CiRCuS MoNSTeRS

"-the Scarlet Devil!"
The lights dim. A maniacal little girl's laugh begins to echo throughout the big top. Then music begins to play. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=912ghtXJacI from 0:37 to 3:03) The Laughter fades and the voice begins to sing. On the second half of the first verse, a little girl, only seen by the glowing crystals on her wings flies out into the center of the stage.

When the verse ends her wings fire off rays of light and the spotlights hit her, as she separates into four and dart all over the place in tune with the music, randomly shooting danmaku blasts through the tent top and between the people in the crowd, leaving holes behind them. She covers the floor and stands with scorch marks somehow managing to miss the crowd in the stadium.

As the song reaches a crescendo the four meet along the main tent pole. and begin to slash it up and at the climax, she fuses back into one and blasts straight up incinerating the pole...revealing it not being needed to hold up the tent. While everyone is looking at the new hole letting in moonlight, she flies backstage, thrilled with her handiwork.

(Backstage)
"I'm Finished!" She said cutely.

 

Aki blinked slowly unsure how to react. It has only been two acts so far, and yet she's already pulled in the show. She couldn't comprehend the fact that a lion, no- AN EAGLE flew out of a freakin fedora! And some weird girl with crystalized features seemed to add to the strangeness factor. But the idea of her almost getting killed by knives seems to be part of the show, an act if you will. Of course the ringmasters wouldn't allow the audience to get her. But the fact that part of the circus was destroyed had to be more than an accident. Almost as if...
This has all gotta be an act. I mean there is no way that that was possible! Still...
She examined the gaping hole within the seams of the tent as the moon shone an almost opaque glow. Her mind flashed back to the act prior to the one she saw, and scrunched her face.
That magician...should have known that it was just smoke and mirrors. Nothing really special, actually it's quite normal if you ask me. Nothing really special... but why is it that they hired him then? I mean that Scarlet Devil chick, now she's the real deal, and yet - why is it that I'm still thinking about his act? Maybe its because I've only seen two so far.
She sighed mentally and took another pocky stick from her pocket, nibbling in thought and waiting for the next performance.

 

As the show began, Sammy's nervousness began to increase at a steady rate before skyrocketing as the first ringmaster appeared on stage. She was one of them. She was the source of the rumors. Ah wait. Did she say 'fellow ringmaster'? THERE ARE TWO OF THEM?! Aw shiz...this was not factored into the plan. Aw man I should've done more research, whyamIsolazy?! thought Sammy in a great panic. Before she began a full on panic attack complete with a full on cold sweat, Sammy took a breath before the people around her began to notice her haggard breathing. All right. All right. Calm down. The plan is still on. Just calm down. You're already invested in this. You can't turn back. You can't t- It was at this point that the female ringmaster offered a chance to leave. Sammy wanted nothing more than to bolt from that godforsaken place as soon as possible. But she remained seated. Okay well....you probably could've turned back then...but now it's too late. You're too invested in this. You can't possibly- oh the first act. Go and analyze.

Though Sammy didn't do enough research on the actual circus itself, she made sure to learn and remember well a few skills. Mainly, how to tell when someone was lying, and a little bit of lockpicking, but that didn't get too far at all. She wasn't dexterous enough. She also made absolutely sure to always have on her a flashlight and a cell phone with extra batteries for the flashlight as, knowing her luck, the flashlight would go out at the most unopportune of moments. It was during this first act that she carefully observed the face of the performer, looking for signs of sadness, emptiness, longing; basically anything that was not absolute excitement and pure happiness performing. However, she quickly got distracted as the act got a bit too...extreme for her tastes. She screamed and gasped along with the audience with every show of surprise and terror that the magician pulled. In the end, she couldn't figure out if he was happy or not in this place.

