Seats - Eastern
The shark rocketed through the air with frightening speed, flinging poor hapless Syed along with it. Trixie continued to unload her bullets into it, stuffing bulging from the damaged seams. Nonetheless, it was moving so fast...

Quite suddenly a massive blade thrust itself through the shark from the inside. Without hesitation it span around, slicing at the fabric skin like it was peeling an apple. The shark's fabric eyes almost seemed to bulge in shock - before it was torn to shreds in midair, exposing the previously trapped Moira who fell with a crash into the seating near to Trixie. Syed went crashing a little closer to the front with a pained gasp.

"Gah! Fuckin' couldn't move in there..." Moira shouted, standing back up as the shreds of shark rained down on them all like confetti. "Tah for the save. Tch..." she looked down at her legs, where deep wounds poured blood thanks to the shark's attack. Well. She doubted she could run anymore. At least they weren't broken, if it were someone less hardy than her they might well have been.

Would it even be possible to distract this woman? She had no idea, what with the rediculous amount of freaky shit going on in here. But she sure as hell couldn't sneak up that easily anymore. "Hey, cheese-kid. Got any ideas?" she limped a little to the side, trying to work her way back around the chairs. She didn't want to get pinned somewhere like here, that's for sure. "Reckon you'd be able to distract her or somethin'?"

Syed lay panting in his chair, his whole body aching and shivvering from the impact and his head swimming from his tiredness. "Too many," he swallowed. "We're outnumbered, there's too many of them. We can't keep fighting these things... what limits does she even have?"

Moira's eyes burned cold, focused entirely on Guinevere. "Who cares. Cover me," she said bluntly. With that she tightened her grip on her greatsword and once more began to limp back towards the stage, trailing blood in her wake.

There were too many, Syed was right. That just meant they had to get to the centre of it all, the cause. Like back in museo, with the skeleton monster. Attack the core.

She'd just have to survive the journey to get there first.

Phillis Circus: Big Top: Aisle:

Lying down on the ground, holding onto his treasured jewels, Eric stifled a tearful sniff, trying to gingerly open his eyes amidst the pain. He could hear the sounds of his new friends fighting all about him, struggling against the mass of toys, dolls and plushies that the strange ringleader, Guinevere was summoning. And here he was, a man like himself, laying down on the ground. It wasn’t right.

And then his eyes shot open as he felt the hands of his silent niece comfortingly fall upon him and embrace him. He then had to struggle twice as hard to keep the tears back, less now from the pain, and more from the concern and kindness his niece was projecting. He couldn’t lie down on the floor like this, not in front of Balti. He had to stand up, fight, and be cool! That was what an uncle did!

“Thanks, Balti,” Eric smiled, patting her shoulder and breaking apart their embrace. “I’ve got this. Just watch ol’Uncle Eric kick some ass!”

It was all over in the blink of an eye and a flash of light. The boulders that were tumbling towards them, threatening to crush them, alongside a fresh swarm of dolls and toys that surged towards them, were all suddenly cut down into pieces, stuffing and fabric flying every which way as Eric’s diamond tipped wires sliced through them all instantaneously like a whirlwind. As felt and stitching fell to the ground he looked up back towards Baltimore, and smiled.

Now for the ringleader… the one who tried to kidnap his dear sweet niece!

---

Stage:

“Get… off… of… me…!” Estelle screamed, thrashing and punching in every direction as the mound of giggling dolls and squeaking plushies continued to overwhelm her body, weighing her down and stabbing her wherever they could. A warm glowing light enveloped her body, and the fatigue and pain that Estelle had suffered up until this point began to slowly diminish. It wasn’t enough to restore her to full health and vitality, but it did the trick in numbing the pain. She could feel her own strength returning to her, and from there it became easier to knock the attacking toys away from her.

But there was so many. Far, far too many. It didn’t matter how many of them she was able to bat and slash away, there was always more attacking. From beneath her feet, above her or from behind… there was only so much she could do…!



“Leader!” A familiar voice shouted as several of the dolls shrieked and plushies squeaked in horror from being batted and swiped away. Coming to Estelle rescue was Xandra, brandishing a long but thin metal pole, swiping away at the dolls and giving them as much breathing room as she could. Giving her the time to jump back up, Estelle hopped to her feet and reignited the flame in her Fireblade, swiping at and destroying yet more of the toys, clearing the space more easily around them.

“Xandra are you… are you okay?” Estelle briefly looked to her haggard friend, now resting her body with the support of the pole. Estelle continued to destroy as many of the toys she could.

“No, not really…” Xandra smiled. “I’m going to need a new arm after this…”

“Don’t force yourself!” Estelle shouted back, slicing another plush in two vertically. “Get back and get some rest, okay?”

“No, I can’t,” Xandra shook her head. “Everyone’s hurt… but you’re all still fighting. I can’t run or hide!” The metallurgist, catching her breath then swiped the pole about her again, the pole growing in length but shrinking in width as she channelled her metallurgy to alter the metal. With the extended length she could swat enemies away that were greater in distance from her.

Suddenly a hulking smash rang in between Estelle and Xandra. The doll which Guinevere had infused with more and more of her magic, brandishing the metal barrier that Syed had earlier formed and now using it as a weapon, had swung it down at the ground in front of them, nearly missing a gasping Estelle. She refocused and steeled herself, lifting her Fireblade in front of her as Xandra turned and concentrated on protecting her friend's back. Estelle charged forward, swinging her sword at her foe.



“I don’t know about running, but hiding sounds like a good idea to me…” Muttered Lucien, bunking down behind some torn chairs. He clutched onto his torn and ravaged chest, his breathing hard and forced as pain awashed him from where those cheeky toys had raked him. Hopefully Amy would help him out sooner or later.

Looking over his cover, his eyes found Lute and Aria, being besieged by flying guitars (?!) and a giant stuffed bear! If the bear wasn’t after them to make mincemeat of them, it would have actually looked quite cute. Oh, who was he kidding, it still looked cute.

Closing his eyes and concentrating what little was left of his magic, he summoned into being another of his animals. With the rest of the animals and that weirdo Vance down, there was nothing around to make him lose control of his animals again. And this time… this time he swore it would never happen ever again.

A small imp materialised in front of him, and sharpening its claws in front of itself, it let out a sneer laugh and then began racing as quickly as it could on its tiny, spindly legs to where Aria and Lute were. It hopped in the air, slicing several of the stuffed guitars in half.

---

Pit:

Marcus didn’t know what exactly had happened to the giant hand that was poised to slam into him above, curiously following after it being stricken by some invisible foe and batted away to a far seating aisle, but he was grateful for the reprieve. Amy and Crispin had managed to escape unscathed (to a point) from their own attacking adversaries, except one of the giant sticky hand, still alive and moving, wielded by a bouncing toy monkey, had curled into a fist and swung itself towards him and Amy. From the incredible impact and crater it had formed in the ground from its slam, the thing no doubt bore incredible weight… they had to avoid an impact no matter what.

Marcus thrust his arm out in front of him, imploring more of his control of wind to create a buffeting gale of wind slowing the swinging fist down. It didn’t still it, merely only slow it, however… it gave him enough time for his next spell.

