt was having a little more luck than Tabitha, having had the same idea as Sam - and the advantage of effectively having five limbs, not four, which meant he wasn't so hampered by being unable to use one arm. He was even managing, a little, to direct his ball by pressing towards one side or another. This success, however, was limited by the obstacles that kept undoing his progress.
Not again! Those awful rooms hadn't been enough, now they were trapped again? Jan reached out to touch the inner surface of the ball, then decided against it, not sure what zapping it might do. The ball was probably intended for her as she was now, at full height and weight, but would shrinking be a good idea or just turn her into a gooey Janet mess?
---
After a minute or so of the noises and movement, Sam began to realize what was going on. The balls were part of a huge pinball machine. As he came to this realization, one of the flippers smacked his ball. Sam grunted with the force of the impact, and his ball shot off and up a ramp into a separate part of the machine. He thumped a hand experimentally against the inside of the ball, wondering if it would stand up to his blast field.
Tabitha hit a wall and paused for one precious second. She gained her feet, started running. If she treated the thing like a giant hamster-ball, she didn't get beat up so much. Except when the damn thing changed direction. She looked up in time to see her plastic prison on a collision course with another. She heard a very satisfying CRUNCH as her plastic prison shattered.
Kyle had utterly given up on trying to do anything more than protect his head. Mostly undressed, not entirely clean, and in a unspeakably bad mood, it was all he could do not to get knocked out as the ball ricocheted off another ball and rolled up a wire ramp, spinning wildly. "Ow Ow Ow Ow Ow Ow Ow." He repeated, as he was rolled head over feet, and then slammed against the side of his ball as it dropped into a hole. With the ball stopped, he had time to get to his feet, wobbling with dizziness and pound on the clear plastic of the ball. "I swear to God I am going to so totally go all Logan on whoever did this if I get my hands on them!" He didn't know if anyone could hear him, but shouting made him feel a little bit better.
Sam remembered the "blast wave" he had created to throw the Arenques Rojos off of him during his fight with Kraven. He gritted his teeth and thrust outward with his power, fragmenting the clear ball into tiny pieces as he landed on the playing surface in a sprawl. Hearing a pounding coming from the ball that was lodged near him, he pushed to his feet and ran over, piercing it with a flaming punch. He peered in as he ripped pieces off as they warped under the heat of his power. "Kyle? Ya okay?"
"I'd puke but I've already puked up everything I've -ever- eaten." Kyle answered unsteadily. Once the hole in 'his' ball was big enough, he climbed out, shaking his head. "This is not better than the Chamber of Pork." He muttered, examining himself for bruises and finding more than a few. "I think I bounced off Tabs before I hit the hole. I bounced off somebody withblonde hair, but that's all I could see."
Tabitha staggered drunkenly over to the two men, brushing the remains of her ball off her shoulders. "Yeah, that was me." She clutched her head. "I'm not sure my brain will ever stop spinning." She leaned against a wall to gain her balance. "Does -anybody- know what's going on?"
"My guess is more 'fun' from whoever's behind this. We broke out from the first set of traps, so now they're uppin' the ante," Sam ventured a guess. "Ah can't say as Ah'm in the mood ta play whatever sick game they got goin' on here. Ah'm gettin' real tired of this."
"They've got a fucking funny idea of fun." Kyle grumbled. "Lets see if we can find everyone else. I smell Kurt." His usual style of rapid-fire rambling speech was gone, replaced with just a tired resignation. "Thataway," he said, pointing off to his right.
---
Medusa crossed her arms over her chest, watching the scenery flash by as her ball zoomed around. She came to an abrupt stop as her ball landed in a hole, a voice announcing "bonus point" before a flipper thwacked her ball and she began speeding around again. Watching, she saw another ball zooming near by - it's occupant blue and fuzzy. Throwing her weight to the right she tried to alter the course of her ball.
Janet was usually cheery, really she was, but today had been a rather trying day and being stuck in a big pinball game was not making it better. The basic idea was interesting, and if this had been voluntary it might even be fun, but someone had chased her around with flyswatters and now they'd stuck her and the others inside human-sized plastic balls! Could she get control of this stupid thing? What would happen if she tried to fly in the ball? Rolling around on her wings really wasn't helping anything.
Kurt caught a glimpse of Medusa from the corner of his eye, and quickly realized what she was doing when he saw the direction of her movement. Following suit, he leaned hard against the left side of his ball, trying to cause a collision.
As the two balls crashed into one another, Medusa thought her brain would vibrate out of her skull from the impact. Luckily, her plan had worked and the two balls shattered, spilling their occupants on to the floor. Rising as gracefully as she could manage, the redhead brushed off the dust and plastic pieces from her clothes, nodding at Kurt. "I am quite tired of these games."
Kurt winced as he stood up, aware as ever that his wounds were still - or again - bleeding freely. He nodded back, though, taking a step towards her. "Agreed." He turned to look at the others, watching the balls careen crazily around the board. "Collision worked for us, perhaps it will work for them. Though I would not want Janet's wings to be damaged."
Medusa's eyes narrowed as she watched the balls zooming around. "Why wait for collision then?" she asked as her hair shot out, wrapping around a nearby ball and yanking it towards the freed pair. As the ball came to a halt in front of them, the tenseness on Medusa's face relaxed as she was able to use less effort to hold the ball stationary. At first, it appeared that she'd captured an empty ball - well, not quite empty. A small pile of clothing was balled up at the bottom of the ball and when she looked more closely she saw something tiny flitting around inside the ball. Perhaps Janet was able to protect herself better in the small size. Medusa turned to her injured companion, the edges of her lips tilting downwards slightly. "Are you strong enough to extricate her?"
"If she stays at that size, it should not be a problem. There might be difficulty if she was full-sized, but as it is..." He focused on the inside of the ball, to vanish and reappear inside it, holding out a hand for Jan to land.
Some birthday weekend celebration this was turning out to be! Jan landed on Kurt's outstretched hand. "Can we all get out of here already?" she babbled even though she knew he couldn't hear her. "The people who did this are clearly, like, insane and I really think I'd like to make it to my nineteenth birthday!"
Her agitation was clear even if he couldn't hear her voice, and he nodded would-be soothingly, wasting no time teleporting them both out.
Once Kurt had reappeared outside the ball, Medusa released her grip on it, watching it begin rolling through the spinners and up ramps again. "I believe I am done with this vacation," Medusa said, glancing at where the other group appeared to be trying to leave as well. Starting to walk down the board, she wondered if Janet would make herself full size again or if Kurt was going to carry her the whole way. It was then that they walked over a target, a loud voice announcing "Bonus round. Get a full house." The bottom of the board opened up, spinners labeled as cards rising out of the bottom. On the other side of the trio, what looked like several guns rose out of the board, aiming themselves at Kurt and Medusa.
It wasn't exactly a hardship to carry her, at her current size... and Kurt was suddenly glad there were only two real targets, rather than three. "Get down!"
Medusa looked affronted at the order, her hair flaring up and out to shield her instead, darts bouncing harmlessly off the strands. "Perhaps there is another way out," she said as the guns appeared to be reloading. "And finding it hastily would be prudent."
Guns! Flyswatters and machines and guns... at one-inch size, she wasn't much of a target, but there was very little she could do to help. She didn't see that there was much she'd be able to do at full-size, either, as guns and gigantic pinball machines weren't likely to be affected by a sting. Maybe she could look around? Jan darted up into the air and looked around, trying to get a better idea of what was going on.
"I believe we need to hit the cards to end this lovely little bonus round," Medusa said, two strands of hair whipping out simultaneously to strike the Ace and King spinners. "A little help please?"
Kurt nodded and moved into position to strike out at cards, pacing along the length of the frame and aiming with all four of his working limbs.
The guns shifted back through the ground, as the goal was reached, and Medusa couldn't help a small sigh of relief that escaped her. Of course, it was too soon to relax as at that moment it seemed the next stage of the game was ready to begin.
There was a harsh metallic clack, and suddenly the lights began to flash wildly and the bells ring. "Third ball locked! Third ball locked!" chimed an electronic voice, providing no clue as to what was to come. Thunderous impacts began to resonate off the floor, and with horror, they looked up to see the giant steel balls, each reflecting their images in a warped, elongated form, come whizzing into the area. Each was the size of a man, and moving with great speed as they careened off the targets, ready to crush any of the mutants in their path.
"MULTIBALL!!!!"
Jan looked down at the human-sized steel balls. "Oh, shit!" She was safe, able to fly over the instruments of doom, but the idea of watching the others get flattened was not appealing at all.
Medusa's first instinct was to strike at the balls with her hair - however, she'd have to aim carefully to not flatten the other people running across the table. Cursing under her breath in Portuguese, Medusa pirouetted to the left to avoid a ball headed in her direction. "Everybody needs to come together so we can get to the bottom as a group," she called out.
"For fuck's SAKE!" Kyle yelped, and narrowly dodged being flattened by leaping atop one of the bumpers. He made a running start and jumped over to another bumper, closer to Medusa. He looked over the floor and down at his perch and tried to signal the others by waving frantically. "We could take the high road!"
Kurt eyed the bumper, then the giant pieces of steel, and decided Kyle was onto something there. He put his head down and ran flat out for the nearest one.