Taking in gulps of air and exhaling slowly, Sammy tried to recover from the magician's act before the next one, but she didn't get a whole lot of time before the other ringmaster, a great and intimidating man no doubt most likely the main cause of misfortune for the performers, if they were unfortunate, announced the next act. As if sensing that this act would be worse than the previous one, Sammy felt her heart beat even faster than it did before, already ready to initiate the flight call. She was never much of a fighter. Though thankfully, she only had to duck under a few fireballs that were flying nowhere near her with the next act. But...why did I feel such an abject sense of terror?

 

♫The Twisted Minded Ringmaster, Amaya Tsukiko♫​

Amaya couldn't help the look of shock at all the damage Flandre did to the tent. She felt a slight headache coming along and had to rub her temples to try and force it away. It was nothing they couldn't fix. Grey and Flandre helped inflict fear into the audiences hearts, while at the same time, Flandre managed to break down the tent just a little while giving the audience a great view of the night sky above. That's all. Letting out a quiet sigh, Amaya walked back out onto the stage to introduce the next act while trying to stay calm to keep the oncoming headache away.

Walking into the spotlight once more, Amaya smiled brightly at the audience "Well, it seems our magician caused a little fear while our little devil couldn't help but cause a little damage to our stage." she spoke with a mental huff. She would have to talk to Flandre later about her dangerous acts. "Let's tone it down a little, shall we? I assure you that our next act is completely safe, but will leave you in awe. Please welcome, the flower of our circus, Petals" finished with the introduction to the next act, Amaya walked off the stage once more.

 

❝I came to see the Dark Woods Circus❞
___________________________​

Although it was only two acts that had been displayed to the audience, Cal was entranced. He was mystified, drawn in, filled with so much wonder that he felt like a kid again.

People like this . . . people like this actually existed. The first performer, Tellus, as the ringmaster had called him, was stunning. He'd done an amazing feat playing on an old magician's cliche - the rabbit out of the hat trick. But Tellus . . . didn't pull a rabbit out of his hat, no, he pulled out a lion - a living, breathing lion out of that fedora he'd been wearing on his head. It was an angry beast with a temper and while the rest of the crowd around him was terrified of the large cat, Cal was leaning in even more, as if to get closer to it. And then when it came at the crowd, oh man, that was so awesome! The lion turned into a flying eagle and flew up to perch on one of the tents beams that held it up, and then with a snap of his fingers, Tellus caused the majestic bird to disappear. And then in its place fell a knife, which he turned into a bunch of knives, aiming straight for the performer's head, and it seriously looked like it was gonna kill him and all around Cal were gasps from the audience, but Cal knew better. After Tellus had, of course, caught the knives, he shot them at the audience, most of which who screamed, but then they turned to fireworks before their very eyes, and that ended his performance.

Cal felt like he clapped louder than anyone else, maybe he did, he didn't know, but this opening act gave him and impression of what to expect for the rest of the show, and that was some pretty awesome stuff. Then, the second Ringmaster had come out, a stern-looking man with long hair, who introduced the second performer, a 'young' girl by the name of the Scarlet Devil.

The lights had gone dim about this time, and this crazy little girl's laughter had started up, echoing throughout the tent. And then the music, a sort of creepy but fitting tune, began to play, and upon the first verse of it, a little girl who had wings with crystals on them, flew out to center stage, then from the crystals shot rays of light and the spotlights shone on her. Then the little thing decides to split in four and dart all over the place in time with the music, shooting this stuff into the crowd, seeming to miss everyone on purpose. Then as the music reaches its peak, the four bits meet in the center of the tent, desolating it, then becoming one again. Cal stared in wonder when he found that the tent could stand on its own without the pole, and without the crowd hardly noticing, she's gone.

It was all so . . . surreal, so unreal, but Cal believed every bit of it that he saw. All around him he heard whispers of how it was all 'just smoke and mirrors', but he shrugged those things off and thought all of it amazing, real or not. He had to meet the performers, he just had to. He imagined on the other side of the circus arena what Sammy must be thinking - he hoped she wasn't to freaked or anything.