His use of his secondary magical talent had been minimal so far. His polish and skill with it was still basic and rudimentary at best, in comparison to his far more practiced control of air and wind. For Marcus, using Ice magic required the handy use of nearby water to assist him, with most of the Pride’s battles thus far lacking a steady supply of that. He could still form ice, as he was doing now to hopefully trap the giant fist… but it required far more of his magical stamina to achieve. There were perhaps better options, but in the small time they had, this truly was the best option, to ensure the devious monkey and his giant fist would freeze still.

The fist slowed and stilled considerably… but still charged towards them, the monkey not wanting to stop. Its brethren had been stopped, but he wouldn’t…!

“Amy,” Marcus called out, giving a sideways glance towards Crispin. The brawler was too busy vomiting and fighting not to pass out to be of any further help this second. “Could you…?”

Amy sneered back at the giant hand, as her gem began to pulse and glow, a yellow light snaking out from within. “Oh yeah I can…”

Phillus Circus-Big Top

Aria and Trixie sprinted towards Lute's way to try and free the guy from the gooey clutched of the bomb, but they were stopped in their tracks.

"Trixie!"

Aria gasped as the girl was sent flying by the beat up bear, not having expected it to come back after the beaten Lulu had given it. Yet there it was, claws glinting as stuffing dripped from it's head and a peculiar black glow surrounding its body. So focused on it that she barely noticed the guitars flying towards her, sent hurtling to the ground as one dove into her side. She managed to tumble sideways in time to avoid the second, gripping her side in pain. As the guitars flew towards her once more, she grabbed the handle of one as it flew by and sent it hurtling towards the bear. The bear roared in anger as it staggered back, claws making short work of the toy guitar before advancing again.

She could see Lute still struggling behind the bear, overwhelmed by those creepy dolls and trying to wrest himself free without getting stuck further in the much bomb. The illusionist wanted to see whether Trixie was alright, but the guitar flying at her face didn't give her the chance to scan the room. This time she caught it again, swinging it as it one would swing a bat at the bear and the rest of its brethren. Her own weapons had a short reach, and she really didn't want to get near the claws if she didn't have to. The toy in her grip wriggled angrily, trying to throw off her aim but somehow she managed to fend off the stuffed beast as it continued to attack.

The combined assault of the toys was too much, however, and the woman was quickly becoming overwhelmed. Just as she had braced herself as a guitar made for her while she struggled against the bear, a high pitched cackle was heard and the guitar fell to the ground in pieces. A few more followed before she noticed the imp darting to and fro, her hopes lifting. So Lucy was still alive and kicking, was he?

She forced the bear back, ignoring the ache in her shoulder as she tried to get a good whack in. Hopefully with Lucy's help they could finally bring down this sad lump of murderous stuffing.

Big Top – East Stage

Though getting stuck in muck wasn’t the best moment of his life, the virtuoso persisted to think that there was still a bright side to this dilemma. The screaming from the dolls and the arrival of new toys contributed to more noise within the tent, sounds which Delilah was only too happy to use to obliterate the creepy little manikins inching too close for comfort. Both of his companions did their part to free him from the trap, although their efforts were cut by the resurrection of the mangled bear plushie. A quick glance at Trixie showed that it didn’t seem as if the toy had wounded her, though if Lute and Aria didn’t move fast the same won’t be said of them.

For the most part, Lute’s injured arm had started to grow numb so he resorted to using only his capable arm to defend himself from the dolls. They were starting to overwhelm him up to the point that he was starting to lose his balance again. Was it just him or were these things stronger this time around? How could one woman command this extent of power? Could he even hope to fight against such might?

‘You overestimate the lady,’ Delilah’s disapproving hum faded as a loud bolt of noise erupted from the virtuoso’s hand, stunning and destroying the lesser dolls clinging to him whilst the larger ones staggered back. He stepped out of the muck, very much trying to ignore the disgusting sensation of his sticky bare feet absorbing all of the dirt the floor had to offer, and headed after Aria. As he was running towards the illusionist, a fast and small creature intercepted his path; Lute went all “Ahhh!” and attempted to kick it away, but it dodged at the last second and hurtled after the flying guitars. “Oh. It’s an ally, I guess,” Lute muttered. No time to think about it. Aria was facing the bear and although she had skill with daggers and light weaponry, he knew she wouldn’t last as far as she would without her usual deck and her wounds.

Lute picked up a dislodged rod of metal from the floor and charged at the bear, flanking it while it was busy fighting with Aria. With a swift upwards slash, more stuffing poured out of its seams and it even seemed to deflate a tiny bit. Its attention was directed to the virtuoso, however, just as he expected. “Come at me, Mr. Cuddles!” He growled and adopted a defensive stance as it roared back at him. Geez, that black aura sure was intimidating. By the sidelines, Lucien’s imp assisted in keeping plushies off of Aria and he knew it would only be a short time before both were free enough to help him. In the meantime, he just had to keep it busy. Lute threw a feint to the right and when the bear followed with a sideward swipe of its paw, the virtuoso charged and threw himself and his pole against its torn body, and there was the fainted noise of stuffing and who knows what swishing around and resettling.

Phillis Circus: Big Top - Pit

A loud snap bore through the room. What looked like glass shards began to rain down upon the three in the pit - or rather, like a rainy background, like the eye of the storm, pittering and pattering against the ground beneath them. And there in the center stood Amy, her glare transfixed upon Guinevere's own. Her body glowed with the light of her whip.

The staring contest was interrupted with a loud "I got it!" echoing from one of the seats. Before Guinevere could even look to see the rascal's taunt, a parade of bullets burst in her direction. Guinevere turned away, bringing an arm to shield her face from the nuisance. The bullets did all but tear straight through bits and pieces of her dress. Like her own dolls, a cotton-like substance poked out of the fluffier bits nearby her shoulders while other seams tore open with ease.

Guinevere didn't have to see what was becoming of her gown to understand that it was being torn up. Fuel to the fire. "How dare you! How dare you!" Though much less now than before, many toys still continued to swarm the air and ground alike. They would flock in on their opponents once they had a good angle, but the guilders were all capable enough to handle them on their own. They may have been power-buffed, but in the end, they were still children's playthings - and bound to break by that very nature.

Their weakness didn't stop Guinevere from trying. Amidst the bullets and the incoming Moira, she held her hand out in their direction. Many of the weaker aerial plushes, such as the ducks that flocked around Marcus earlier as well as small dolphins, swans, flying squirrels, and even useless plastic magician girls - they suddenly floored themselves nearby Trixie and began to stack on one another. Trixie only noticed it in her peripherals once her bullets ran dry. Before she could even make out exactly what it was - a fluffy multicolored rhino-shaped figure - it charged her way, and rammed into her with its hardened felt horn. The prankster flew back with a pained cry, landing in an aisle.

Amy called out to her in shock. This only caused Guinevere to smile. Despite all rage in her poise and visage, her voice suddenly softened back to what it was before. "Oh... it's her. It's the little one, isn't it? It must be. How cute."



With Aria and Lute currently free from opposition, Lucien's imp dashed away from them towards the screaming prankster. It didn't even get close, however; it was knocked back suddenly by a cretin of similar shape and structure such as itself. A fluffy gargoyle with really huge eyes that seemed to pop right out of its face. Two others had been swarming around it, but they quickly chased after the rhino now that the imp was momentarily distracted.