Sam, rather than move to avoid the balls, moved quickly to the front, bringing up his blast field and slamming as many careening balls away with his fists as he could. The clanging of his strikes meshed well with the other typical pinball game noises, and he had the brief amusing mental image of himself as just one more of the bumpers. "Good idea, Kyle!" he yelled. "Get up after him, everyone!" While he was invulnerable, the rest of the group wasn't, and he could only deflect so many balls before one might flatten someone else.
Tabitha scrambled toward a bumper, paused to blow a ball out of the way. She clawed her way to the top of the first available bumper before she pranced along to the next bumper to get closer to the group. "Okay, what do we DO once we get to the bottom?"
Medusa eyed the two flippers at the group was headed to, both snapping with enough force to easily crush them all. Add to that the electricity crackling off them and the question Tabitha had asked became increasingly more complicated. With Kurt's injury, he wouldn't be able toteleport them all to safety...but perhaps he could at least take care of the youngest. "Kurt, do you have enough energy to teleport yourself and Kyle to the other side?" It should be easy for Janet to flit through a small space to safety, which would just leave her, Tabitha and Sam with figuring out how to escape.
Kurt's hesitation was telling - ordinarily, he wouldn't have had to think about whether or not he could teleport with someone Kyle's size, but as it was... "...I think so", he said eventually, stepping across to Kyle's bumper.
Having Kurt teleport someone was a really good idea. Kyle just objected to it being -him-. He wasn't injured, he could heal and just because he was the youngest wasn't a good reason. To his mind. And Kurt was -hurt-. He didn't need to be straining himself when Kyle could take perfectly good care of himself. "Hey, wait, do I get a say on this?!" He turned to face Kurt to argue his case, but before he could even start to speak, he found himself grasped firmly on the upper arm, and his mouth - and eyes - snapped shut at the overpowering smell of sulphur.
Medusa's expression was both determined and satisfied as she saw Kyle and Kurt pop to safety on the other side of of the flippers. "Janet, you are next. Even when the flippers close, there is still a small space available for you to fly your way to safety." She assumed the small girl must have responded, but it was impossible to hear her at her current size. Turning to Tabitha and Sam, who had both made their way to where the redhead was balanced atop a bumper, Medusa raised an eyebrow. "I believe I am fresh out of ideas now. I hope one of you has a plan."
"Thus far, any bomb making has not done well," Tabs commented. "But I'm willing to try again. If I blew one near the hinge, that might give us room."
"There's always invulnerability," Sam told the pair. After the tiny Jan had flown off to Kyle and Kurt, he took Tabitha and Medusa with an arm around each of their waists. "Hold on, ladies," he told them. He'd lifted Juggernaut before, so the weight wasn't an issue, just making sure his blast field would expand to cover them all, and that the two women held on tight enough to not escape his grip. When they were set, he launched them straight at the flippers, crashing right through one and on to the other side.
As soon as the trio was safely on the other side, Medusa shoved Sam away from her, red strands of hair snapping out audibly. "Next time, we try Tabitha's plan," she said, the glare directed in Sam's direction almost tangible. Spinning on her heel, she stalked over to Kurt to figure out what the group should do next.
***
Music. What an odd thing to wake up to. Not tinny musak or a recording, but the bright, brassy sounds of a pipe organ, authentic enough to hear the weazing of air between each note as it went through the song. And what a song. Like an old fashioned ice-cream truck tune, given real power behind it. It was like the old movies of the circus, with the sound of the organ over the chatter of the crowd, the yells of the barkers and the sounds of the rides. The dim light swelled, climbing the red and yellow striped sides of the circular room and connecting high overhead to the apex of... a tent?
Yvette stirred, and at the sound of the music drew closer to the others, pulling the borrowed coat closer around her even though it meant the material shredded that little bit more. Music was bad, music meant something was about to happen, and she reached out to shake awake the only person she knew she could without hurting them; Monet.
"Please, Miss Monet, to be waking up!"
John's eyes snapped open. He stared up at the tent's ceiling, wondering if it was over; that they had somehow been transported to a medical tent facility without the bed and the nurse and the medication and the bandage for the dried-up gash on his forehead. He winced.
The last thing he remembered was falling. Like Alice down the rabbit hole only he hadn't been floating when he'd hit ground. John could only surmise that he must have fallen hard on his side as his right arm was feeling a bit stiff and numb, like a heavy weight had been pressing down on it. He glanced over to the right and his brow creased into a frown.
"Blaaaargh." Mondo said intelligently as he sat up, yawning. "Feels like I've been chewing on old Gym socks." he complained, looking around for something - anything! - to wash the taste out of his mouth. "What's going on, guys?" he asked worriedly.
Monet woke from dreams about laughter and everything exploding to Yvette's hand on her arm. She reached up and gave the hand a squeeze before sitting and staring around, slightly dizzy and muzzy headed. "You have got to be fucking kidding me." A sideshow arcade, complete down to a floor of cracked concrete dead grass and the slightly stained, battered and dingy tents housing clowns, shoot the duck, ball games, broken every so often with concession stands from a thousand different shows, with writing in Arabic, German, French and languages she couldn't quite recognise, one selling dagwood dogs and pies nearby, another hotdogs and yet another kebabs.
"Calm down, all of you." Nathan's voice was gravelly, but steady. Blinking in an effort to clear his vision, he gave their surroundings a quick once-over, then turned his attention to the others. Too few 'others' - where was everyone else? He tried to reach out with his mind and winced, one hand going to his temple as he hit the static of psi-bafflers again. "All right. On your feet, if you can. I don't think we want to be just sitting here." Getting up was more of an adventure than it should have been; he swayed as the world seemed to tilt around him, but hung onto his balance with grim determination.
John was casually observing the slow crossing of a single tricycle on a tightrope suspended 20 meters above ground. Its mechanical arms were moving at rapid speed, juggling an impressive amount of clubs and balls. Redirecting his attention to Nathan, John let out a bit of a smirk. He was about to comment on the man's state of appearance when a loud explosion ripped through the air, followed by the burst of percussion grenades on the ground.
Yvette squeaked and backed away, her back colliding with a large, brightly-coloured box. The lid sprang open and out popped a large, almost cartoony mallet on the end of a concertina arm. The small girl's eyes widened and she froze in place as the mallet came sweeping down upon her.
Mondo, without thinking or hesitation, shoved Yvette out of the way of the Giant Scary Mallet of Doom. It connected with an impact so strong it jarred his back teeth. He wound up bellyflopping on the ground, dazed from the impact. If he wasn't synched to his necklace, he would undoubtedly be suffering from a broken back just from the sheer force of it.
Monet screamed and jumped away from the mallet only to duck as one of the clown games started to shoot ping pong balls at them. At least this one didn't hurt. She shielded her face and reached over to pull Mondo to his feet. The next thing that tried to flatten her was going down.
"How do we get out of here?"
"Settle down," came the growl from Nathan. The clown game collapsed in on itself under a wave of telekinesis - as tightly controlled as he could manage, because he suspected that if he started smashing around willy-nilly he was going to provoke some sort of additional trap that they really didn't want to be dealing with. Worse-case scenario, this whole circus nightmare was scaleable in 'difficulty' - lethality, be honest, Nathan - like the Danger Room. He looked at Mondo, blinking in an effort to clear his vision. "Are you all right?"
Mondo looked around the faux-circus and got a grim expression on his face. "I have had ENOUGH!" he bellowed, a challenge to the entire sick enterprise he was trapped inside. "DO YOU HEAR ME?" he screamed. As he paced back and forth he began to ... grow, for lack of a better term. Take on additional mass, leaving visible cratered footprints in the cement under his feet. "Circuses are fun-time! A time to laugh at the clowns and ooh and aah at the acrobats and to watch the elephants and the lions. IT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE THIS!"
"The clowns and the acrobats, you say, young sir?" The voice seemed to come from everywhere at once, booming under the tent. "That would be our main event! Children of all ages, let me direct you to the main event at the Big Top! Amazing feats of agility! Death defying leaps! Fierce lions and tigers from the ends of the world! Come, come to the Big Top!"
Multiple explosions erupted as a number of fire-breathers and fire-twirlers appeared from the tent entrances, all but one. But instead of juggling the fire they were hurling it at the small group, herding them towards the remaining entrance. Through it the sounds of a carnival could be heard, the shrieks of children, the chanting sing-song of the barkers, and above all, the tinny music-box-like tune that threatened to drive them mad.
Involuntarily, Yvette drew back, towards the direction they were being nudged towards. The memory of John's fire engulfing her was still a little too raw.
Nathan's eyes narrowed, and enough of the fire-breathers and fire-twirlers went flying, like human bowling pins, to clear them a different path. "Enough of this shit. We are not being herded anymore," he said, breathing hard. His expression was like stone, but the rage in his eyes was the opposite of cold. His head wasn't precisely clear - they'd obviously been drugged again - but he wasn't hallucinating anymore, and he was clear-headed enough to be seriously pissed. "That way, now. Everyone stay calm and stay close, and we'll get through this."
Monet found herself following behind everyone - dimly, she noted that that made sense, unable to help thinking that invulnerable, she was the most likely to get out here alive. A man with a hurdy gurdy and monkey in a suit on his shoulder grabbed her arm, monkey leaping at her face, a tiny, possessed, almost human thing. She grabbed its jacket and threw it, not caring where it landed and hit out at the man, knocking him down and shuddered as she caught up to the others again. "Oh god."
Mondo didn't know who to punch first. But somebody had to pay for this nightmare. As he walked he left little craters in the cement and he grew a little bulkier, a little bigger. His expression was almost comically distraught but with real anger behind it. One of the barkers made the mistake of getting too close and Mondo grabbed him and literally threw him thirty feet up into the air.