Continuing to lean forward, Cal waited for the other acts. This place . . . is amazing.​

 

Mai Tokiha, the flames of Salvation​

"She's insane!" Mai exclaimed after seeing Flandre obliterate the main tent pole. That girl could've killed us all if she wanted to! Mai put her hand on one the holes, realizing that it wasn't blown through but incinerated! Natsuki was right, this was a dangerous place!

 

This was nowhere near what I was expecting. Gray thought on the first two acts had ended. They had the skills and power to kill them if they wanted to, but lucky for us they didn't. Once he'd heard the name of he next person to perform, he wonder what was in stored for them this time.

 

The ground shook, sending vibrations up into the crowd. It gradually rumbled louder and more violently, something was coming. Then, suddenly the ground cracked and from underground a shoot broke through the surface. However it was like no plant shoot the audience would have seen before, it was huge, at least a meter in diameter. It grew rapidly upwards, it's stem snaking up from the ground, with the occasional enourmous leaf appearing as it grew. It looked as if it was going to burst straight out of the tent but about half way up it stopped. As it stopped, the bud at the top of the huge plant began to unferl. Glimpses of red could be seen as it slowly unwrapped to become a large beautiful striking red flower and there in the centre, with a incredible pose, stood Petals waiting for the show to begin.

She paused for a moment, letting them take in her presence, her smile widening slightly before leaping off the flower without warning. As she fell she did all manner of flips and tricks, seemingly unaware she was accelerating towards the crowd and a very hard floor. She kept free falling until the very last moment when vines shot out of the ground to her, wrapped around her and stopped her just before she hit the ground. She smiled at the brown haired teenage girl she was on a level with and gave her a pretty little purple flower. Their eye met for a moment before she flew back up into the air again.

She swung on the vines, doing a lap of the tent, showering the audience with flowers as she went. She reached the huge flower once more, landed delicatly on it and raised a single finger. As she did this a single white flower far below appeared. She paused then raised her both her arms. The stage errupted with life. Plants of all shapes and sizes came out of nowhere, a vast arrey of colourful flowers, arranged in a swirl you could see from above but more than that, they were moving, entwining. The scene below was constantly changing, all the plants were alive, moving and revealing more wonders by the second.

Then all of a sudden they were gone, all the plants had retracted back into the ground. Even the humungous plant with Petals in it had closed back up and slid back into the ground until all that remained was a single white flower in the middle of the stage.

Backstage the huge bud came up where it had been, and opened up to reveal Ella laying on her back inside it smiling, "I think that'll do"
​

 

As soon as his name way called, four pillars of flames erupted on the stage in a triangle like shape. They stood there for a while until the one in the center of the three points vanished and revealed Flare staring at the audience. He just stood there gazing at the crowd until the pillar to the left of him shot off into the air and landed on his shoulder in the shape of a phoenix.

Let’s see if I remember this. He thought as the bird flew off his shoulder and around the crowd before flying in a sphere like shape, leaving a trail of spars behind it. He made a quick glance at the pillar to the right of him before it shot into the air with the appearance of a dragon following the trail the phoenix had left behind. This went on until the fire bird was in the center of a sphere made by the dragon.

Suddenly, everyone heard a snapping sound which led to the phoenix exploding into a ray of colors and sparks that headed towards the crowd. While they were distracted by this, the phoenix landed in front of Flare and causes the final pillar to fly into it and cause a giant fireball to appeare before the crowd. But it only lasted long enough for Flare to return back stage. If they were lucky, they would've catch a glimpse of him giving the audience on final smile before he, and all traces of his flames vanished.

Once he was backstage, he sighed and said "Fortunately for them I wasn't trying to scare them."

 

♫The Twisted Minded Ringmaster, Amaya Tsukiko♫​

The moment that Flare left the stage, Amaya hurried out after the flames from the last performance had died down. Luckily, Sky knew how to control his power over such a dangerous element and didn't cause too much damage to the stage. Only two acts left and Amaya was certain that half of the audience was just dying to leave. However, she had given them a warning earlier and those who had decided to stay were...well...out of luck. Besides, the last two performances were harmless. Nothing the audience couldn't take, right?