The two gargoyle plushes latched onto the rhino's "shoulders" as it followed up after Trixie. And their bodies practically absorbed right into its fluffy exterior, though the wings still jutted out. They morphed together to form larger wings - and now the fallen prankster had an angry winged rainbow rhino bulleting after her.

---

Aisle

Baltimore jumped up and clapped her hands in glee as Eric made his recovery. He was so cool. Of course, the celebration was cut short from Amy's sudden scream. The mime girl turned in time to see Trixie crashing into an aisle, close by to the duo. She moaned in pain and struggled to get up for a moment, but otherwise she looked okay. Except, of course, for the angry rhino coming its way.

The niece nodded to Eric and dashed in Trixie's direction - setting herself up right between the two figures. Baltimore held her hands out together, palms facing the beast, before she threw them out to her sides in a swift but fluid motion. Trixie groaned as she sat herself up, catching the girl doing this. She cried out and jumped to her feet as the beast drew near - but instead of rolling them both over, it suddenly recoiled and turned away its head. The handful of little plushes composing it began to murmur and cry out in high pitched squeals all at once.

But what neither of them expected was that another large creature composed of many tiny ones had been following after it. Like a six-legged big cat, it pounced right over the beast and smashed the invisible wall in with its head. Baltimore's eyes widened, and she was quickly swept away by two of its claws. She landed to the side with a thud.

Fortunately Trixie had already gotten to her feet with her guns reloaded by this time, and she began to run away. Very fast. But the alien big-cat was faster. As it drew nearer, and nearer, circling around the inner perimeter and drawing closer to the pit, it opened its mouth and a long pitchforked tongue made of plushes extended at her. She cried out for help.

The rhino took flight instead of stampeding after the duo. From onstage, Guinevere let out a soft, soft chuckle.

---

Aisle

While all of this transpired, Moira's incoming footsteps did not go unnoticed. The fourth, final, and largest of the cheaply-crafted gargoyle plushes (they must have been something similar that got mutated through Guinevere) swept down in front of her, aiming to pick her up. But she had noticed it in time and avoided it. It soared back up afterwards and spun around. But instead of flying back towards her, it flew up and into the overhead rhino's stomach. Another set of wings emerged from its backside.

Like a bird, it soared about freely in the sky despite itself and its weight. Its forged mouth opened up, its insides revealing a kaleidoscope of colors much like its outer 'skin' and it... suddenly began to spew out cannonball-like tiny plushes at many of the guilders. Including Syed, Lucien, Eric, Aria, and Lute. However, given the big top's height, it was much too far for any of them to reach physically.

And from on stage, two giant sticky hands suddenly flew Moira's way - one above and one below. Crispin cried for her to watch out, as he was too far to step in on time.

---

Onstage (Center)

Standing before Estelle and Xandra, the big blonde dolly seemed to grow and grow. But its form itself wasn't actually expanding - rather, many of the various scattered plushes began to latch themselves onto various parts of it. Including three more monkeys with those giant sticky hands, two of which was lashed out towards Moira while the rest of the dolly's body maintained its attention on the girls before it. Its arms now were both completely wrapped up in the sticky hand material like they were new gloves, with the monkeys clamped within the dolly's fists, crying out the way genuine monkeys do. The third monkey had plunged itself into the dolly's head and shot its sticky hand at Moira from there. It wasn't long before all three were submerged beneath other dolls and plushes latching onto the dolly.

The critter crawlers all slithered up its back. As the dolly swept at Estelle and Xandra with the metal barrier (held by the sticky hand), the critters' formation enlarged exponentially, forming writhing tentacle-like tendrils on its back. Guinevere, who was between both those two girls and Aria and Lute, stepped back; her smile never left her lips. At once, all six tendrils lashed out towards Lute and Aria, charging at them like torpedoes.

Both Aria and Lute had successfully defeated the plush zombie bear, with help from Lucien's imp to flatten those inflatable guitars. But would they react in time to the incoming missiles - both the doll's tendrils and the rhino's projectiles?

---

Pit

Amy took a deep breath, her shock now leaving nothing more than widened, angry eyes. She twirled her staff, her body glowing an instant shade of warm gold. So too did Crispin's, Lucien's, and Xandra's bodies.

---

Offstage
Mayhem ensued. That was the best way of putting it. Toys began to rain down from the sky at speed, although Moira mostly ignored that. She simply continued to limp forward, internally cursing at her lack of speed, her eyes focused on Guinevere.

She only took her eyes off her when she spotted those wierd, jelly-like hands. "Tch..." she hissed, readjusting her grip on her sword. Well, jumping out of the way was no longer an option. She stepped forward, spinning her sword and digging it's point into the ground just before it struck, blocking the blow. She didn't even flinch, her cold grey eyes only becoming more fierce. "I'm getting sick of your shit," she hissed to nobody in particular. Her eyes then darted to the second...

There was a loud clang, and the second suddenly found itself impaled into the floor by a still sparking pole. "You'd better hurry up, Moira!" Syed panted, looking thoroughly worse for wear at this point.

"Just do that stupid laser thing!"

"It's a railgun, and I need lightning to do that! Or at least a really powerful energy source!" His hands constinued to move in rapid yet fluid movements, as he refocused his attention at the skies and the abomination flying within, carefully dodging it's projectiles. The thing was flying so damned high that nobody could reach it.

Nobody but him. He closed his eyes for a moment and breathed through his nose to calm himself.

He threw his hands forward, sending electricity flashing through the air in a maintained stream. While the electricty struck true, the sheer size of the thing meant it did little but cause those toys in the amalgamation to cry out in those awful creepy voices of theirs as it continued to fly.

But he was never aiming to shoot it down anyway. No, he was aiming to overheat the thing, to burn it down. To ensure it stayed down. After all, to create a flame, all you need is a spark. A really big spark. He just had to hope everyone stayed away from it. Those tiny dolls continued to be fired from it, although he kept moving to avoid getting hit. Not that it stopped them scurrying towards his feet none-the-less.

Moira meanwhile swore quite loudly as she found the hand had in fact stuck to her sword. What the fuck, this shit was sticky too?! How the shit was she supposed to get it off?!

Well, whatever. The thing was kind of attached to that horrible massive dolly mostrosity on the stage. She may as well make herself useful.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" she screamed, putting all her force into wrenching her sword - and the sticky hand - back, unbalancing the giant doll thing in the process. Maybe, just maybe, it would give the others an opening.

Phillis Circus: Big Top: Aisle

With surprising agility and speed, graced from a magical enchantment blessed from Marcus, Eric’s body began to move, racing through the damaged and ruin circus’ seating, sprinting around and hurdling over several discarded seats that lay in his way, deftly dodging flying plush cannonballs splattering against the ground in the spot where he had once been. He said nothing as he moved forwards, working on doing his best to dodge the incoming projectiles, and get as close as he possibly could to that which he was chasing. And then, after getting close enough and at the right possible angle…

He swiped his right hand out to the side, a wire shooting out from within his sleeve and sharply snaking about and through the air, coiling around and digging into the strange six-legged alien cat toy beast’s pitch forked tongue, with the diamond tip of his wire stabbing through its very centre. The sudden action suddenly stopped the beast’s rampage after Trixie, and it turned in confusion at the surprising strength that held it in place. Trixie, gasping and huffing as she skidded to a stop to watch what had happened to cause the beast to stop its chase, gasped in surprise at the site before her. Who knew the weird poopie man could do that?

