-and-
Kila rested in the dressing room, looking into a lighted mirror. He was dabbing tissue at his chest as the flimsy shirt of the outfit could not completely endure the tiger’s claws. He wondered how his chest hadn’t been torn to shreds, only having a few spills of blood here and there. Fingers absentmindedly going over the scars there, the place his most painful of memories were. Kila had come to the conclusion that his skin had become calloused.
Although he meant that more metaphorically, he came across a patch of his skin that felt off…It was abnormally rigid around where one of the claw strikes were only to return smooth in minutes…it felt like elephant skin. Before he could ponder further about the Power of The Red that lied subtly in his veins, there was a knock at the door.
Remembering quickly that they were still on a mission, despite being undercover, Kila prepared himself for any potential confrontation. However, from the other side of the surface, the voice of the android girl announced herself. Despite being one of the more verbal members of the team, Kila had rarely interacted with Alisa. Still, she seemed pleasant enough, compared to some. Moreover, her status as having robotic qualities should prove helpful to an extent in gathering information.
Thus, he allowed her in, listening to her explanation of her search of the Fortune Teller’s quarters. The more she talked, his eyes narrowed.
“The one, the man who smelled your things; likely a grunt of some sort. I am willing to say that he was coming to give the Fortune Teller some sort of message. However, your presence there instead as a newcomer, may have made them suspicious of your intent.” Kila thought aloud, starting to pace, abruptly stopping as another situation came to him.
“Something else to keep note of…These performers are very probable to have abilities as we do. The man smelling your garment was clearly some attempt to identify you. Hopefully your more inhuman qualities act as a counter to his capabilities in that sense…Have you seen anything else out of the ordinary?”Alisa shook her head.
“Besides those two things, no. I didn’t get a chance to go through her room completely, but what I saw seemed pretty normal. Have you?” She turned her gaze to Kila. The two of them had spoken little, but she knew enough to notice that something was a bit off. Only hours ago he had been acting upbeat and goofy, but now he seemed, well…
serious. Had something happened? She scrutinized him, noting he was shirtless, before noticing the little wounds on his chest. Claw marks?
She frowned. He looked fine- sympathy over concern was probably the way to go.
“Ow,” she said in sympathy, although she had no real point of reference for the sting of blood.
“Did the tiger get you? I thought you were supposed to be the animal whisperer!”Kila paused after what she asked, touching his chest again. Memories that did not belong to him briefly came to mind at the mention of the tiger. It was a quick flash of images; tall grass, a roar, men in black jumpsuits, tranquilizer shots. It was an intense but brief staring session into the wall. Pulling his hand away from his chest to look down at his palm, Kila blinked. That was new.
“I suppose that I am…The tiger has been through many bad things before they put her in that cage…I fear what would have happened, should it have been anyone else’s act.”A genuinely sympathetic frown crossed Alisa’s face.
“How terrible. They shouldn’t do that to the animals, let alone let them “perform” in front of an unguarded crowd. I’m glad it was you, then. Even if you did get a bit scuffed up.” She sat down in a chair by the door and leaned forward. In the month she had been on the team, she had spoken very little to Ja. He was intriguing, to say the least.
“I’m terrible with animals,” she said, remembering yesterday’s incident. She laughed.
“I mean, I adore most of them, don’t get me wrong, but they don’t like me back. It’s probably why I volunteered to shove a katana down my throat rather than have to deal with anything alive,” joked Alisa, trying to lighten the mood.
Kila nodded,
“Right…I imagine that would not bother you much? Given your mechanical insides.”“Not really, no! I mean, it hurts a bit when I scrape the back of my throat and I have to be a bit careful with my vocal box, but I don’t have any fleshy bits to puncture. Or any blood.”Kila slowly nodded again, though staring at Alisa’s eyes. It would appear as though he were searching for something, because honestly, he was. The concept of artificial intelligence vexed him quite a bit. Why would one want to create a machine with, or ability to mimic, the human mind? There seemed to be something different about her, opposed to Red Tornado who acted as their overseer.
He didn’t care much about it being awkward, but would have apologized in courtesy of possibly making her uncomfortable. What stopped him though, were the sounds of somewhat distant screams. These were not screams of joy however…they were screams of terror. Quickly snatching up the mask he wore earlier, he started for the door.
“I do not like the sound of that. We should investigate.”Alisa stared back into Kila’s eyes, unblinking. Why was he staring? Had she done something wrong? Before she could get a chance to interrupt, however, she started to hear screams. They were rising in volume and number, coming from… the circus tent? She swiveled her head to the door before standing and walking to the door with Kila.
“Yes,” She opened the door, only to hear the screams escalate in volume.
“Yes, we should. I think something’s very wrong.”She started to speed-walk down the hall and then started to dash. The two of them burst out of the tent together and raced across the field towards the main circus tent. People were streaming out of the big tent, screaming in terror.
The only possible explanation was that someone had attacked. But who? And why? Gotham had its own horde of supervillains, but an attack from them didn’t make any sense. And this was a recon mission at a circus- they weren’t invading an enemy base.
Then, they entered the stage, coming behind Zach, Daphne, Aleen’a, and Kassy. Alisa felt fear start to clog her thoughts.
I fucked up. The horses that Maya had convinced her to free yesterday were
here, giant and vicious. A look of horror and guilt crossed her face as she stared at the scene. This was her worst nightmare.
At least the wall offered them a moment of respite.
“What-what should we do?” Her voice wavered. Kila quickly studied the scene.
“First priority is to remove innocents. If even one person dies while we are active, our mission is already a failure.” He explained, instantly sprinting off towards the group.
Alisa ran after him. They came to the forcefield. Kassy’s flickering illusory wall and Zach’s forcefield were keeping the crazy ponies away from them and anyone who had managed to duck behind them, but not much else. There were still people being terrorized outside. Alisa sucked her teeth- she truly didn’t want to go out there and fight, but it seemed as though there wasn’t another choice.
“I think Aleen’a’s right,” Alisa said, her hands curled into fists. They had come in just at the end of Aleen’a talking, so she had caught the tail end of it.
“But there’s no way we can contain them while they’re like this. I think… we need to fight them and herd them all into a group so Zach and Kassy can create a forcefield to trap them.”Once she finished talking, Alisa figured that she had to do something. People were getting hurt, and they were the only ones around who were capable of doing anything about it- even if it meant risking their cover. She still didn’t want to get close, though. So with a heft of effort, she squatted down and picked up a box- used for propa, but still considerably heavy- and chucked it at one of the horses. The rabid animal was knocked to the ground. Several more came running at her. Alisa screamed in what sounded like fear and threw a punch at one of them. The horse neighed in rage, and then Alisa was caught in a frantic melee with two horses, looking absolutely terrified.
Kila, meanwhile, lassoed one of the rabid ponies around the neck and pulled it away from someone, trying to herd it to the center of the ring.