"MONDO!" Nathan's voice cracked like a whip. He dropped back to Mondo's side, grabbing the young man's arm - but not out of any attempt to physically stop him. Instead, he instinctively used the physical contact, pushing past the static until he could link to the kid's mind. #CALM DOWN.# He didn't bother trying to make the suggestion subtle; there was either doing it or not doing it, under these circumstances. And he had to keep them calm. Had to. He wasn't losing any of them to fear. #You're okay. We're going to be fine. Focus on keeping moving. Only fight them if they get in your way.#
With Nathan engaged with Mondo, that left John and Yvette momentarily in the front. As they passed the ring toss game, dozens of rings flew out, expanding in the air to attempt to trap them. Instinctively, Yvette slashed at the ones in front of her, shredding them, whilst beside her a gout of flame signalled John was dealing with things his way.
Superheating the plasma within the flames, John directed fireball after fireball toward the concession stands, destroying the machineries.
Clowns on stilts released balloons of various shapes, colors and sizes ahead of them. It floated close to the ground, bursting in rapid succession, releasing fart gas, nitrous oxide and fine dust into the air. It didn’t take long for John to realize what the dust were as he let out a loud sneeze and then another, the skin on the back of his neck and arms beginning to itch.
Monet sneezed repeatedly, waving the itching powder away from herself. "I swear, I'm coming back to kill you lot if I get some sort of hideous disease and end up looking shit from this." She walked forward, shoving them out of the way, kicking at the clowns stilts and ignoring the blows they directed at her. One grabbed her from behind and she screamed. "What the fuck are you doing!?" She just couldn't shake him off and flew up a few yards before flipping in mid air and diving head first into the concrete, the clown's head striking slightly before hers.
The itching power abruptly swirled, as if blown by an invisible wind. A cloud of it billowed away, in the opposite direction from the small, bedraggled group. "Listen to me, all of you," Nathan said tightly. He couldn't do what he'd done for Mondo for all of them. Not under these conditions. "Settle down. I know it's been a hell of... however the hell many days we've been in here," he said, ignoring the way his voice cracked, "but you have to calm down." His eyes flickered ahead to the tent. Almost there. "If this is anything like the Danger Room-" He paused to smash a couple of clowns in his way to the ground. "-it's possible that upping the ante means a deadlier reaction. Stick to what's in front of you, or something that attacks you directly. And keep-"
Moving, he'd intended to say. But as they stepped into the next tent, the words died on his lips as half a dozen bumper cars abruptly screeched to a stop - and then came roaring towards them. They appeared to be fitted with buzzsaws. Well, fuck...
Sometimes, in the Danger Room, if you hit hard enough fast enough, you could throw the program for a loop enough to gain a few moments, possibly an opportunity to get the upper hand. The thought was only half-formed when Nathan's exoskeleton flashed into existence around him and he threw himself forward. Massive fiery claws smashed into one, then another. A sweep of a wing sent another flying through the air and right through the wall of the tent. Nathan grabbed the next two, crushing them together. That left one.
"John! Take care of that one!" he shouted hoarsely.
Well, he didn't need to be told twice. John threw his firing arm forward, igniting the car and detonating it like a bomb. The flames amplified by his control incinerated the flying shrapnel leaving them out of harms way. A gush of silence filled the tent as spotlights centered in on a stage upfront. Loud cheers and applause, followed by the cracking of a whip signified the entrance of a pack of wild animals -- predators that were designed to hunt.
Yvette ducked behind Mondo at the growling, watching as lions and tigers lept onto their stools, eyeing the small group hungrily. "I do not think they are being robots," she quavered as a strong smell of animal hit them. One of the lions roared, showing long sharp teeth.
Mondo, now just under seven feet tall, was pushing the limits of his good nature, even with Nathan's telepathic suggestion. He'd torn a dinosaur apart with his bare hands, he'd taken on leviathans of the deep in their own environment. He could handle a pack of lions. He was pretty sure they couldn't bite or claw hard enough to get through his nicely-dense flesh. And they were freaking Yvette out, which made it even more difficult to keep a grip on his temper. He'd never been this angry before that he could recall. "I'll protect you." he told Yvette without turning to face her, his voice resonating with solidity. He sounded like he was speaking in a vast cavern, his voice booming. This place was an abomination, a sacrilege against all that was good. It had to end. Now.
To that end, Mondo stomped his foot against the ground hard enough to sink in to mid-shin. The impact sent a shockwave rippling through the earth, one big enough to knock the stools off the ground and disrupt the lions and tigers. Ordinarily he loved the big cats - the strength and grace they represented, the beauty of their clean lines. But not today.
Unfortunately, the shockwave also knocked Yvette off her feet, and she scrambled back on her butt to leave enough room for Mondo and the others to take care of things.
Driven by the disturbance had the animals charging forward. John had no doubt that Mondo would be able to crush the animals beneath his feet but instead of allowing the brutality of such a killing to play itself out, John directed a flame forward, creating a wall of fire to surround the wild beasts, confining them to a spot.
Nathan gritted his teeth. "Now, MOVE!" he called down to the others. "Out through the exit, now - I'll make sure the lions don't follow." The lion-tamer was already urging the lions to jump over the flames.
Monet grabbed Yvette's hand "Let's go!" and ignored the scratchiness her powers created, pulling her through the exit. They fell flat on their faces as they crossed it, caught up by a trip wire. "Look out! There's a thingie! A trip wire thing." I want to go home, she thought.
Yvette slashed at the trip wire, freeing their feet even as she looked around apprehensively for the trap that was associated with it. She didn't have to wait long - a giant boxing glove on a spring came out of the booth beside them, knocking both of them into another tent, the largest one by far. Above the entrance was scrawled in neon letters several feet high: THE BIG TOP. A booming voice, the same as that in the first tent, greeted them.
"Ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, everyone put your hands together for Bobo the Clown, and his friends!" Almost immediately a small yellow car entered the ring, behind the wheel a maniacally grinning clown with a bright red curly wig. His eyes glowed red, to match the nose and he honked the horn of the car repeatedly as he drove around the two girls in ever-decreasing circles.
"Shit." Monet swore, turning to watch the clown drive around them, even as more clowns ran out from the wings, tumbling and laughing. She debated grabbing Yvette and flying away for a moment before giving up on the idea - she didn't even know if this was the going to get them out - and settled for just watching them approach. This was worse, much worse, than dinosaurs had ever been. "Hey, Yvette, you know they're only done up like clowns because they've probably got erection problems, right?"
Without fuel to sustain John's fire, the only thing that kept it burning was his power. Diverting his attention away from it would mean going back to square one which left him with no choice but to incinerate or get mauled. Building it into an arc, the wall of fire lifted upwards and over the animals as a large spherical ball of pure heat and flames. It imploded inwards with a clench of his fist. Behind them, a couple of beast wagons trundled in, releasing with it a great many more of the big cats.
Nathan actually stared for a moment in disbelief before he whirled on the two young men. #I SAID GET MOVING!# Pure adrenaline let him cut through the static and project it to both of them, and the firebird shot downwards at the new lions. If they didn't take advantage of the fact that he was covering their retreat... well, he was fresh out of ideas.
Mondo strode through the same entrance that Yvette and Monet had pushed into, still much taller than was normal, still much heavier. He didn't even blink at the clowns that were circling both the girls. Instead, he just waded in to their circling pattern, kicking one car into the air, heedless of who or what might be driving it. "I love clowns." he said in a broken voice, the tears welling in his eyes.
A shocked giggle had come from Yvette at Monet's words, but then Mondo had joined them, and even that small amount of black humour died. This place, it was dangerous and scary, but it was also breaking the happy-go-lucky Samoan's heart, and that would not do. The car landed with a bang, somehow still on its wheels and clowns began to stagger out, some sparking noticeably. "Don't run away, stay and play!" one of them intoned in flat mechanical tones, as it and several of its fellows began lurching for Mondo. Outstretched hands were severed in a shower of sparks, quickly followed by their legs being sliced off at the knee, and three of the clowns collapsed, twitching uselessly. Yvette crouched in front of the enormous Mondo with her talons raised, not even aware of the ridiculousness of it, her eyes as bright as a welding torch's flame. "This is to be stopping now," she said, her normally soft voice tight with anger. "You are making my friend be sad."
John came to a stop as he entered the tent, eyes widening slightly as half a dozen clowns on circus bikes fired heavy metal darts at the ones in the ring.
The darts shredded in mid-air, shrapnel flying harmlessly off in every direction except at the kids. Nathan, standing at the door to the tent, was no longer wearing his exoskeleton. It had taken too much out of him, even for those brief few minutes, and they weren't out yet. He stared at the scene in the ring, then shook his head. A telekinetic bubble sprung up around the kids, in case of further projectiles, and the clowns closest to it exploded, the shrapnel directed backwards to start the job of destroying the automatons behind them.
"It's time for our main event!" The voice boomed out, and behind Nathan, a steel door dropped down with a thud. For good or for ill, they were now trapped in the Big Top. There was a crackle and hum. Nathan flinched, feeling the sudden increase of the EM distortion field. Someone had just turned the psi-bafflers up to twelve, and the headache he'd been fighting for... however long since the first time he'd woken up was multipled by a factor of ten instantly. The TK shield flickered and died, and there was no way he was going to be able to recreate it.
