CH 51: A Fight in the Circus (E9)

(A/N: AAARRGG!! You know what?! YOU KNOW WHAT?! FUCK YOU, THAT'S WHAT! I can't do it! I can't write a chapter and NOT fucking post it, because I do this out of love for writing, not out of money! I'm NOT locking up my love for something behind money! And you better be thankful, because I'm doing this cause I love you sons of bitches too! So if you love me, show me a bit of love in the Patreon too even though I'll still post everything here, god fucking damn it!)

Alistair :"Did you know that you can give fake money to homeless people?"

Jen :"You're a different breed of messed up, you know that, babe?"

--------------------------

"Knocking over that yacht was a piece of cake!" At a pier side carnival, two robbers climbed down a ladder into a getaway rowboat with a bag of loot while laughing. But suddenly, they heard a whirring sound.

Their heads moved quickly to take a look, but they didn't see anything. Frowning, they looked around, but still nothing. "H-hey, you heard that too, r-right?" One of them said in fear.

But before the other could say anything, a growl was heard before a giant flying insect appeared in front of them with a loud screech. Their hearts nearly dropped to their pants as they screamed in fear.

But as they backed off, two hands shot out of the water and grabbed their feet from behind, making them jump in surprise :"AHHH! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!!" They screamed in fear, trying to free their legs to run away from the slowly approaching bug monster.

"L-let go! LET GO OF ME, YOU MONSTERS!" But the strength behind the hold was relentless. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't escape. From the water, two aquatic aliens slowly surfaced, one with the Omnitrix symbol and the other with no such a symbol, with both of them smiling evilly.

As the bug got dangerously close, tears glittered in their eyes. And when they saw the mouth around the two giant fangs stretch into an evil, predatory smile, they both passed out due to fear.

Once they passed out, the trio froze, before bursting into laughter :"Hahahahaha!! Hahahahahahaha!!!" They wheezed as Ben held his guts below the water :"D-did you... did you see their faces?! Hahahahahahaha that was hilarious!! Hahahaha!!"

Kevin, who had copied the powers of Ripjaws correctly under Alistair's guidance, couldn't hold back his laughter either :"Hahahahahaha they were scared shitless! They literally passed out from fear hahahahaha! Yeah, that's what you get for stealing, punk!"

Wiping his tears with a tendril of the Techtrix, Alistair picked up the thieves :"Alright, as funny as this is, we should hand over these guys to the police now. Come on, guys."

-

Zombozo's Travelling Circus of Laughs?" As the Rust Bucket passed through a town, Gwen read a sign :"Cool!"

Ben's face twitched while Max smiled, taking a rest after leaving the driving to Shego :"Ah, I haven't been to a circus since I was a boy. Sounds like fun! What do you guys think?"

Gwen smiled brightly :"I love the circus!" And Kevin, wanting to get closer to her, smiled as well :"Same here! I love the funny clowns!"

While playing with Tigris and Zap, Alistair's gaze moved to Ben :'Ah, it's that episode, huh? Gotta say, Ben couldn't be blamed for being scared of Zombozo. He freaked me out when I was a kid too.'

Ben rested his chin in his palm grumpily, muttering :"That's because you two belong in one."

Max :"Ben..."

Ben smirked, before frowning again :"Nah, circus is kids' stuff."

Gwen :"Hello? What are we?"

Kevin deadpanned :"Elderly, apparently. Hey, that rhymed!"

Ben yawned loudly :"Besides, it's-it's pretty late."

Max smiled :"Ben, it's 11 o'clock in the morning."

Shego behind the wheels smirked at the mirror :"Kid, don't tell me you're scared of the circus."

The kids' ears shot up as Ben quickly tried to refute :"Scared?! Me?! Of the circus! No way!"

Gwen laughed :"Oh, you totally are scared!"

Ben glared, suddenly speaking loudly and angrily :"Fine by me! Okay, alright! You guys wanna go see some stupid circus? Fine!"

As he rested his chin on his hand again, the others looked at each other in concern. Even Gwen, who wanted to make fun of him, understood the mood that it was a touchy subject.