“You hurt my niece!” Eric yelled, bracing his body and flexing his muscles as he channelled his strength throughout his arms and into the wire trapping the giant horrible plush amalgamation. “You’re gonna pay for that!!”

And with that, the beast was suddenly wrenched free from the ground upon which it stood, and forced to revolve about in a spinning circle with Eric as its centre, over and over again. Trixie gasped as Eric strained to pour more and more speed and momentum into it, genuinely impressed and raising her twin uzis up into the air to pelt the hapless beast with bullet after bullet.

---

Onstage

“Leader!” Xandra cried out, backtracking in horror at the sudden grotesque transformation greeting the oversized doll attacking them. As more and more toys, plushes and dolls swarmed to the foe, latching themselves onto it and making it grow more and more sinister and powerful, Estelle and Xandra could only watch in disbelief at what now stood before them. A foe so large and unbelievably powerful that it was able to simultaneously attack her and Xandra, Moira and Syed, and Lute and Aria, as separated as they all were. How on Ddaear could such an abomination exist?!

“I see it, Xan, I just… I don’t believe it…!” Estelle raised her sword up in front of her, ready to meet this new challenge. Xandra nodded alongside her, taking in a deep, lungful of breath as a warm rejuvenating sensation flowed throughout her body, numbing the pain that had been coursing through her thanks to Amy. With a new agility buff graced to them from Marcus, they stood ready more then ever to fight!

“Now!” Estelle yelled, as the doll glanced at the two with a menacing eye, swiping its metal barrier at them like a heavy, gigantic club. Xandra planted one end of her pole against the ground, using it to assist her to vault over the sweeping attack, as Estelle jumped up and onto the club, crouching as low as she could to maintain her balance. The doll almost seemed to act surprised by the unpredictable attack, as Estelle raced up the metal’s remaining length and, lifting her ignited fireblade up overhead, drove it downwards to stab the doll’s hand.

---

Aisle

Like ‘rock-em, sock-em robots’, Lucien’s imp and the plush gargoyle it faced off against traded blow after blow at each other, swiping claws and boxing each other over and over with the hope of winning. The gargoyle plush wasn’t too powerful or dangerous, more of a distracting annoyance then anything, and so it was that Lucien’s imp, rearing back and charging its fist for a swift, deadly uppercut, finished the match by punching its damaged head off, stuffing and stitching spilling everywhere in its fall.

The imp grinned and bounced from side to side as it laughed, quite pleased with itself and pointing down at its fallen foe whilst blasting an unsporting raspberry at it, until its head jolted to the side once, then twice, then a third. The imp looked around in confusion, at the way it had felt like it’d been hit, but not able to see anything. What was happening?

And then Lucien’s real body blinked, reawakening to his surroundings. His head and chest really hurt… what gives?

And then he recoiled with a sharp yelp as another flying plush projectile smacked the ground in front of him. Looking up, Lucien rubbed his eyes in disbelief at the flying winged rainbow rhino thing, and then jumped onto his feet and booked it as fast as he could for some better cover whilst holding his head.

There had to be some inappropriately stupid joke that was just perfect for this situation, but he was far too busy trying to avoid death by cannon plushes to say anything.

Phillis Circus: Big Top - Aisle

A mutated cry sounded off from up high. The winged rhino that danced out of everyone's reach had been stricken, its airborne course erratic now and threatening to fall. Its three set of wings were unharmed and still able to beat in good rhythm, but with the hole forming in its stomach, it was in no condition to continue. Many of the zapped plushes had actually jumped off from the rhino, their fluffy skins sizzling. Because the rhino was shot while it was overhead both Lute and Aria, the divebombing screaming fluffballs fell in their direction.

Before the rhino could complete another round in the air, its body suddenly jerked to the side - once, twice, thrice, before it came crashing down.

From another aisle, Baltimore drew nearer to Syed her fists outstretched before her with one in front of another. She yanked them back, reached forward with one hand, then yanked them back again. The rhino's body jerked with each tug; an invisible rope had lassoed around its body. Once it landed, Baltimore loosened her grip on the rope - just in time to avoid the rhino pulling back on it. Baltimore let out a silent sigh and began to craft something else; the invisible rope had vanished away completely though it was unseen to begin with.

It brushed its foot against the floor and, like a real rhino, it began charging after its assailant. And as it ran, it suddenly split itself into two halves: top and bottom. The bottom half composed entirely of feet and stomach ran at a disturbingly fast pace, while the top half maintained speed with its wings. The head on the top half reared back and fired another cannonball at Syed.

In response to this, Baltimore basically dived in front of Syed from the side and swung her fists downward. The cannonball instantly shot back towards the beast's top half, though it missed the body completely. Invisible tennis rackets are pretty cool. Once she landed, she rolled out of harm's way and out of the beast's sight beneath some still-stable chairs. There she began manipulating another object with her hands.

The split beast was falling apart even with its dual launch towards the mage. Any powerful hit would obliterate the plushes comprising it beyond further usage.

---

Onstage (Center)

The combined forces of Estelle and Xandra had led one of the dolly's hands to be destroyed. As Estelle fell to the stage, the dolly tittered and tottered, quickly losing balance and control. The hand fell straight to the floor, withering up quickly. No matter, it still had two more hands, and that was all that was necessary to defeat these rascals. At least, that's what Guinevere hoped for. Moira's yank on the other sticky hand had indeed caused the dolly to topple over; the tug combined with Estelle's impact was too much to stand.

It fell onto its side, though quickly sat back up; the top half of its body bended crookedly in order to face Estelle and Xandra while its feet extended in a different direction. And suddenly, it began to rise from the ground without any further movement. Throughout the girls' movements, more and more of the broken toys nearby had tottered their way up the stage and towards the dolly. Some even began to float, though they were inanimate otherwise.

They continued to build and build on the dolly's legs. Before Estelle and Xandra could follow up, the dolly threw its remaining sticky hand at them. However, instead of extending their way as expected, a second smaller hand flew out from its palm instead, this time composed entirely of busted plushes and stuffings. It fired one, two more, both of which crashed to the floor before reaching their targets. Rather than disintegrating, they continued to act on their own and wormed their way towards the two girls. The fired, missile-like hand buzzed around the girls, while the hands below made for the girls' legs.

Soon enough, the big dolly was back up in the air again, its body mostly the same... except for its horse-bodied torso. Now it was a giant dolly centaur of all things, even bigger than before yet still as rainbowed and fluffy as a child's plaything. Aside from its broken porcelain face, of course.

---

Pit

Thanks to Eric and Trixie's combined attacks, the alien-cat monster had been obliterated - it practically exploded into hundreds of tiny little dolls comprising it, all screaming and wailing as the split rhino had. Trixie let out a loud sigh and turned to the three in the pit. "Whoa, that was a close one, wasn't--"

A strong force of wind blew from the entire left side of the tent; Trixie recoiled from this, shielding her eyes from the flying tiny particles. All the fallen dolls and plushes from the alien-cat began to reform, amalgamating together in the air. As they mixed, they began to spin, and spin, and spin...

"--it."

...a tornado! Being on one end of the tent, it immediately set off in both Lucien's and Eric's direction (with the former being much closer). Its rotation was rapid but not atrocious; the guilders towards the center and the opposite end of the tent felt its breezes, but nothing strong enough to break their balance.