The clowns and cars pulled back, and the lights went out for a second, only to switch back on with a spotlight, illuminating the mutants in a single circle. The noise around them almost made them believe an excited crowd was watching them from the darkness, and the ground began to shake as the voice of the Ringmaster returned.
"Such acts of daring! Such death-defying escapes! Such exciting displays of courage and control! Only the best for the Greatest Show on Earth!" Fireworks went off in the heights of the Big Top, the lurid colours lightly edging a figure coming towards them with earth shaking steps. "And now, ladies and gentlemen, for the Grand Finale! Watch as I, Stromboli, in a feat of spectacular danger, will now attempt to tame a ring full of wild mutants."
Massive metal feet stepped into the light. The blackened steel of the legs gave way to a violent red chassis and led to a robotic head, topped with the traditional black hat. But this Ringmaster wasn't like the clown robots; instead a sixteen foot mountain of steel which regarded them through cold mechanical eyes. In it's right hand, a whip dangled, the end a coral fan of emitters that sparked blue where it touched the ground. In the other, a metal hoop that burst into flame as he brandished it. It cracked the whip and moved forward to attack. "Let the show begin!"
"For fuck's sake! No one ever told you that this sort of thing was completely over these days, right? You should gone for something less retro than a ring master." Monet glared at the Ringmaster and flew at him, trying to torpedo him, but he hit her, sending her flying into the ceiling. She managed to catch herself before she hit the ground. "I'm fine, everyone!"
"Monet!" Yvette had cried out at the sight of the older girl being smashed away like a child's toy, and against all her instincts, she ran towards those giant metal feet, running her claws along the back of the behemouth's ankles. The steel was too thick for her to cut all the way through and sparks flew. There was another of those sonic boom whipcracks and Yvette skidded to a halt as the ground flew up in front of her. Gulping, she ran back the other way, only to have the firey hoop descend in front of her.
That might have been an act of bravado coming from the kid but it was also a little too close to being suicidal for comfort. The flames disappeared in a trail of smoke. "You know, it's a good thing we've got something in common," John said as he ignited the sparks from the emitters. He smirked. "Pyromania tendencies." Large tendrils of fire swirled around the Ringmaster, twisting upwards in a fierce blaze. He boosted the intensity, fueling the fire with oxygen from the ground up, giving Yvette a chance to get clear.
Fire retardant? John could feel its resistance to heat. "...seems like we got a little too much in common." Time for a change of strategy or rather, it was time to pick another objective. He killed off the flames and with it the sparks from the whip as it hit the ground.
Oh, to hell with this... As the Ringermaster lumbered towards them, Nathan braced himself and lashed out telekinetically at the shoulder joint of the closest robotic arm, the one holding the hoop. Metal exploded outwards from the joint, and the whole arm tore loose under its own weight, dropping to the floor of the ring with a crash. Nathan was on his hands and knees an instant later, blood pouring from his nose.
Mondo, being not combat-trained for small-unit tactics and having been pushed far, far beyond his tolerances, elected to take the easy road. He charged. He didn't care about flaming hoops or bullwhips or how his love for circuses and clowns and animal shows was dying a slow, ugly death in the back of his head. Right now, all he wanted to do was share his pain with the world. As he made contact with the Ringmaster he sank his hands _into_ the robot, trying to absorb it into himself, to "eat" it.
With a metal squeal, the Ringmaster swung a mighty arm, knocking the now metal Mondo away and into the tent pole with a tooth-rattling crunch. It redoubled with the whip, slower but no less dangerous as it sought to use sheer size to trap the mutants in a position in which it could crush them.
Yvette, meanwhile, had dashed to Nathan's side, hovering by him uncertainly. She wanted to help him, but knew touching him without her gloves would do as much damage, and so she settled for being ready to try and protect him as much as she could. Given the size of the robotic ringmaster, she wasn't exactly sure what that might entail.
Oh, fuckity. Monet shook her head for a moment, staring at the Ringmaster's legs. "Hey, Yvette, Mondo? You guys fireproof at all? Cos if you are, I think I got an idea. Sort of. He's only got one arm left, and his legs. So we just have stop them working. He's got these doohickies at behind his knees. I think, if we break them and his shoulder and John doesn't let him set fire to us or maybe sets his head on fire, we'll maybe get out?" Monet's eyes never left the whip. "Um. Except for the whip. I don't know what to do about the whip and we're probably still going to die horribly, in which case I'll blame you lot."
Had Monet just come up with a workable plan? Nathan thought hazily. I think she did... mental note, congratulate her if we live. "Good... yes," he forced out, his voice slurred. "Yvette, Mondo... take left knee. Back and forth, one at a time. Don't stay still. Monet, right knee... hard as you can. John. Sparks. Use them, go for the neck joint." There had to be circuitry, something, beneath the armoring. "Just... stay on the move." Except they couldn't do it yet. Something had to be done about that whip.
This was going to hurt. The other shoulder-joint exploded, the arm with the whip falling to the ground - thankfully missing any of the kids, because Nathan couldn't have caught it if his life had depended on it. The whip tangled helplessly on the ground, like a giant live wire fallen in a storm.
Yvette gulped, and nodded, glancing at Mondo. "The left knee. Yes, I am understanding." It was, she told herself, no different than hunting the dinosaur when they were trapped in the park. And Mondo wouldn't let anything happen to her. She took his hand, and tugged him upwards even as the Ringmaster swung their way again.
Mondo was unbelievably massive - even more so than his physical size would indicate. Inside his cells, deep down in the parts that made him one of the genetically different, new pathways opened up and new reactions screamed through his body. The Ringmaster was armless and Mondo remembered a few things from his time spent in Japan. He moved far, far faster than anyone of his bulk had any right to, ducking away from the Ringmaster and coming in against the robotic knee at an oblique angle. The knee itself screamed with the sounds of metal shearing under stress and the entire leg assembly from the knee down just ... fell off.
It was only Monet's deathgrip on the other leg that kept the Ringmaster upright, arms wrapped around its thigh, legs clamped around its shin. "Mondo, I love you, mate. Yvette! Can you cut the cables and wires in its leg? There, in its hip, where the stuff's come off and you can its bits." The Ringmaster hopped from one side to the other, yelling. "Fucken' hurry up on its head will you, John?"
Yvette nodded, swallowing the raw fear. Mondo had started things, it was time to finish this off. Dashing up to the robot, she sank her hand and feet talons into the metal encasing it, scaling the massive calf and thigh as she'd once scaled an ice wall, clinging on tightly whenever the Ringmaster turned and hopped around, trying to shake her off. Reaching the hip, where Monet was frantically pointing, she gulped. There was no way she'd be able to cut through so much heavy metal. Unless... The outer shell had cracked, and she could see its 'bits', as Monet described them, cables and wires and heavy struts. All useless if she severed the 'tendons', the same as the dinosaur... Raising her hand, she hacked away at the cables she could see, slicing at them again and again until she cut through and the robot began to teeter...
Shaping his fire into that of a large flat disc, John increased its energy levels as he sent it forward. The glow of the flames making a rapid change from red to blue to white as it sped through the air sliced cleanly through the neck joint; severing the head in a cloud of heavy black smoke.
Monet yelped as the robot wobbled, tilting as Yvette and John destroyed it. She let go, grabbing Yvette around the waist, shooting up into the air and away to land beside Nathan, heart pounding and trying not to shake. "Is that it or do they want us to do a little dance for them? Because I'm just not going to dance. So. Over. This place."
"I hope to hell that's it," Nathan said raggedly, managing to at least straighten, if not stand up just yet. Not optimistic, but we can hope...
The robot still made garbled noises from where the head had rolled. Behind the pile of shattered steel, the rear of the tent yawned open, leading to either an escape route or another trap. The problem was that the only other option led them back into the carnival, where they could hear the robots pounding on the metal door, trying to get through. Resignedly, they picked themselves up, and limped tightly through the door, wondering what could possibly be waiting for them next in this sick maze of death.
Consciousness came slowly and with a fair amount of pain from the accumulated bumps and bruises suffered on the way here. The liberal use of gas and the diabolical nature of Murderworld's traps had left the residents of Xavier's grimly reflecting that the saying was right; waking up is hard to do. Unlike the last time, this awakening found them in the dark, laying cramped inside, after a moment's fumbling search, some kind of plastic sphere. What could possibly be in store using such a strange prison? Only dim light gave them any kind of view.
Medusa rubbed her eyes, waiting for them to adjust to the dark. She could make out several other globe shaped objects and could only assume several of the otherXavierites were contained within them. The last thing she'd remembered was finding Mondo almost killing himself and stopping him. Then they'd walked out into the hallway to find the rest of the group and now here she was, in a new place yet again. Flailing out with her hair, she struck out at the sides of the ball in attempt to break it open and relieve the indignity of the small cramped interior. Before the first stand could connect, she felt the impact as her ball was propelled forward. Quickly adjusting, her hair connected with the sides of the ball, this time to stabilize theAttilani as her ball careened wildly, hitting things and setting off a series of bells and whistles.
This was not even remotely cool. All that work to get out of the chamber of pork, and now he was stuck in a hamster ball. Kyle barely had time to figure out that it -was- a giant hamster ball when it shot forward, sending him tumbling around the interior as the ball bounced off walls and spun wildly. Every time the ballricocheted off an obstacle, Kyle was thrown against the other side of the ball, until all he could do was curl up and cover his head with his hands and pray it would stop soon.