"I hope our little fire weilder didn't scare any one too bad. Especially after such a beautiful performance by Petals" Amaya said, giving the crowd a feint, but kind, smile. "Now then, please welcome, the Doll of our circus, Stitches" she finished, calling for the next performer. After Stitches, would be their last performer. Other than Flandre destroying the place just a little, everything was running quite smoothly.

 

Not bad! Thought Mai. She liked the phoenix and dragon display, likely because of the form her Child takes.His control over flame is incredible. I wonder why he hasn't managed to get out of here. He certainly didn't look happy, in fact, the only one who had looked like they were really enjoying themselves was that insane vampire-like girl. The ringleader came out and she heard the announcement. "Now then, please welcome the Doll of our circus, Stitches!" "A Doll? She exclaimed. Somehow, Mai had a feeling like something important for her was about to happen.

 

​

Her turn was up. She felt sick, her head throbbing. Instead of taking a step forward, she felt her foot drag back. She really didn't want to go out there, especially after those amazing performances. What could she do, really? She was well-aware that most people couldn't pull themselves apart, but who would want to? What was so great about falling apart like a ragdoll? Like a toy? Her lips pressed together and she shifted, staring quietly down at her feet.

She already knew the act. She knew what to do. She just didn't want to do it at all. She wanted to escape far, far away from where she was and standing. Stitches tried once more, in vain, to quell the queasy feeling her body assaulted her stomach with. Her nose worked slowly to calm her beating heart and attempt to cease it's frantic beating. Nothing was working. Finally just steeling her fragile nerves, she shook her head and closed her ruby-hued eyes.

She spread her arms parallel from the ground, slowly the stitches keeping her arms to her shoulders began to come undone. The wires pulling back from the tiny holes that they looped through. The rest of her body was soon too follow. Piece after piece thumped and thudded to the floor as impatiently the audience waited for this bizarre doll to make it's appearance. Her mind could still feel her heart pump wickedly fearful in it's chest cavity.

It's show time.

♥ ​

Her body parts did there well practiced routine flawlessly. No matter where the audience looked. None one could spot her body parts in the crowd of the assortment of toys strewn about the stage. Her head rolled behind a stuffed teddy. Nudging it purposely to hear a gasp here and there from the audience. All about the dimly lit stage, the only things that could be seen were the same dolls and toys moving sporadically. As if flung by an arm was a Jack in the Box tossed from one side of the audience to the other. It's excited monkey landing on it's side, springing out and banging it's golden cymbals together hauntingly as other things began to be twisted, turned or dragged.

Suddenly people began to shriek as the tossing toys ceased there movement. All over the recently hushed and confused audiences, people began to murmur before quickly they too were struck by the mysterious clamp around there ankles. Some whispered it was an odd snake and that there was no doll woman, or that the toys that moved were simply hung on strings and the screamers were just part time actors.

But all talking once again quieted down for two lights began to beam down upon two very patched up limbs of her's. The fingers attached to these limbs dexteriously helped her arms weave through the audience before weaving expertly through the legs of the shocked customers. Once over the guard rail of the bottom floor the two lights above combine into center stage where a hidden Stitches' head resided. With force, these twin arms carefully sweeped and brushed aside all toys assembled before the teddy but three. These remaining three toys(a stuffed Jiraffe. An old Russian Doll. And a stuffed rabbit with ears that were large enough to cover it's face.) were arranged to protect the Stitches' skull from view. With that done, the arms plopped lifelessly before the teddy.

Finally, obscured Stitches began to quickly have her upper body roll towards her arms. Her wrists had fallen arms atop each other, forming a V, perfectly allowing the upper body to park itself. And that is exactly what her upper body did once it barreled it's way past and over flung, dejected children's keepsakes. Spinning and continuing to twirl until, like a spinning top in reverse it spun itself from a horizontal rolling chest to a upright chest before coming to an abrupt halt before her arms apex.