-

They walked towards a big top circus, set up in the middle of a park. Lots of people were walking in with them. Either the circus was pretty famous, or people were just interested.

Of course, being world-wide celebrities, they couldn't just walk around casually. But Alistair wasn't one to cover himself up in clothes either. Too uncomfortable. So a simple perception interference device would suffice.

Max smiled :"Ooh, looks like the entire town's turned out for the show!"

As Ben walked, he looked up at the posters. They all feature a clown with red hair, a toothy grin and a big top hat. Zombozo. The clown's eyes seemed to stare down at Ben.

Noticing his concern, Alistair smiled at the posters :"Geez, even my predators are prettier than this fella."

He managed to pull a laugh from the others, but Ben still didn't seem relieved. He faked a smile :"It's probably sold out, we're probably just wasting our time."

But suddenly, a spotlight shone on a circus ringmaster on a pedestal, shouting to the crowd :"Step right~ up and see! The fingerless freak of nature, whose strength knows no bounds! THUMBSKULL!"

With his cane, he gestured to the burly man with unnaturally white skin and a "fingernail" on his forehead who walked forward with a metal rod at hand. Holding it behind his head, he bent it with a groan.

The crowd was stunned, but Alistair just hummed in interest :'Right, there wasn't a single clown here. Wait... he literally doesn't have fingertips?! I always thought he just had black fingernails!'

"[New evolution of existing Homosapien DNA unlocked. Proceeding to fuse the existing DNAs.]"

-

[Thumbskull: Human Mutate]

Enhanced Strength

Enhanced Durability

Enhanced Jumping

-

'That's nice, but nothing will happen to my fingers, right?!' Quickly checking his fingers, he sighed in relief when he saw them safe and sound :"Phew... hey, Nemetrix, nothing will happen to my physical appearance if you scan these freaks, right?"

"[New appearances will be unlocked thanks to new unique mutations being added to the codex, but unless you decide to change your appearance manually, nothing will happen.]"

"Phew, thank God. Wait, but I'm an atheist though..." As he frowned at his own mumbling, Thumbskull tossed the bent bar in the air and something red caught it. The circus ringmaster continued :"And presenting, FRIGHTWIG! When this beauty lets down her hair, no telling what could happen!"

And appeared a pale-skinned woman with long red locks of hair, moving and twisting at her command. Her hair effortlessly coiled the metal rod into a pretzel before placing it aside on a pedestal, where their last member, sporting a mouth guard, walked up to with the ringmaster's introduction :"And last but not least, the freak whose unique skill is as vile as his attitude! ACID BREATH!"

"[New evolution of existing Homosapien DNA unlocked. Proceeding to fuse the existing DNAs.]"

-

[Frightwig: Human Mutate]

Prehensile/Elastic Hair Tentacles

Comakinetic Combat

Hair Walking

Enhanced Strength

Enhanced Agility

Enhanced Flexibility

Enhanced Acrobatics

-

As Acid Breath took off his mouth guard, he let out a vile green breath which instantly melted the rod and the pedestal with it.

"[New evolution of existing Homosapien DNA unlocked. Proceeding to fuse the existing DNAs.]"

-

[Acid Breath: Human Mutate]

Acid Breath

Acid Spit

Acid Ignition

Acid Immunity

Enhanced Agility

-

Gwen looked disgusted :"Gross!" As did the rest of the group. Shego groaned in disgust :"And I thought I had seen disgusting."

"Tell me about it." Alistair groaned, breathing into his hand to check for any changes. Which he thankfully didn't detect. As he sighed in relief, he decided to ignore Ben who snuck away.

After taking a seat inside of the big tent, the circus ringmaster introduced the crowd to the act :"Ladies and gentlemen! Children of all ages! The Circus of Laughter is proud to present: "The Sultan of Smiles"! "The Crown Prince of Chuckles"! "The Grim Tickler" himself, the star of our circus! ZOMBOZO THE CLOWN!"