Sam grunted in surprise as his own ball began to roll. After the initial shock, he was able to reach out far enough to press his hands and feet to the sides of the ball, looking something like a rotating and spinning version ofDa Vinci's famous sketches of the human form. Once he was able to brace himself, the rest was simply attempting to relax and not get motion sick from the sudden movement, a task that was simplified when Sam realized what the movements reminded him of: the "human gyroscope" attractions at theme parks where you were strapped in and spun quickly and violently about all three axes. With that, he was able to free enough of his brainpower in an attempt to analyze what exactly this new trap was.
The blips and blings barely registered on Tabitha's brain. Not getting smashed to a bloody pulp inside the giant plastic ball seemed to be more of a concern. The blasted thing was too large for her to brace against the impacts. And the wild theory that constantly jumping up and down might work was a bust. Instead she rolled around like wet laundry.
Kurt was having a little more luck than Tabitha, having had the same idea as Sam - and the advantage of effectively having five limbs, not four, which meant he wasn't so hampered by being unable to use one arm. He was even managing, a little, to direct his ball by pressing towards one side or another. This success, however, was limited by the obstacles that kept undoing his progress.
Not again! Those awful rooms hadn't been enough, now they were trapped again? Jan reached out to touch the inner surface of the ball, then decided against it, not sure what zapping it might do. The ball was probably intended for her as she was now, at full height and weight, but would shrinking be a good idea or just turn her into a gooey Janet mess?
---
After a minute or so of the noises and movement, Sam began to realize what was going on. The balls were part of a huge pinball machine. As he came to this realization, one of the flippers smacked his ball. Sam grunted with the force of the impact, and his ball shot off and up a ramp into a separate part of the machine. He thumped a hand experimentally against the inside of the ball, wondering if it would stand up to his blast field.
Tabitha hit a wall and paused for one precious second. She gained her feet, started running. If she treated the thing like a giant hamster-ball, she didn't get beat up so much. Except when the damn thing changed direction. She looked up in time to see her plastic prison on a collision course with another. She heard a very satisfying CRUNCH as her plastic prison shattered.
Kyle had utterly given up on trying to do anything more than protect his head. Mostly undressed, not entirely clean, and in a unspeakably bad mood, it was all he could do not to get knocked out as the ball ricocheted off another ball and rolled up a wire ramp, spinning wildly. "Ow Ow Ow Ow Ow Ow Ow." He repeated, as he was rolled head over feet, and then slammed against the side of his ball as it dropped into a hole. With the ball stopped, he had time to get to his feet, wobbling with dizziness and pound on the clear plastic of the ball. "I swear to God I am going to so totally go all Logan on whoever did this if I get my hands on them!" He didn't know if anyone could hear him, but shouting made him feel a little bit better.
Sam remembered the "blast wave" he had created to throw the Arenques Rojos off of him during his fight with Kraven. He gritted his teeth and thrust outward with his power, fragmenting the clear ball into tiny pieces as he landed on the playing surface in a sprawl. Hearing a pounding coming from the ball that was lodged near him, he pushed to his feet and ran over, piercing it with a flaming punch. He peered in as he ripped pieces off as they warped under the heat of his power. "Kyle? Ya okay?"
"I'd puke but I've already puked up everything I've -ever- eaten." Kyle answered unsteadily. Once the hole in 'his' ball was big enough, he climbed out, shaking his head. "This is not better than the Chamber of Pork." He muttered, examining himself for bruises and finding more than a few. "I think I bounced off Tabs before I hit the hole. I bounced off somebody withblonde hair, but that's all I could see."
Tabitha staggered drunkenly over to the two men, brushing the remains of her ball off her shoulders. "Yeah, that was me." She clutched her head. "I'm not sure my brain will ever stop spinning." She leaned against a wall to gain her balance. "Does -anybody- know what's going on?"
"My guess is more 'fun' from whoever's behind this. We broke out from the first set of traps, so now they're uppin' the ante," Sam ventured a guess. "Ah can't say as Ah'm in the mood ta play whatever sick game they got goin' on here. Ah'm gettin' real tired of this."
"They've got a fucking funny idea of fun." Kyle grumbled. "Lets see if we can find everyone else. I smell Kurt." His usual style of rapid-fire rambling speech was gone, replaced with just a tired resignation. "Thataway," he said, pointing off to his right.
---
Medusa crossed her arms over her chest, watching the scenery flash by as her ball zoomed around. She came to an abrupt stop as her ball landed in a hole, a voice announcing "bonus point" before a flipper thwacked her ball and she began speeding around again. Watching, she saw another ball zooming near by - it's occupant blue and fuzzy. Throwing her weight to the right she tried to alter the course of her ball.
Janet was usually cheery, really she was, but today had been a rather trying day and being stuck in a big pinball game was not making it better. The basic idea was interesting, and if this had been voluntary it might even be fun, but someone had chased her around with flyswatters and now they'd stuck her and the others inside human-sized plastic balls! Could she get control of this stupid thing? What would happen if she tried to fly in the ball? Rolling around on her wings really wasn't helping anything.
Kurt caught a glimpse of Medusa from the corner of his eye, and quickly realized what she was doing when he saw the direction of her movement. Following suit, he leaned hard against the left side of his ball, trying to cause a collision.
As the two balls crashed into one another, Medusa thought her brain would vibrate out of her skull from the impact. Luckily, her plan had worked and the two balls shattered, spilling their occupants on to the floor. Rising as gracefully as she could manage, the redhead brushed off the dust and plastic pieces from her clothes, nodding at Kurt. "I am quite tired of these games."
Kurt winced as he stood up, aware as ever that his wounds were still - or again - bleeding freely. He nodded back, though, taking a step towards her. "Agreed." He turned to look at the others, watching the balls careen crazily around the board. "Collision worked for us, perhaps it will work for them. Though I would not want Janet's wings to be damaged."
Medusa's eyes narrowed as she watched the balls zooming around. "Why wait for collision then?" she asked as her hair shot out, wrapping around a nearby ball and yanking it towards the freed pair. As the ball came to a halt in front of them, the tenseness on Medusa's face relaxed as she was able to use less effort to hold the ball stationary. At first, it appeared that she'd captured an empty ball - well, not quite empty. A small pile of clothing was balled up at the bottom of the ball and when she looked more closely she saw something tiny flitting around inside the ball. Perhaps Janet was able to protect herself better in the small size. Medusa turned to her injured companion, the edges of her lips tilting downwards slightly. "Are you strong enough to extricate her?"
"If she stays at that size, it should not be a problem. There might be difficulty if she was full-sized, but as it is..." He focused on the inside of the ball, to vanish and reappear inside it, holding out a hand for Jan to land.
Some birthday weekend celebration this was turning out to be! Jan landed on Kurt's outstretched hand. "Can we all get out of here already?" she babbled even though she knew he couldn't hear her. "The people who did this are clearly, like, insane and I really think I'd like to make it to my nineteenth birthday!"
Her agitation was clear even if he couldn't hear her voice, and he nodded would-be soothingly, wasting no time teleporting them both out.
Once Kurt had reappeared outside the ball, Medusa released her grip on it, watching it begin rolling through the spinners and up ramps again. "I believe I am done with this vacation," Medusa said, glancing at where the other group appeared to be trying to leave as well. Starting to walk down the board, she wondered if Janet would make herself full size again or if Kurt was going to carry her the whole way. It was then that they walked over a target, a loud voice announcing "Bonus round. Get a full house." The bottom of the board opened up, spinners labeled as cards rising out of the bottom. On the other side of the trio, what looked like several guns rose out of the board, aiming themselves at Kurt and Medusa.
It wasn't exactly a hardship to carry her, at her current size... and Kurt was suddenly glad there were only two real targets, rather than three. "Get down!"
Medusa looked affronted at the order, her hair flaring up and out to shield her instead, darts bouncing harmlessly off the strands. "Perhaps there is another way out," she said as the guns appeared to be reloading. "And finding it hastily would be prudent."
Guns! Flyswatters and machines and guns... at one-inch size, she wasn't much of a target, but there was very little she could do to help. She didn't see that there was much she'd be able to do at full-size, either, as guns and gigantic pinball machines weren't likely to be affected by a sting. Maybe she could look around? Jan darted up into the air and looked around, trying to get a better idea of what was going on.
"I believe we need to hit the cards to end this lovely little bonus round," Medusa said, two strands of hair whipping out simultaneously to strike the Ace and King spinners. "A little help please?"
Kurt nodded and moved into position to strike out at cards, pacing along the length of the frame and aiming with all four of his working limbs.
The guns shifted back through the ground, as the goal was reached, and Medusa couldn't help a small sigh of relief that escaped her. Of course, it was too soon to relax as at that moment it seemed the next stage of the game was ready to begin.
There was a harsh metallic clack, and suddenly the lights began to flash wildly and the bells ring. "Third ball locked! Third ball locked!" chimed an electronic voice, providing no clue as to what was to come. Thunderous impacts began to resonate off the floor, and with horror, they looked up to see the giant steel balls, each reflecting their images in a warped, elongated form, come whizzing into the area. Each was the size of a man, and moving with great speed as they careened off the targets, ready to crush any of the mutants in their path.
"MULTIBALL!!!!"
Jan looked down at the human-sized steel balls. "Oh, shit!" She was safe, able to fly over the instruments of doom, but the idea of watching the others get flattened was not appealing at all.