It was all or nothing for this collection of dolls now. The smaller bits and pieces were already flying off from the overall tornado, unable to keep with the spin. Many of them ripped up within the tornado, so it looked like a conglomeration of stuffing. Rapidly spinning stuffing.

Wait... something was off. But it moved too quickly for anyone to catch it on time. The stuffing tornado had actually split from its bottom third, which formed into a rapid spinning ball. It then flung at Trixie, knocking her closer to the pit, before moving on after Moira like a baseball. Just as she turned to see it however, it flew to the roof - and straight out of it.



Crispin had slid under and uppercutted the flying bitch in time. Once he felt eyes on him, he blew on his fist and tried to be all nonchalant. "I played baseball while I was in school. They kicked me out because I was cheating."

Another rumble took hold of the tent floors, with Trixie screaming out before being cut off abruptly. A giant sticky hand pressed down on her, capturing her entire tiny body in its palm. Her face, her screaming open mouth was stuck to the sticky palm's surface.

And then, from onstage - a whispered "Excellent."




"No!" Amy cried out as she rushed towards the hand, light-whip still brandished. Before she could even attempt to whip the thing entrapping her friend, she was blown away suddenly. The flying missile hand buzzing around onstage flew after Amy after its business there was done. It then continued to blast around like a rocket gone out of control, going after a new target now.

The dolly-centaur had used one of remaining two its sticky hands to attack and pin down Trixie while the rest of its body ran rampant across the stage to attack Estelle and Xandra. The tentacles along its back whipped and lashed with each step.

Trixie had quite a knack for being suffocated.

---

Phillus Circus-Big Top

A... Rainbow flying rhino.

Aria stared for a moment, wondering if this circus fiasco was really just one strange dream. The squirming guitar in her hand felt rel enough, and the ripping sound that came from Lulu's direction brought her out of her little daze. The plush bear had been dismantled by the Virtuoso yet again, it's furry body splatting into the muck left by the bomb and stuck, wriggling here and there but ultimately unable to escape the trap.

The illusionist quickly made her way towards the muck puddle, careful not to get caught herself in the stickiness. Before she could reach a hand out to pull out the poor stuck man, a thud to the back of her head nearly sent her tumbling. Luckily it was strangely soft, but when Aria raised her head to see exactly what had hit her she gave a small shriek at the incoming rain of plushies before ducking as a giant sticky hand flew over her head, a few errant plushies stuck on it. She could see more coming, turning and promptly tackling Lute out of the muck as two more hands slapped down where she had been. The two tumbled to the ground, all around them falling screeching and singed plushies courtesy of Syed.

Aria's eyes followed the sticky hands back to their origin, gaping at the monstrous toy that Estelle and Xan were facing. Dear Gods above, how much magic did that woman have? She gritted her teeth as she and Lulu avoided yet another slap from a sticky hand, grabbing a nearby sizzling plush by its unburnt leg and pressing it into the annoying appendage. A sizzling sound was hurt before the hand whipped back as if in pain, trying to dislodge the toy and retreating back towards its main body.

"Can't stand the heat?" Aria hissed out a taunt, getting rather fed up with this whole fight and kicking another plushie, this one actually having caught on fire at the waving hands. Luckily the sticky limbs were the only things she and Lulu had to worry about right now; the toys that had been dropped by the rhino being to busy twitching and sizzling. A few more intact ones dragged themselves slowly towards the two, but hardly posed a threat right now.

Aisle
"It's time to rest." Syed gave Balti a thankful abeit suprised look as she dissapeared, before readjusting his stance. The girl was full of suprises, that's for sure. He raised his hands, taking a deep breath. "Everything has it's limit."

His eyes flashed that brilliant yellow. "Hey, Balti. Let's get rid of this thing together."

Once more she didn't respond, something which Syed at this point had just chalked down to a shy disposition. Although in many cases actions speak louder than words do - such as the top-half of the rhino thing was strangely pulled so it crashed into the bottom.

Perfect.

---

Meanwhile, Moira pushed her sword into the ground as to prevent the doll thing snatching it off her as well as to teather the doll thing in place. Then with a snarl, she looked up to the monstrosity. Goddamn creepy ass shit attacking them with some dolly likeness of their ally.

She huffed through her nose, before reaching forward and grabbing the sticky hand's arm. Eeuuuurgh this was fucking disgusting damn sod this.

She began to pull, slowly hauling the giant doll thing closer and closer to herself. "Come on you freaky piece of shit!" she yelled. Muscles tensed, and with all her strength she pulled...

...And in doing so actually managed to lift the doll into the air, swinging it around once - thankfully Syed ducked in time - before driving it crashing back into the ground with one hell of a crunch. Probably not the most pleasant experiance for the suffocating Trixie, but Moira was pretty low on options here.

She just had to hope the others took advantage.

---

Suddenly there was a loud boom, as both pieces of the rhino were struck by the heavily electrified cannon Max was shot from at the beginning of the preformance. The electricity was the final blow, incinerating the remaining toys which made up the rhino... while the blow of the cannon itself served to smack what remained of it back towards himself.

And towards Balti, who had leapt out once more out from the chairs with her hands held out as if gripping something invisible. And with her pose...

The destroyed rhino was struck by her mimed giant baseball bat, and sent flying back leaving a trail of smoke and embers and ozone from it's charred remains. A home run!

Big Top – Onstage (East)

There was just a certain amount of things he saw before Lute doubted his sanity, and the sight of that flying rainbow monstrosity just exceeded the limit. The virtuoso did a double take as the bear sunk to the ground in defeat, nearly letting go of the trusty steel pipe he had used as a weapon when the… the thing opened its cavernous maw and shot missiles at them. He wasn’t quite as lucky as Aria and got at least three small dolls rapidly hitting his face in a row- ratta ratat rat- before Lute had the sense of mind to start swinging the rod like it was a baseball bat. Pow! Good hit! A white rat plushie squealed all the way home as Lute sent it flying to the side and it was closely followed by the shattered remains of a porcelain doll.

But wait, there’s more! Now there were burning plushies falling from the skies! Mimicking their terrified screams with a less dignified one of his own, Lute skipped away from the area while spewing out expletives as the flaming toys grazed his skin. He was pulled away by Aria as a bunch of sticky hands came towards them, with one even managing to nab the poor virtuoso by- oh, the horror- his pants. “Ugh! Gods above, this is going to be such a pain on laundry day!” He snarled and started hitting- and when that didn’t work, stabbing- the back of the sticky hand with the sharp end of his metal rod. The hand recoiled after nearly getting severed at the wrist, although it wasn’t able to escape before the virtuoso delivered one last stab, which resulted in his weapon getting stuck in what remained of the substance as the other half retreated back to the doll mutant. “Geez, it’s like a bad fantasy-themed nightmare,” He quipped as Moira slammed- oh Gods, was that Trixie in there!?- that weird doll back onstage, the loud crash resounding throughout the tent alongside the sound of Lucien screaming as he ran from the tornado.