A small clown car sped into the center of the floor, and a giant-seeming Zombozo emerged to the sound of a triumphant cymbal crash. And at his appearance, the people began to laugh. Laugh a little too hard.

"[New evolution of existing Homosapien DNA unlocked. Proceeding to fuse the existing DNAs.]"

-

[Zombozo: Altered Human]

Enhanced Strength

Enhanced Agility

Limb Extension

Illusion Generation

Confetti Teleportation

Fear Consumption

Happiness Consumption

Fear Empowerment

Happiness Empowerment

Lethal Necrosis Survivability

-

While Ben looked mortified, Shego and Kevin looked at Max and Gwen in confusion. They were laughing as if they had seen the funniest thing of their entire lives.

Meanwhile, Alistair felt a sense of empowerment entering his body, enhancing him even further. He could feel it, the happiness of others slowly getting devoured by him. He had the ability active at its weakest to test the ability, but turned it off entirely at the best taste. Truly, this ability was the one he hated more than any other power he possessed, even among his transformations.

"What's going on here?" Shego frowned at the two who were laughing uncontrollably. Kevin shook Gwen by her shoulder :"Uhh, Gwen? I really don't think this is that funny..."

But she didn't answer. She simply kept laughing loudly as Zombozo pulled off one trick after the other. He turned to the unaffected bunch :"Is it me, or is something really weird here?"

"No, something is definitely weird." Shego turned serious. Alistair hummed to himself :'I guess he can't affect them since they're not normal humans.'

He nodded towards the giant machine in the ring, which had been considered as a weird decoration by the people :"It's that machine. After Nemetrix scanned Zombozo, I found out that he has the ability to consume fear and happiness. That machine enhances his abilities. And well, you can guess the rest. He's trying to drain these people of their happiness."

"Wait, what?!" They exclaimed in unison. Cracking his neck, Alistair got up :"I'm really not in the mood to play cat and mouse with a clown of all things. So let's get this over with quickly. I'll take care of the clown, you all get the people out of here."

They looked at each other before nodding :"Alright then, you got it!" Ben was especially happy, since he didn't need to deal with what he was scared of.

Taking his hands out of his pockets, he leaped up meters into the air. Catching Zombozo's and the people's attention as he shone red midair. What landed harshly on the ground wasn't Alistair, but a humanoid plant :"Predaplant!"

Ben transformed as well :"Raagh, Fourarms!!" Knocking the people out of their trance as he, along with Shego and Kevin —who turned into a complete Tetramand— got to work :"Alright people, it's time to get out of here! It's not safe here for civilians!"

With his feet stomping firmly onto the ground, he glared at the surprised clown :"Hello, freak. You ready to get your ass kicked?"

Zombozo blinked, before smiling brightly :"Well, well, well! It seems like we have a few special guests! And they seems to want to participate in little old me's show-"

"Shut up already." Predaplant growled :"Believe me, I'm really not in the mood for your nonsense. I'm nearly out of Jen's love, so I'd rather get this over with quickly so I can have my fill again.

So either just shut up and give up, or get ready for the worst beat down of your life. So what will it be? The easy way, or the hard way?"

"Oooh, feisty~!" Zombozo smiled crazily as a robotic tendril exited his machine, the Psyclown, and stuck to his back :"Then let's get this new show running, shall we-"

But just as he was speaking, a punch landed square on his face, sending him flying as Predaplant cracked his knuckles :"The hard way it is, punk."

Around him, he heard the panicking scream of the people who began to run for their lives. But he pulled back his attention to the clown who got back up with a punch imprint on his giant nose :"You need a chill pill, don't you, you overgrown weed! Well, unfortunately for you, I'm more of a team player than a solo actor!"

Thumbskull, Frightwig and Acid Breath jumped into the scene. But even when he was surrounded, he seemed unbothered other than looking grumpy.

Glancing at the four surrounding him from all sides, grinning as if they're sure of their victory, he flashed a (giant di-) cruel smile :"What a coincidence, so am I." Before hitting the Nemetrix symbol :"Remix!" And splitting into four, before they all slammed the Nemetrix symbol again.