Medusa's first instinct was to strike at the balls with her hair - however, she'd have to aim carefully to not flatten the other people running across the table. Cursing under her breath in Portuguese, Medusa pirouetted to the left to avoid a ball headed in her direction. "Everybody needs to come together so we can get to the bottom as a group," she called out.
"For fuck's SAKE!" Kyle yelped, and narrowly dodged being flattened by leaping atop one of the bumpers. He made a running start and jumped over to another bumper, closer to Medusa. He looked over the floor and down at his perch and tried to signal the others by waving frantically. "We could take the high road!"
Kurt eyed the bumper, then the giant pieces of steel, and decided Kyle was onto something there. He put his head down and ran flat out for the nearest one.
Sam, rather than move to avoid the balls, moved quickly to the front, bringing up his blast field and slamming as many careening balls away with his fists as he could. The clanging of his strikes meshed well with the other typical pinball game noises, and he had the brief amusing mental image of himself as just one more of the bumpers. "Good idea, Kyle!" he yelled. "Get up after him, everyone!" While he was invulnerable, the rest of the group wasn't, and he could only deflect so many balls before one might flatten someone else.
Tabitha scrambled toward a bumper, paused to blow a ball out of the way. She clawed her way to the top of the first available bumper before she pranced along to the next bumper to get closer to the group. "Okay, what do we DO once we get to the bottom?"
Medusa eyed the two flippers at the group was headed to, both snapping with enough force to easily crush them all. Add to that the electricity crackling off them and the question Tabitha had asked became increasingly more complicated. With Kurt's injury, he wouldn't be able toteleport them all to safety...but perhaps he could at least take care of the youngest. "Kurt, do you have enough energy to teleport yourself and Kyle to the other side?" It should be easy for Janet to flit through a small space to safety, which would just leave her, Tabitha and Sam with figuring out how to escape.
Kurt's hesitation was telling - ordinarily, he wouldn't have had to think about whether or not he could teleport with someone Kyle's size, but as it was... "...I think so", he said eventually, stepping across to Kyle's bumper.
Having Kurt teleport someone was a really good idea. Kyle just objected to it being -him-. He wasn't injured, he could heal and just because he was the youngest wasn't a good reason. To his mind. And Kurt was -hurt-. He didn't need to be straining himself when Kyle could take perfectly good care of himself. "Hey, wait, do I get a say on this?!" He turned to face Kurt to argue his case, but before he could even start to speak, he found himself grasped firmly on the upper arm, and his mouth - and eyes - snapped shut at the overpowering smell of sulphur.
Medusa's expression was both determined and satisfied as she saw Kyle and Kurt pop to safety on the other side of of the flippers. "Janet, you are next. Even when the flippers close, there is still a small space available for you to fly your way to safety." She assumed the small girl must have responded, but it was impossible to hear her at her current size. Turning to Tabitha and Sam, who had both made their way to where the redhead was balanced atop a bumper, Medusa raised an eyebrow. "I believe I am fresh out of ideas now. I hope one of you has a plan."
"Thus far, any bomb making has not done well," Tabs commented. "But I'm willing to try again. If I blew one near the hinge, that might give us room."
"There's always invulnerability," Sam told the pair. After the tiny Jan had flown off to Kyle and Kurt, he took Tabitha and Medusa with an arm around each of their waists. "Hold on, ladies," he told them. He'd lifted Juggernaut before, so the weight wasn't an issue, just making sure his blast field would expand to cover them all, and that the two women held on tight enough to not escape his grip. When they were set, he launched them straight at the flippers, crashing right through one and on to the other side.
As soon as the trio was safely on the other side, Medusa shoved Sam away from her, red strands of hair snapping out audibly. "Next time, we try Tabitha's plan," she said, the glare directed in Sam's direction almost tangible. Spinning on her heel, she stalked over to Kurt to figure out what the group should do next.
***
Music. What an odd thing to wake up to. Not tinny musak or a recording, but the bright, brassy sounds of a pipe organ, authentic enough to hear the weazing of air between each note as it went through the song. And what a song. Like an old fashioned ice-cream truck tune, given real power behind it. It was like the old movies of the circus, with the sound of the organ over the chatter of the crowd, the yells of the barkers and the sounds of the rides. The dim light swelled, climbing the red and yellow striped sides of the circular room and connecting high overhead to the apex of... a tent?
Yvette stirred, and at the sound of the music drew closer to the others, pulling the borrowed coat closer around her even though it meant the material shredded that little bit more. Music was bad, music meant something was about to happen, and she reached out to shake awake the only person she knew she could without hurting them; Monet.
"Please, Miss Monet, to be waking up!"
John's eyes snapped open. He stared up at the tent's ceiling, wondering if it was over; that they had somehow been transported to a medical tent facility without the bed and the nurse and the medication and the bandage for the dried-up gash on his forehead. He winced.
The last thing he remembered was falling. Like Alice down the rabbit hole only he hadn't been floating when he'd hit ground. John could only surmise that he must have fallen hard on his side as his right arm was feeling a bit stiff and numb, like a heavy weight had been pressing down on it. He glanced over to the right and his brow creased into a frown.
"Blaaaargh." Mondo said intelligently as he sat up, yawning. "Feels like I've been chewing on old Gym socks." he complained, looking around for something - anything! - to wash the taste out of his mouth. "What's going on, guys?" he asked worriedly.
Monet woke from dreams about laughter and everything exploding to Yvette's hand on her arm. She reached up and gave the hand a squeeze before sitting and staring around, slightly dizzy and muzzy headed. "You have got to be fucking kidding me." A sideshow arcade, complete down to a floor of cracked concrete dead grass and the slightly stained, battered and dingy tents housing clowns, shoot the duck, ball games, broken every so often with concession stands from a thousand different shows, with writing in Arabic, German, French and languages she couldn't quite recognise, one selling dagwood dogs and pies nearby, another hotdogs and yet another kebabs.
"Calm down, all of you." Nathan's voice was gravelly, but steady. Blinking in an effort to clear his vision, he gave their surroundings a quick once-over, then turned his attention to the others. Too few 'others' - where was everyone else? He tried to reach out with his mind and winced, one hand going to his temple as he hit the static of psi-bafflers again. "All right. On your feet, if you can. I don't think we want to be just sitting here." Getting up was more of an adventure than it should have been; he swayed as the world seemed to tilt around him, but hung onto his balance with grim determination.
John was casually observing the slow crossing of a single tricycle on a tightrope suspended 20 meters above ground. Its mechanical arms were moving at rapid speed, juggling an impressive amount of clubs and balls. Redirecting his attention to Nathan, John let out a bit of a smirk. He was about to comment on the man's state of appearance when a loud explosion ripped through the air, followed by the burst of percussion grenades on the ground.
Yvette squeaked and backed away, her back colliding with a large, brightly-coloured box. The lid sprang open and out popped a large, almost cartoony mallet on the end of a concertina arm. The small girl's eyes widened and she froze in place as the mallet came sweeping down upon her.
Mondo, without thinking or hesitation, shoved Yvette out of the way of the Giant Scary Mallet of Doom. It connected with an impact so strong it jarred his back teeth. He wound up bellyflopping on the ground, dazed from the impact. If he wasn't synched to his necklace, he would undoubtedly be suffering from a broken back just from the sheer force of it.
Monet screamed and jumped away from the mallet only to duck as one of the clown games started to shoot ping pong balls at them. At least this one didn't hurt. She shielded her face and reached over to pull Mondo to his feet. The next thing that tried to flatten her was going down.
"How do we get out of here?"
"Settle down," came the growl from Nathan. The clown game collapsed in on itself under a wave of telekinesis - as tightly controlled as he could manage, because he suspected that if he started smashing around willy-nilly he was going to provoke some sort of additional trap that they really didn't want to be dealing with. Worse-case scenario, this whole circus nightmare was scaleable in 'difficulty' - lethality, be honest, Nathan - like the Danger Room. He looked at Mondo, blinking in an effort to clear his vision. "Are you all right?"
Mondo looked around the faux-circus and got a grim expression on his face. "I have had ENOUGH!" he bellowed, a challenge to the entire sick enterprise he was trapped inside. "DO YOU HEAR ME?" he screamed. As he paced back and forth he began to ... grow, for lack of a better term. Take on additional mass, leaving visible cratered footprints in the cement under his feet. "Circuses are fun-time! A time to laugh at the clowns and ooh and aah at the acrobats and to watch the elephants and the lions. IT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE THIS!"
"The clowns and the acrobats, you say, young sir?" The voice seemed to come from everywhere at once, booming under the tent. "That would be our main event! Children of all ages, let me direct you to the main event at the Big Top! Amazing feats of agility! Death defying leaps! Fierce lions and tigers from the ends of the world! Come, come to the Big Top!"
Multiple explosions erupted as a number of fire-breathers and fire-twirlers appeared from the tent entrances, all but one. But instead of juggling the fire they were hurling it at the small group, herding them towards the remaining entrance. Through it the sounds of a carnival could be heard, the shrieks of children, the chanting sing-song of the barkers, and above all, the tinny music-box-like tune that threatened to drive them mad.
Involuntarily, Yvette drew back, towards the direction they were being nudged towards. The memory of John's fire engulfing her was still a little too raw.
Nathan's eyes narrowed, and enough of the fire-breathers and fire-twirlers went flying, like human bowling pins, to clear them a different path. "Enough of this shit. We are not being herded anymore," he said, breathing hard. His expression was like stone, but the rage in his eyes was the opposite of cold. His head wasn't precisely clear - they'd obviously been drugged again - but he wasn't hallucinating anymore, and he was clear-headed enough to be seriously pissed. "That way, now. Everyone stay calm and stay close, and we'll get through this."