“You know, my power’s really useless against this kind of thing so I don’t know why I’m trying to help you!” Lute ran towards the summoner with his feet aching every step of the way. As he did so, he snagged his foot at an exuberant amount of stuffing from the destroyed plushies and- screw it, there weren’t tornadoes in Thaum so the hell if he knew what to do with one- picked up a handful of it all. Although Lute chucking stuffing at the cyclone was a sight to behold, it didn’t seem to have any effect except scaring poor Lucien more, seeing that most of the virtuoso’s lobs ended up in his face rather than at the approaching calamity.

And just then, just when Lucien had pretty much resigned to his fate- death by plushie- the tornado split again, forming yet another considerably large whirling ball of fluff. Instead of charging at the summoner, it flew at Lute instead and bowled him over. However… It didn’t fly off again towards another unsuspecting guilder; the virtuoso had plunged his hands into the voluminous creation like it was a hand warmer and rolled along with it, much to Delilah’s chagrin. Using the orb’s momentum, Lute pulled himself up and- “Wait!”- ran after the ball. It pretty much crashed into the defeated doll and spilt over its gooey tendrils, solving whatever problems they might have with the sticky hands in the future… Maybe.

Phillis Circus: Big Top: Aisle

“Aw geez! This isn’t funny anymore!” Lucien wheezed, staggering as much as he could to try and stay away from the approaching vortex of toys, dolls and plush spinning in his direction. His body hurt far too much to be able to properly run, even with Amy’s healing buff. He had suffered severe wounds from that strange flying plush that the tiny mute girl had saved him from, and after this, if there even was an after, he’d need a big, long rest…

Again, if there even was an after. The tornado of toys continued to rampage behind him, snatching up more and more of their fallen breathren and spinning them around the hope of battering Lucien to death. Even some of the chairs that had been broken from their moorings clattered about in its path, and was picked up by it, to spin in rotation along with the dolls. It was all getting too much, and Lucien… Lucien was at the end of his rope. He tripped over a piece of metal and fell harshly to the floor, panting and gasping. He turned back around, hoping that his friend Lute might be able to help him, but the pair had been separated with the tornado’s splitting.

“Guys?” Lucien meekly called out. “Any help here, guys? Guys?”

The tornado was inches upon, its spinning maelstrom mere seconds away from pummelling Lucien over and over…! But then just before it could attack the exhausted summoner, the vortex suddenly stopped, and every single toy, doll and plush that had been a part of it stopped still, suspended in the air, the winds that it had been generating completely immobilised. Replaced instead by much smaller winds buffeting and trapping the diminutive, light weight toys, all courtesy of:



“A tornado?” Marcus chuckled beneath a brow of sweat, as he focused his two outstretched, glowing arms on the vortex remnants in front of Lucien. "Using a tornado against us is almost as amusing as one of Lucien's jokes. Almost." It took a lot of power and careful concentration to be able to so precisely weave and manipulate the winds like this, but fortunately for Marcus he didn’t need to maintain his spell too long.



Piercing from the belly of a stuffed toy and destroying its squeak, two razor thin, diamond tipped wires shot forth throughout the air, snaking and zigzagging about to puncture and stab every other remaining toy, doll and plush that had formed the tornado, ending with the ball of stuffing that had been its centre, resulting in a diorama of ruined, suspended toys. Eric’s wires then suddenly snapped taut into two fully straight lines, the stabbed and punctured dolls and toys resembling a skewered shishkebab, finally ending with them all slowly falling to the ground like dominos as Eric’s wires recoiled back into his wrists.

Lucien gave the man a thumbs up and grin, and Eric obliged the gesture.

---

Phillis Circus: Big Top: Onstage

Meanwhile, the stuffed rhino monster had been soundly defeated, and the giant hulking, grotesque dolly had been bowled over to its side by Moira, with a helpful follow up attack delivered by Lute. This was their opportunity.

“Go!” Xandra shouted, using her metallurgical powers to extend the metal rod she wielded to horizontally push the two sticky hands back, the ends of the pole sharpening into fine blades which delved into their bodies with a squishy stab. In order to prevent her weapon from being trapped within their body, she automatically concentrated on reducing the length of the metal pole, reshaping it in her hands and then extending it again vertically to stab and stop the missile like hand flying above them. As Xandra used what remained of her stamina, Estelle shot forward with the last dredges of her own, charging towards the fallen dollie, at the trapped Trixie, and at the gloating woman Guinevere behind them. With a trail of fire following behind her, Estelle leapt up and jumped towards the dollie, swinging her sword down at the giant beast.

Her flaming lunge and slash pierced straight through and severed the centaur doll’s front legs, making its ability to stand up again impossible. After doing that, she flipped forwards again, this time exchanging a vertical swing for a horizontal one aimed at the sticky gelatinous arm of the hand trapping Trixie. Her enflamed sword dug in deep, and effortlessly slashed the thing in two. Frantic slashes were cut at the hand trapping Trixie, being careful to dig in deep enough to break the prankster’s bonds, but not harm the girl she considered a little sister inside.

Trixie gasped in a deep lungful of air, as Estelle pulled her friend out of the sticky hand’s wreckage and embraced her tightly with one hand, the other still clutching her burning blade. She whispered to Trixie, reassuring her over and over that she was alright, and that this would all be over very soon, as she glared over her friends shoulders at the cornered Guinevere. Her dollie was still moving and functional, but barely. The Pride had the initiative now, and they needed to cease it.

A woman like Guinevere proved impossibly dangerous, cornered and alone like this. But the Pride were equally as dangerous when cornered as well, and they would stop at nothing to turn the tables and become victorious, a lesson Guinevere was soon about to learn.

Phillis Circus: Big Top - Pit

Trixie clung onto her big sister upon being freed, inhaling and exhaling the biggest darnedest breaths she had ever taken in her life. Other than her mouth gaping for air, she seemed positively fine; the suffocation wasn't long enough to shake her vision, thanks to her generous rescue by none other than her big sister and friends. "Wow - gasp - I'm never - gasp - eating jelly again..."

The dolly centaur, having lost its front pair of legs, immediately crashed to the floor from the imbalance. It was futile; any parts of its body dislodged or destroyed would be immediately replaced by another, stronger limb formed by Guinevere's precious dolls, all broken and scattered around the arena. Its ability to recuperate was far too strong for a handful of guilders to wipe out.

At least, that's what Guinevere had banked on. No more dolls and toys had entered the tent since Vance's fall. Most now were completely beyond salvation, much less usage. Others were blown to bits entirely. There was nothing left to continue building itself from. Even its sticky hands were of no use now.

Perhaps more projectiles were in order. Similarly to the rhino, the dolly opened its "mouth" wide - by splitting its porcelain face in half from the center, opening up in an angle. Inside were more and more of those blasted toys, ready to fling themselves out at rapid speed.

But even that proved useless, as the head completely exploded before it could fire a single thing. From the pit, Trixie stood with one arm extended (the other still around Estelle), the barrel of her uzi in hand sizzling. She panted still, turning to Moira now and winking at her. "Gotta kill it at at its core or whatever, right?"

The dolly beast stumbled forward, and Xandra used all of her remaining might - "Raaagh!" - to jab her bladed pole into the dolly a final time. It penetrated the stomach easily, the plushes inside all squealing with horror as it jutted out the other end. Then Xandra yanked the pole to the side in order to bring the dolly-beast fully down to the ground. Its body twitched, and still more dolls composing it shrilled and shrieked, unable to stand back up, much less move.