Her body was not complete yet. Her hips pushed and bumped a path to her gathering body parts. Her other body parts seemed devoid of life. As if simply to come centerstage, they'd used all their life's energy. Soon her hips lay before her splayed fingers. On the tips of her toes with a ballerina's grace. Her feet and legs began to swiftly hop, turn and prance past any toy or stuffed animal in it's way before finally coming to rest at her hips. Her feet pointing towards the crowd as she neared her finale.

The room felt hot to Stitches; uncomfortably hot, especially beneath the spotlight. She was grateful for the silence though, despite it seeming to give rise to her noticing the heat. But she had not time to focus on this all right now. Her toes inched forward, slowly as if crawling towards a source of light. Once they were far enough for her legs to lie down and touch the ground, she bade them to do so while at the same time her thighs settled neatly into the groves of her hips. With a skip over her crossed wrists her chest fell backwards dramatically at the same time her arms rose up on the palms of her hands turning themselves until they too could fall chillingly into place at Stitches arm sockets.

The creepy display in the dark lighting was not over. For those up front could clearly see that at the end of each body part, her stitches rose into the air like wavering, dark, thin tendrils. Like shoe strings they began to quickly tug each part into the right place. Lacing themselves up as if it were nothing at all. The decapitated body became whole. It made Stitches give a quiet sigh of relief. There was no joy for her in falling apart at the literal seams, but she would not feel complete until she literally was complete, physically.

The onlookers watched as a neck and head launched itself directly up to the small of her back. Her foot was used to delicately balance and catch her descending head, then again her head was up in the air as she kicked upward. Her arms now firmly attached to her body, caught her head and lowered it purposely slow to her chest. As the black tendrils on her neck reached down into the base that was her chest, she kept her head tilted up towards the ceiling so the crowd could see the stitches work there way back into their proper place. When her neck was nearly situated she flung her arms out wide and dramatically, bending her elbows and knees slightly in a curtsy.

Stitches was whole again.

The lights dimmed and she was gone, once again backstage. She sighed out and shook her head, not saying--or wanting to say--anything at all. ​

​

 

If I was an anime character my draw would have dropped would have been Aki's current thoughts at the moment, but her mind was to broken to even comprehend what she had witnessed.
A...a flower grew from the stage...no. A dragon? No that's not right either. She pouted and furrowed her eyebrows in deep thought. And that girl...was she even freakin alive? I mean her body-
She paused to think about the moving limbs the attached to themselves on their own to form a average looking body (minus the fact that it was far from normal) and shuddered gravely. The fact that it was cold as well due to the gaping hole wasn't helping her with these chills that crawled down her spine. She pulled out her cell phone and gazed at her clock.
How strange...no service.
She then looked at the small girl sitting next to her. She looked absolutely terrified.
"Mommy, I wanna go home," she whimpered.
"Okay sweety...I guess we can go. I'm sure we can come back another day."
Aki blinked in utter confusion.
Home!? How can they go home after those performances? I mean sure, they may be a bit life threatening, but it's all part of the act...or at least I hope. Her thoughts raced rapidly in her head in attempts to piece together these past few performances. Okay, scarlet devil chick, that was most likely not an act considering she blew a hole in the tent. Flower girl...that could be easily broken down as robotics, yet I'm still a bit sketchy. Fire man...pyrotechnic? Hmmm, ragdoll. My guess a bunch of midgets...or at least I hope.
She shuddered. When she tried to think of a logical answer for all of these acts, she couldn't. All except for...
That dang magician. Why is it that I still believe that his was all smoke and mirrors? I mean everyone else is super well...freaky, but him. Instead of pulling a rabbit he pulled a lion. BIG WHOOP. ARGH! Why is it frustrating me so much? She sighed. Well I know what I'm going to do after the show. I'm going to meet this so called "magician" and see his real ways of the circus. I guess then they'll satisfy my curiosity.
She smiled triumphantly to herself and her plan as preparation for next act began.