Monet found herself following behind everyone - dimly, she noted that that made sense, unable to help thinking that invulnerable, she was the most likely to get out here alive. A man with a hurdy gurdy and monkey in a suit on his shoulder grabbed her arm, monkey leaping at her face, a tiny, possessed, almost human thing. She grabbed its jacket and threw it, not caring where it landed and hit out at the man, knocking him down and shuddered as she caught up to the others again. "Oh god."
Mondo didn't know who to punch first. But somebody had to pay for this nightmare. As he walked he left little craters in the cement and he grew a little bulkier, a little bigger. His expression was almost comically distraught but with real anger behind it. One of the barkers made the mistake of getting too close and Mondo grabbed him and literally threw him thirty feet up into the air.
"MONDO!" Nathan's voice cracked like a whip. He dropped back to Mondo's side, grabbing the young man's arm - but not out of any attempt to physically stop him. Instead, he instinctively used the physical contact, pushing past the static until he could link to the kid's mind. #CALM DOWN.# He didn't bother trying to make the suggestion subtle; there was either doing it or not doing it, under these circumstances. And he had to keep them calm. Had to. He wasn't losing any of them to fear. #You're okay. We're going to be fine. Focus on keeping moving. Only fight them if they get in your way.#
With Nathan engaged with Mondo, that left John and Yvette momentarily in the front. As they passed the ring toss game, dozens of rings flew out, expanding in the air to attempt to trap them. Instinctively, Yvette slashed at the ones in front of her, shredding them, whilst beside her a gout of flame signalled John was dealing with things his way.
Superheating the plasma within the flames, John directed fireball after fireball toward the concession stands, destroying the machineries.
Clowns on stilts released balloons of various shapes, colors and sizes ahead of them. It floated close to the ground, bursting in rapid succession, releasing fart gas, nitrous oxide and fine dust into the air. It didn’t take long for John to realize what the dust were as he let out a loud sneeze and then another, the skin on the back of his neck and arms beginning to itch.
Monet sneezed repeatedly, waving the itching powder away from herself. "I swear, I'm coming back to kill you lot if I get some sort of hideous disease and end up looking shit from this." She walked forward, shoving them out of the way, kicking at the clowns stilts and ignoring the blows they directed at her. One grabbed her from behind and she screamed. "What the fuck are you doing!?" She just couldn't shake him off and flew up a few yards before flipping in mid air and diving head first into the concrete, the clown's head striking slightly before hers.
The itching power abruptly swirled, as if blown by an invisible wind. A cloud of it billowed away, in the opposite direction from the small, bedraggled group. "Listen to me, all of you," Nathan said tightly. He couldn't do what he'd done for Mondo for all of them. Not under these conditions. "Settle down. I know it's been a hell of... however the hell many days we've been in here," he said, ignoring the way his voice cracked, "but you have to calm down." His eyes flickered ahead to the tent. Almost there. "If this is anything like the Danger Room-" He paused to smash a couple of clowns in his way to the ground. "-it's possible that upping the ante means a deadlier reaction. Stick to what's in front of you, or something that attacks you directly. And keep-"
Moving, he'd intended to say. But as they stepped into the next tent, the words died on his lips as half a dozen bumper cars abruptly screeched to a stop - and then came roaring towards them. They appeared to be fitted with buzzsaws. Well, fuck...
Sometimes, in the Danger Room, if you hit hard enough fast enough, you could throw the program for a loop enough to gain a few moments, possibly an opportunity to get the upper hand. The thought was only half-formed when Nathan's exoskeleton flashed into existence around him and he threw himself forward. Massive fiery claws smashed into one, then another. A sweep of a wing sent another flying through the air and right through the wall of the tent. Nathan grabbed the next two, crushing them together. That left one.
"John! Take care of that one!" he shouted hoarsely.
Well, he didn't need to be told twice. John threw his firing arm forward, igniting the car and detonating it like a bomb. The flames amplified by his control incinerated the flying shrapnel leaving them out of harms way. A gush of silence filled the tent as spotlights centered in on a stage upfront. Loud cheers and applause, followed by the cracking of a whip signified the entrance of a pack of wild animals -- predators that were designed to hunt.
Yvette ducked behind Mondo at the growling, watching as lions and tigers lept onto their stools, eyeing the small group hungrily. "I do not think they are being robots," she quavered as a strong smell of animal hit them. One of the lions roared, showing long sharp teeth.
Mondo, now just under seven feet tall, was pushing the limits of his good nature, even with Nathan's telepathic suggestion. He'd torn a dinosaur apart with his bare hands, he'd taken on leviathans of the deep in their own environment. He could handle a pack of lions. He was pretty sure they couldn't bite or claw hard enough to get through his nicely-dense flesh. And they were freaking Yvette out, which made it even more difficult to keep a grip on his temper. He'd never been this angry before that he could recall. "I'll protect you." he told Yvette without turning to face her, his voice resonating with solidity. He sounded like he was speaking in a vast cavern, his voice booming. This place was an abomination, a sacrilege against all that was good. It had to end. Now.
To that end, Mondo stomped his foot against the ground hard enough to sink in to mid-shin. The impact sent a shockwave rippling through the earth, one big enough to knock the stools off the ground and disrupt the lions and tigers. Ordinarily he loved the big cats - the strength and grace they represented, the beauty of their clean lines. But not today.
Unfortunately, the shockwave also knocked Yvette off her feet, and she scrambled back on her butt to leave enough room for Mondo and the others to take care of things.
Driven by the disturbance had the animals charging forward. John had no doubt that Mondo would be able to crush the animals beneath his feet but instead of allowing the brutality of such a killing to play itself out, John directed a flame forward, creating a wall of fire to surround the wild beasts, confining them to a spot.
Nathan gritted his teeth. "Now, MOVE!" he called down to the others. "Out through the exit, now - I'll make sure the lions don't follow." The lion-tamer was already urging the lions to jump over the flames.
Monet grabbed Yvette's hand "Let's go!" and ignored the scratchiness her powers created, pulling her through the exit. They fell flat on their faces as they crossed it, caught up by a trip wire. "Look out! There's a thingie! A trip wire thing." I want to go home, she thought.
Yvette slashed at the trip wire, freeing their feet even as she looked around apprehensively for the trap that was associated with it. She didn't have to wait long - a giant boxing glove on a spring came out of the booth beside them, knocking both of them into another tent, the largest one by far. Above the entrance was scrawled in neon letters several feet high: THE BIG TOP. A booming voice, the same as that in the first tent, greeted them.
"Ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, everyone put your hands together for Bobo the Clown, and his friends!" Almost immediately a small yellow car entered the ring, behind the wheel a maniacally grinning clown with a bright red curly wig. His eyes glowed red, to match the nose and he honked the horn of the car repeatedly as he drove around the two girls in ever-decreasing circles.
"Shit." Monet swore, turning to watch the clown drive around them, even as more clowns ran out from the wings, tumbling and laughing. She debated grabbing Yvette and flying away for a moment before giving up on the idea - she didn't even know if this was the going to get them out - and settled for just watching them approach. This was worse, much worse, than dinosaurs had ever been. "Hey, Yvette, you know they're only done up like clowns because they've probably got erection problems, right?"
Without fuel to sustain John's fire, the only thing that kept it burning was his power. Diverting his attention away from it would mean going back to square one which left him with no choice but to incinerate or get mauled. Building it into an arc, the wall of fire lifted upwards and over the animals as a large spherical ball of pure heat and flames. It imploded inwards with a clench of his fist. Behind them, a couple of beast wagons trundled in, releasing with it a great many more of the big cats.
Nathan actually stared for a moment in disbelief before he whirled on the two young men. #I SAID GET MOVING!# Pure adrenaline let him cut through the static and project it to both of them, and the firebird shot downwards at the new lions. If they didn't take advantage of the fact that he was covering their retreat... well, he was fresh out of ideas.
Mondo strode through the same entrance that Yvette and Monet had pushed into, still much taller than was normal, still much heavier. He didn't even blink at the clowns that were circling both the girls. Instead, he just waded in to their circling pattern, kicking one car into the air, heedless of who or what might be driving it. "I love clowns." he said in a broken voice, the tears welling in his eyes.
A shocked giggle had come from Yvette at Monet's words, but then Mondo had joined them, and even that small amount of black humour died. This place, it was dangerous and scary, but it was also breaking the happy-go-lucky Samoan's heart, and that would not do. The car landed with a bang, somehow still on its wheels and clowns began to stagger out, some sparking noticeably. "Don't run away, stay and play!" one of them intoned in flat mechanical tones, as it and several of its fellows began lurching for Mondo. Outstretched hands were severed in a shower of sparks, quickly followed by their legs being sliced off at the knee, and three of the clowns collapsed, twitching uselessly. Yvette crouched in front of the enormous Mondo with her talons raised, not even aware of the ridiculousness of it, her eyes as bright as a welding torch's flame. "This is to be stopping now," she said, her normally soft voice tight with anger. "You are making my friend be sad."
John came to a stop as he entered the tent, eyes widening slightly as half a dozen clowns on circus bikes fired heavy metal darts at the ones in the ring.