A flash of light flooded the stage. Once the whiteness of it all died down, the mutated centaur dolly moved no more - aside from its plush exterior falling apart and pouring onto the stage from the beast like lava.



"No... impossible..."

The rhino was obliterated. The tornado was skewered. The big blonde dolly Guinevere didn't even know about until now was incinerated, penetrated, decimated from that witch's whip. And now, she was coming to finish her off for good.



What was supposed to be a simple rescue mission turned into havoc. She had hoped her staying behind would have prevented things from becoming unhinged the way it did, but she knew now it was inevitable from the start. Friends and friendly strangers alike were injured in the fray, and her appearance had only made everything worse. Had it not been for everyone else, who knew what would've become of Trixie.

All these words and emotions flooded Amy's mind as she strode up the stairs to the stage, closer and closer to Guinevere. Guinevere, pretty pretty lady who thought of herself a princess, now scorned and trounced for what she had done - she backed away from Amy, back and back and back, until she could back away no further. Her hands, her delicate polished hands now dirty and ruined from battle, clutched onto the fabric walls behind her. Fear gripped her expression as much as contempt did Amy's.

The frightful woman stuttered. Pretty pristine princess, now pitiful and pathetic. "Everything else has been taken away from me. Everything. My parents, my home, my childhood - it's gone! It's all gone! I have nothing left! All because of you, damned filthy witch! What more could you possibly do to make--"

SLAP!

Guinevere had fallen. Amy stood there, eyes cast down on the lady below her. "...dumb bitch."

Pit

A moment of silence took over as the guilders reeled in what had happened. Was it over? Had they won? Nothing else within the tent moved or murmured that wasn't human.

Suddenly reinvigorated, Crispin jumped up and dashed his way to the aisle Baltimore was in. "BALTIMORE!" The little girl barely began to dust off her dress before she was assaulted by a tackling hug. The invisible bat flew out from her hand and smacked into a nearby chair, which looked odd because the chair just seemed to make a loud clang before falling over.

"We did it! We did it! We put a stop to these dumb bandits! Gimme five!" Baltimore smiled coyly before reciprocating. "Did you get everyone else out in time?" She only gave a small nod before Crispin embraced her tightly again. His left hand just kinda dangled loosely from his wrist, flopping around every time he moved his arms. "You're the best, chica! I'm so proud, aghh!"

He turned to Syed who was nearby, and held his (non-broken) fist out to him - a congratulatory bro-fist. Their mission was a success. A celebration was in order! ...after he stops puking again, that is!

Big Top
Unlike Crispin's jubilation, Syed's reaction seemed downright muted. He instead tore his eyes away from all that surrounded him, the broken and scorched toys, and destroyed abominations, the unconcious circus-preformers. Well this was sure a victory which didn't feel like one. He bit his lip as he shivvered. Oh, he was so tired. Nonetheless he gave Balti another thankful smile and a small bow.

He then caught sight of Crispin's fist. He recipriated, using the opportunity to get a closer look to Crispin's other hand. Oh boy that did not look pretty, all purple and swollen and with bits of bone visibly showing through under the skin. "Stop moving it!" he muttered, bending down to grab a piece of rubble as a splint and untying the golden scarf around his waist to bind it. He was no healer, but at least he could do this. "No really you need your ha-"

He paused as poor Crispin bent over to throw up again. All over Syed's shoes. Poor guy.


Moira meanwhile remained exactly where she stood. She didn't drop her guard even now unlike the others, folding her arms stoicly as she kept her eyes on these bloody broken toys scattered around. She still didn't trust them even now.

"Aims?" she asked, looking up at the cleric. "What's actually the deal with this lot? Yeah, they're all nutters and tried to kill us, but... what's the deal?"

She knew not to ask what their deal with Amy was in particular, why they kept calling her a witch - she had her own past to hide. But in the end of the day, Amy seemed to know this place and it was mutual, so if anyone was to know it was her.

Phillus Circus-Big Top

Aria sighed, body sagging in relief as the last of the hands flopped uselessly to the ground. She gave one a half-hearted kick, tired but glad it was all finally over. The entirety of her left side was soaked in blood and it didn't help that the wound had reopened. She would have to remember to get Amy to take a gander at it later.

The centaur-doll had given quite the fight and she was sure it's last cacophony of shrieks would haunt her dreams for a few nights, but it had been defeated for good and wasn't going to be getting up any time soon, if ever. The fight had taken quite a bit out of all of the guilders- Xan's arm was practically scrap metal at this point- but they had all survived.

SLAP!

And Amy seemed preeeetty pissed. Not that Aria could blame her, she would've enjoyed doing the same if she wasn't so knackered. The illusionist merely trudged her way towards where Estelle and Xan were, closer to where Guinevere had fallen, adjusting her skewed and ruffled scarf with a wince.

"So, leader..." Aria gave the younger woman a small smile, glad to see the girl was faring rather well. "Shall we intervene before Amy knocks that creepy woman out for good?" She paused as she spotted Moira near the cleric. Hopefully the Berserker wouldn't join in the beating. "We still have to ask about the missing people." She had nearly forgotten their original goal until she realized that the missing people posters were still tucked in her jacket, not that they were going to useful anymore with the amount of blood on them. "And then maybe we can shower... And take a nap. Yeah, that sounds nice..." And from the looks of it, quite a few people would agree with her, including poor poor Crispy. Syed would probably be appreciating a change of shoes right now too.

Phillis Circus: Big Top

The battle was over, and the day had been won. The Pride were victorious, and yet… it certainly didn’t feel like a victory. The Circus and its performers had all been defeated, yet such a victory felt hollow. Perhaps it was true that the circus had been behind the disappearances of a number of people, but for Estelle, they didn’t really know that, at least not definitively. And whilst it was of course probably true, Estelle couldn’t shake an uneasy hinting suspicion that perhaps not all of them were behind it – that some of them had been left in the dark of the whole sordid affair, and were just as much victims as themselves and anyone who had gone missing. She grimaced at both the thought and her exhaustion, slumping down into one of the only remaining seats still standing in the aisle that she, Trixie, Xandra and Aria were at, taking in a deep breath.

The circus had been utterly destroyed and brought into ruin, and it was because of the Pride that such a thing had happened. She could only hope that their actions this afternoon had been justified, because if they hadn’t, the guilt would haunt Estelle forever.

“A shower and a nap sounds good,” Estelle chuckled, softly. “And you’re right, we should probably make sure Amy doesn’t knock that woman into a coma. We also need to find out what exactly happened here. To make sure that… that whatever it is that was happening here… we were right to do this. If we weren’t…”



“I’ll go find us a telephone as well,” Marcus piped up from their side, carrying the fatigued Lucien with him over one shoulder, plopping him down to sit on the edge of the stage with his feet dangling over the end into the pit. Xandra joined him, cradling her ruined arm, feeling ready to almost pass out. “I’ll call Lady and arrange for some assistance. I think she’d also be able to get in touch with the Empire authorities for us, so they can take over the investigation and press any charges.”



“Balti!!” A high pitched scream echoed across the Big Top’s interior. Running across the tent, Eric raced as quickly as he could with his arms and legs flailing to try and reach his precious niece once more. He didn’t get far before suddenly tripping again and slamming his face into the ground. Groaning in pain, he pushed himself up with his hands to try and find out what he had tripped over, recoiling in fright to see a certain tired lion lying down, licking her paws and staring straight at him. Eric jumped back onto his feet, and then began running again, as far away from the disinterested Lidya as possible. Across the tent, Elena quietly trudged to Petra and tried to soothe her own wounds, raising her trunk in the air and tooting a trumpeting sound of sadness.