 

Mai Tokiha, the Flames of Salvation​

"That poor girl!" Mai said sadly. She could see the sorrow on her face, the pain in her eyes. I felt that way when I was forced to fight against Shiho, knowing it would kill my beloved Tate. No! I won't allow anymore pain. Not now, not Ever!!! Mai left her seat and went to find a way backstage.

 

♪The Shadow of the Circus, Night Cross♪​

This was it. She was the final act of the show...the final act in the circus. She was nervous, that much was obvious. Her heart continued to beat at a rapid pace within her chest and her stomach was in knots. But she couldn't keep the crowd waiting any longer. Letting out a shakey sigh, Night raised her hand slightly and gave a slight wave. This caused every light in the circus to shut down, or more like, be enveloped in the darkness that she controlled. Still backstage, Night directed her hand downward towards her shadow that soon grew and took the shape of a circle beneath her.

Another sigh escaped as she let herself sink into the shadow, but not before lifting the darkness away from the spotlight on center stage. The 'portal' soon disappeared from backstage, only to make an appearance under the light as Night emerged from it. Her arms crossed and wrapped around her chest while her hands rested on her shoulders; as though she were a vampire emerging from its coffin. The shadow under her then took back its original shape and, with another wave of her hand, the remaining lights were then lifted from the veil of darkness. After all, she needed the lights to do her performance. Without the light...there would be no shadows.

Kneeling down in front of her shadow, Night reached down as though she was going to pick something up. Instead, her hand sunk down into the darkness, grasping her shadows hand only to come back out, dragging the shadow out of the ground. The surprise gasps from the audience was nothing new to her. But hearing them let her know that she was having some sort of effect. With her shadow fully out of the ground, Night released its hand, stepping back a few inches and the figure mimiced her movement. Reaching out to take the figure's wrist into her grasp (the shadow copying her moves once more) Night easily ripped the figure's arm off. With a slight smirk on her face, she waved her free hand, turning the black appendage in her hand into nothing but a black glob in her palm.

Another flick of her wrist, the shadows of those in the front row soon stretched long enough to reach the stage. With a slight twirl, each shadow then came from the ground taking the form of a human. Night had to stop herself from giving off a darker smirk as she lowered her hand and with that, the extra shadows then became distorted. 'Bones' breaking to make shapes that those of a regular human couldn't pull off without killing themselves. She noticed that this action caused some members of the crowd to cringe or shudder. Looking back at the glob in her hand, Night placed her free hand inches above it and waved once again. The glob then came to life, slowly taking over her hand and forearm as it stretched. The form then developed empty, but angry, eyes and a mouth as though it were yawning.

Throwing her hand out in front of her, the glob like shadow began to travel around the center stage and devour the extra shadows of the crowd, becoming slightly bigger in size. It soon released its dark hold on Night's arm, finishing the last of the shadows before heading into the audience to circle around them and even going through their bodies, leaving a chill behind. As though sensing its 'hunger' Night raised both her hands causing the remaining shadows of the audience to emerge from the ground, just to be eaten by the glob. Once finished with its meal, the shadow turned its attention to Night, whose back was facing it, as though she were unaware. It noticed that her shadow was the only one left. Standing...waiting. Its open mouth turned into that of an excited smile as it quickly approached Night at an unimaginable speed.

Waiting until the shadow was inches away from her, Night quickly turned to face it as she then devoured the glob itself. As she did so, her body began to become enclosed in the darkness until she was covered in it. Only her snow white eyes shining through. The glob of darkness gone, Night made her way back over to her waiting shadow. Still mimicing her movements, the dark figure walked towards her until they were just inches apart. Reaching out once again, Night took the shadows other arm. It was then that the darkness cloaking her started to leave her form to be taken in by the shadow, and with that new darkness, slowly came the reformation of its previously detached arm. Giving her shadow a kind smile, as though apologizing for tearing its arm off, the shadow gave her a slight wave of its own before sinking back into the ground without Night having to move her hand.