The darts shredded in mid-air, shrapnel flying harmlessly off in every direction except at the kids. Nathan, standing at the door to the tent, was no longer wearing his exoskeleton. It had taken too much out of him, even for those brief few minutes, and they weren't out yet. He stared at the scene in the ring, then shook his head. A telekinetic bubble sprung up around the kids, in case of further projectiles, and the clowns closest to it exploded, the shrapnel directed backwards to start the job of destroying the automatons behind them.
"It's time for our main event!" The voice boomed out, and behind Nathan, a steel door dropped down with a thud. For good or for ill, they were now trapped in the Big Top. There was a crackle and hum. Nathan flinched, feeling the sudden increase of the EM distortion field. Someone had just turned the psi-bafflers up to twelve, and the headache he'd been fighting for... however long since the first time he'd woken up was multipled by a factor of ten instantly. The TK shield flickered and died, and there was no way he was going to be able to recreate it.
The clowns and cars pulled back, and the lights went out for a second, only to switch back on with a spotlight, illuminating the mutants in a single circle. The noise around them almost made them believe an excited crowd was watching them from the darkness, and the ground began to shake as the voice of the Ringmaster returned.
"Such acts of daring! Such death-defying escapes! Such exciting displays of courage and control! Only the best for the Greatest Show on Earth!" Fireworks went off in the heights of the Big Top, the lurid colours lightly edging a figure coming towards them with earth shaking steps. "And now, ladies and gentlemen, for the Grand Finale! Watch as I, Stromboli, in a feat of spectacular danger, will now attempt to tame a ring full of wild mutants."
Massive metal feet stepped into the light. The blackened steel of the legs gave way to a violent red chassis and led to a robotic head, topped with the traditional black hat. But this Ringmaster wasn't like the clown robots; instead a sixteen foot mountain of steel which regarded them through cold mechanical eyes. In it's right hand, a whip dangled, the end a coral fan of emitters that sparked blue where it touched the ground. In the other, a metal hoop that burst into flame as he brandished it. It cracked the whip and moved forward to attack. "Let the show begin!"
"For fuck's sake! No one ever told you that this sort of thing was completely over these days, right? You should gone for something less retro than a ring master." Monet glared at the Ringmaster and flew at him, trying to torpedo him, but he hit her, sending her flying into the ceiling. She managed to catch herself before she hit the ground. "I'm fine, everyone!"
"Monet!" Yvette had cried out at the sight of the older girl being smashed away like a child's toy, and against all her instincts, she ran towards those giant metal feet, running her claws along the back of the behemouth's ankles. The steel was too thick for her to cut all the way through and sparks flew. There was another of those sonic boom whipcracks and Yvette skidded to a halt as the ground flew up in front of her. Gulping, she ran back the other way, only to have the firey hoop descend in front of her.
That might have been an act of bravado coming from the kid but it was also a little too close to being suicidal for comfort. The flames disappeared in a trail of smoke. "You know, it's a good thing we've got something in common," John said as he ignited the sparks from the emitters. He smirked. "Pyromania tendencies." Large tendrils of fire swirled around the Ringmaster, twisting upwards in a fierce blaze. He boosted the intensity, fueling the fire with oxygen from the ground up, giving Yvette a chance to get clear.
Fire retardant? John could feel its resistance to heat. "...seems like we got a little too much in common." Time for a change of strategy or rather, it was time to pick another objective. He killed off the flames and with it the sparks from the whip as it hit the ground.
Oh, to hell with this... As the Ringermaster lumbered towards them, Nathan braced himself and lashed out telekinetically at the shoulder joint of the closest robotic arm, the one holding the hoop. Metal exploded outwards from the joint, and the whole arm tore loose under its own weight, dropping to the floor of the ring with a crash. Nathan was on his hands and knees an instant later, blood pouring from his nose.
Mondo, being not combat-trained for small-unit tactics and having been pushed far, far beyond his tolerances, elected to take the easy road. He charged. He didn't care about flaming hoops or bullwhips or how his love for circuses and clowns and animal shows was dying a slow, ugly death in the back of his head. Right now, all he wanted to do was share his pain with the world. As he made contact with the Ringmaster he sank his hands _into_ the robot, trying to absorb it into himself, to "eat" it.
With a metal squeal, the Ringmaster swung a mighty arm, knocking the now metal Mondo away and into the tent pole with a tooth-rattling crunch. It redoubled with the whip, slower but no less dangerous as it sought to use sheer size to trap the mutants in a position in which it could crush them.
Yvette, meanwhile, had dashed to Nathan's side, hovering by him uncertainly. She wanted to help him, but knew touching him without her gloves would do as much damage, and so she settled for being ready to try and protect him as much as she could. Given the size of the robotic ringmaster, she wasn't exactly sure what that might entail.
Oh, fuckity. Monet shook her head for a moment, staring at the Ringmaster's legs. "Hey, Yvette, Mondo? You guys fireproof at all? Cos if you are, I think I got an idea. Sort of. He's only got one arm left, and his legs. So we just have stop them working. He's got these doohickies at behind his knees. I think, if we break them and his shoulder and John doesn't let him set fire to us or maybe sets his head on fire, we'll maybe get out?" Monet's eyes never left the whip. "Um. Except for the whip. I don't know what to do about the whip and we're probably still going to die horribly, in which case I'll blame you lot."
Had Monet just come up with a workable plan? Nathan thought hazily. I think she did... mental note, congratulate her if we live. "Good... yes," he forced out, his voice slurred. "Yvette, Mondo... take left knee. Back and forth, one at a time. Don't stay still. Monet, right knee... hard as you can. John. Sparks. Use them, go for the neck joint." There had to be circuitry, something, beneath the armoring. "Just... stay on the move." Except they couldn't do it yet. Something had to be done about that whip.
This was going to hurt. The other shoulder-joint exploded, the arm with the whip falling to the ground - thankfully missing any of the kids, because Nathan couldn't have caught it if his life had depended on it. The whip tangled helplessly on the ground, like a giant live wire fallen in a storm.
Yvette gulped, and nodded, glancing at Mondo. "The left knee. Yes, I am understanding." It was, she told herself, no different than hunting the dinosaur when they were trapped in the park. And Mondo wouldn't let anything happen to her. She took his hand, and tugged him upwards even as the Ringmaster swung their way again.
Mondo was unbelievably massive - even more so than his physical size would indicate. Inside his cells, deep down in the parts that made him one of the genetically different, new pathways opened up and new reactions screamed through his body. The Ringmaster was armless and Mondo remembered a few things from his time spent in Japan. He moved far, far faster than anyone of his bulk had any right to, ducking away from the Ringmaster and coming in against the robotic knee at an oblique angle. The knee itself screamed with the sounds of metal shearing under stress and the entire leg assembly from the knee down just ... fell off.
It was only Monet's deathgrip on the other leg that kept the Ringmaster upright, arms wrapped around its thigh, legs clamped around its shin. "Mondo, I love you, mate. Yvette! Can you cut the cables and wires in its leg? There, in its hip, where the stuff's come off and you can its bits." The Ringmaster hopped from one side to the other, yelling. "Fucken' hurry up on its head will you, John?"
Yvette nodded, swallowing the raw fear. Mondo had started things, it was time to finish this off. Dashing up to the robot, she sank her hand and feet talons into the metal encasing it, scaling the massive calf and thigh as she'd once scaled an ice wall, clinging on tightly whenever the Ringmaster turned and hopped around, trying to shake her off. Reaching the hip, where Monet was frantically pointing, she gulped. There was no way she'd be able to cut through so much heavy metal. Unless... The outer shell had cracked, and she could see its 'bits', as Monet described them, cables and wires and heavy struts. All useless if she severed the 'tendons', the same as the dinosaur... Raising her hand, she hacked away at the cables she could see, slicing at them again and again until she cut through and the robot began to teeter...
Shaping his fire into that of a large flat disc, John increased its energy levels as he sent it forward. The glow of the flames making a rapid change from red to blue to white as it sped through the air sliced cleanly through the neck joint; severing the head in a cloud of heavy black smoke.
Monet yelped as the robot wobbled, tilting as Yvette and John destroyed it. She let go, grabbing Yvette around the waist, shooting up into the air and away to land beside Nathan, heart pounding and trying not to shake. "Is that it or do they want us to do a little dance for them? Because I'm just not going to dance. So. Over. This place."
"I hope to hell that's it," Nathan said raggedly, managing to at least straighten, if not stand up just yet. Not optimistic, but we can hope...
The robot still made garbled noises from where the head had rolled. Behind the pile of shattered steel, the rear of the tent yawned open, leading to either an escape route or another trap. The problem was that the only other option led them back into the carnival, where they could hear the robots pounding on the metal door, trying to get through. Resignedly, they picked themselves up, and limped tightly through the door, wondering what could possibly be waiting for them next in this sick maze of death.
Tags:
- c: kurt sefton,
- c: kyle gibney,
- c: z available: john allerdyce,
- z p1: c: .retired: medusa amaquelin,
- z p1: c: .retired: monet st croix,
- z p1: c: .retired: nathan dayspring,
- z p1: c: .retired: sam guthrie,
- z p1: c: .retired: tabitha smith,
- z p1: c: .retired: yvette petrovic,
- z p1: c: janet van dyne,
- z p1: c: mondo,
- z p1: p: prince of thieves: voodoo child
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Date: 2007-06-04 01:16 am (UTC)Did she really know what that meant?
"I love clowns." he said in a broken voice, the tears welling in his eyes.
Aww...