The battle was over.

Phillis Circus: Big Top - Onstage

Amy stepped back from Guinevere upon hearing the others murmuring her name. Moira had flat-out called to her, hoping for something of an explanation for why things had gone this way. The cleric sighed as she sat along the edge of the stage, beside both Xandra and Lucien. Glass-like substances cracked beneath her feet as she walked on without looking back - or down at the shattered porcelain dolls, for that matter. Lucien nearly leaned over onto her shoulder when she sat down, but withheld himself when he realized it was Amy. She held out her staff over Xandra's prosthetic, and both women began to glow a warm golden hue.

"I didn't think the siblings would stoop so low with kidnappings," she said, her eyes still focused on Xandra's arm. "Guinevere's lost her home to some bandits when her brother was born - she was just a kid. I don't think she ever got over that, even now. I met them maybe... ten years ago, not long after their parents passed and basically handed over their ringmaster rights. This was all Guin had going for her. She got obsessed over maintaining and perfecting the circus since that was all that remained of her childhood - aside from Vance, anyway."

Amy shook her head. "But I never knew the others." She looked to Aria and Estelle for a moment, before twitching her mouth and returning her attention to Xandra. "No idea what made them so desperate for hostages."




"They're scoundrels, all of them." Crispin used his uninjured hand to steady himself with one of the remaining chairs in his row. Syed (squicked out from his poor shoes) bandaged up his other hand in the meantime, to which Crispin expressed gratitude. "I remember Sammie spouting some nonsense about how the circus was falling apart with the same-ol' same-ol' performances. They changed their routine every night, but even dedicated show-goers get bored of seeing the same guys 20 times in a row." He ground his teeth, sneering at the fallen magician girl's body not too far from him. "Nabbed me the moment my fire powers came into the conversation."

Trixie brought a finger to her chin and scrunched her eyes in mock-thought. It always made her look so deep. "Sooo... what, were they runnin' outta money or something?"

"Must be it. You must've seen a flyer or two about their so-called newbies, haven't you? They were pretty good at keeping things quiet. Some of the new hirees had no idea what they were getting into, and I don't think they ever found out, til now. Yo, Balts, did you happen to catch anything...?"



Amidst all the chatter, Baltimore had made her way back onstage, stopping by the fallen Abram. Solemnity softened her features, before her eyes scrunched up - about to cry.

"What? Baltimore, come on!" The girl glanced over her shoulder to Crispin, who eyed her with disbelief. "You can't feel sorry for these guys, let alone the butthole who busted up my hand! 'guy was a jerk! He was in on this too, you know. They all were!" Baltimore shook her head rapidly at this, now clasping her hands over her mouth as she looked back to Abram. Crispin rolled his eyes. "Oh, cupcake, come on. Don't cry! Ugh..." He slumped his face into his arm. "Why do girls always cry around me?"

Amy said nothing else. She just continued feeding healing spells to whoever needed it, one person at a time for stronger results. Even then, Amy knew it wasn't enough to help Xandra's condition in particular, aside from dulling the pain and hopefully making it more manageable until she could reach a proper hospital. The same went for Crispin. She couldn't even imagine how bad the circus performers had it in comparison, after the beatings they took.

Some time had passed as the Pride and co. waited around the big top. Soon enough, a particular lilac-haired woman walked right into the tent. Her voice, so new, sudden, and loud, jarred everyone's attention. "Caspian! You're alive! My baby's alive!"



"Mooom!" Crispin jumped at his mother's voice and rushed straight to her. She opened her arms wide for an embrace - only for Crispin to start screaming. Yet Lady's expression remained terrifyingly calm. Her hold on her son never lightened up, despite his cries and pleas.

Only when she realized that the other guilders were all pretty much staring at her did she drop Crispin back to the ground. The young brawler writhed about and moaned in agony, some parts of his back audibly cracking with each twitch he made. "Oh, everyone! Seems like we've got quite a mess here." She examined the battlefield, the entirety of the destroyed and bloodied tent, with a smile. "I knew I could count on you! Estelle, Moira - you have my deepest thanks."

She looked to Marcus next, her smile unchanged. Her sidekick ladybug skittered from her back to her shoulder, waving its antennae as Lady spoke. "Marcus, I've received your call, and forwarded your message onto the higher-ups. Those empiric blokes should be over here shortly."

"Mom... my spleen..."

"Oh shush, honey. I told you to bring me back a prize, and you went off and got yourself kidnapped instead!" Still keeping her eyes on the other guilders, Lady kicked her fallen son over, causing him to whimper again, before she spoke further. "All of the missings had actually made their way back to the guild in one cluster, not long after Amy and Marcus left. Other than Baltimore and my son, of course. They said these two"--she kicked Crispin again while nudging her face towards Baltimore--"conjured a plan that would get them out while the others were distracted. Caspian would set fire while Baltimore helped the others escape."

Lady knelt down to her whining son, now that her explanation was over. "Pretty brave move for such a dumb little boy, wasn't it, sweetums? You tried to sacrifice your life and left me and Zookie all worried for you back at home. Aww, come here, hun..."

"Mommy please don't touch me anymore. Everything hurts."

She squeezed onto his cheeks tightly (yet again causing him to cry out) before rising back to her feet and giving a gracious bow to the guilders. "I really must thank you for keeping my son alive, especially, and coming to his aid at the perfect time. We're still waiting for more help to arrive, but if there's anything I can do for you lot in the meantime, I'd be more than happy to."

Big Top
Syed said nothing once he had finished flinching and weaking protesting against Lady's somewhat harsh treatment of her son, shoving his hands in his pockets as tried and failing to suppress a big yawn. Then, the corner of his mouth pulled a little to the side.

"We let it get out of hand," he said simply. He looked around, at the state of the circus itself and the various people lying about, at Balti in particular. Then he sighed, sitting down on the floor and resting his head on his folded arms. The circus was doing bad deeds, for sure. But there was still so much they didn't know, and they had pretty much destroyed this place in the process of bringing them down. Not to mention how Amy mentioned meeting the two leaders ten years ago. She had to have seen them last much more recently than that, else the fact that the portraits in that tent was pretty much proof that they were actively stalking her. But again, they knew so little even now.

He felt someone sit next to him, and Lucien proceeded to flash him a grin and crack a joke, regardless of the sombreness of the atmosphere in the air. And Sy couldn't help but feel that broad, somewhat dorky grin spread across his lips despite how much he wanted to scowl.


Moira similarly sighed, limping back over to her sword and pulling it back from the ground. The sticky hand was still stuck to it, damnit. She began to work on prizing it off.

"Yer guess was bang on the money then," she called over to Lady. It did make her happy to see mother and son reunited, although her face didn't show it. "And it's fine, you'd do the same for mine." She glanced around. "Uh... dunno if you'd be as messy as this." Plus Sonny was pretty unlikely to get himself into a mess like this anyway.

She shrugged, and went back to her sword. Thankfully Amy's magic had served to at least ease her wounds. She couldn't really think of anything else, so she said little more.