A slight smirk before another wave of her hand, the tent became enclosed in darkness again. The only thing shining through was Night's eyes before those too vanished and the tent was soon filled with light once more. The shadows of the audience back in place as though nothing had happened.

Once back stage, Night didn't realize how nervous she was until she leaned against the wall; her breathing slightly rapid thanks to her heart. She wasn't sure if she could ever perform in front of that many people again.

 

Sammy was genuinely amazed with Petal's act. She too, looked quite happy as a performer. Sammy hated interviews and she didn't really want to interrogate the performers about how they felt either. If they were like her, they would lie to her face and say they're fine even if they're not. The next act was pretty hot. Literally. Though she had picked a seat further back from the stage, Sammy could feel the heat on her face from such a distance. She could hardly believe her eyes. There was no way that any sort of fancy pyrotechnics could replicate what this boy was doing. He could truly control fire. Pyrokinesis? I thought that only happened in fiction books and games, she thought with awe. That sealed the deal for her. The performances were real. Nothing was fake. Of course she had told herself this many times, since that's what the rumors had said, but still she inwardly hoped that it was all fake and tricky. That the rumors were false. That magic and mystery didn't exist in this world. I....should be glad right? This is what I had hoped for...right? Her life had been too boring these 18 years, that's why she left. Now she had finally found something mystical. But now her arteries pulsed more noticeably for a different realization. Monsters are real... It was with this realization, that she looked up again to see the next act.

What did she say? A doll? "Aw shiz..." mumbled Sammy. She wasn't a fan of dolls, and if this one moved too, that would make her realization all the more worse. As the act progressed, Sammy became increasingly frightened and creeped out by the display. Being startled by every little movement, imagined or not. When she saw that these...limbs were moving completely on their own, as if out of the Adams' Family show, she couldn't help but wonder as her jaw became slack. They're....moving. On their own. Completely cut off from the central nervous system. They shouldn't be able to. Yet...they are. Why? How? And so her mind cycled those last two questions round and round her head until finally the figure was complete. She hadn't been able to really see the moving stitches, but she could guess that some sort of material was being threaded through all the parts to join them together again. You would have to have reconstructive surgery to join the pieces together to full function again like that. Every single strand of muscle, every blood vessel, every nerve. Wait...blood...there's been no blood at all...why? A...a real life...zombie? Her eyes widened.

Zombies. One of the monsters she feared the most. Her mind became completely taken by the thought of a real life zombie being only a couple feet away from her. She wanted to run. Fast. Though a smaller part of her mind that was still somewhat rational noticed something she hadn't seen in the other performers. Complete and utter sadness. It dominated the mood of the act. But this small part of Sammy's mind knew that though this performer was most likely suffering the most and most likely needed to be taken out of this place pronto, it knew that Sammy herself could not do it. She wasn't mature enough. She wouldn't be able to think of it as anything other than a zombie. A monster. Not human. And no one should even call herself a hero with that sort of attitude. No, she couldn't save that one. I'm sorry...

Miraculously, Sammy recovered out of her mental panic attack in time for the final act. All right. One more and then you can go. Go and buy a Mountain Dew or whatever. The final act was really quite something. It freaked Sammy out so much, she almost wanted to cry when that dark shadow came barreling over eating up everyone's shadows. She wouldn't have been able to save that one either. I am...the worst hero in the history of heroes. Why can't I at least be a little more reliable?

 

(Backstage)
"Whee! That was fun!" Flandre said as she did figure-eights in midair. As she finished another she flew down to Victor, laying upside down with her back arched. "Hey Vicky!" She said with a cheerful grin. "How'd I do? Huh? Huh!?! She began doing midair cartwheels around Victor's head.