Reality is just an illusion

The man, who introduced himself as Mr. Johnson, led Marcy, Katherine, and Cameron around the carnival, pointing out the various attractions and amusements.

"Don't you guys have any rides or something? Because right now all the stuff I'm seeing are kinda L." Cameron criticed as he gestured.

"Rides? A bit expensive aren't they?" Mr. Johnson noted. "You know what isn't expensive though, our amazing play, the Carniman."

[ A little while Later ]

The group watched in awe as the ringmaster began to introduce the various circus performers and their unique talents.

"That's the villain," he whispered as a sinister-looking magician appeared on stage. "He's the one causing trouble for our heroes."

Cameron and Katherine shared a glance before turning back to Mr. Johnson with Katherine about to say, "Well yeah no shit." before Marcy interjected with, "Who are the heroes?"

Mr. Johnson smiled. "Ah, that's the family of circus performers who are trying to save the carnival from the villain's evil plans. Watch closely, and you'll see how they work together to overcome their obstacles."

As the performances continued, one of the performers pushed the main hero into the villain and they both exploded into a cloud of dust which left the audience silent.

"Um..." Cameron turned to Mr. Johnson, "Was that part of the show?"

"Y-yes?" Mr. Johnson replied hesitantly, then cleared his throat, and said, "Yes, it's part of the show, but it's just not as I imagined-"

A dragon grabbed the cover of the tent and roared through the carnival.

"Um..." Cameron turned to Marcy who nodded so he nudged Katherine, "Teleport us to the battlefield, Katherine."

"None of these people seem like they care that a dragon." Katherine noted as she teleported both herself and Cameron who had slammed the dial around the same time they left.

Mr. Johnson looked around himself, "Did Katherine leave to fight the dragon?"

"She most definitely did, I bet your feeling pretty happy that you invited a superhero here now right?"

[ Meanwhile ]

The dragon bellowed, snarling, and lashed out at Katherine with its powerful tail. She ducked and rolled, and sent her sphere forward pushing the dragon back.

Meanwhile, KillerSlugg slithered toward the dragon. As he neared the dragon, he leapt upward, tackling the dragon with his body. The dragon roared in pain and fury, and with a fierce snarl, it lunged at KillerSlugg.

Together, Katherine and KillerSlugg continued to fight against the ferocious dragon, with Katherine shielding them when the dragon attacked and KillerSlugg providing a distraction so they could attack.

Katherine snapped her fingers and the sphere appeared above the dragon, she snapped her fingers once again and a dark hue pushed out from the orb and pushed the dragon down onto the ground.

"Whoa?!" KillerSlugg looked amazed, "I didn't know you could release energy stuff from that thing."

"Me neither, I just wanted to punch the dragon down not change its gravity." Katherine revealed before looking down at the beeping omnitrix, "You better do your part before time's up."

"Right!"

In that moment of weakness, KillerSlugg pounced. It wrapped its slimy form around the dragon's neck, squeezing with all its might. KillerSlugg held on tight. Finally, the dragon exploded into a burst of smoke, the exact second the watch reverted Cameron.

Cameron and Katherine ran to one another and met in the middle with a high five.

[ Meanwhile ]

"The alien hero... how did an alien hero get here? That- that didn't go as I imagined."

"Was that part of the show?!" Marcy asked worried that they might have ruined the act.

"N-no, no, not at all, it's just I didn't expect my carnival to be damaged, the renovations will take time, this is a bit disappointing, and the company is a bit shocking I just expected Katherine to be the only hero here... it's fine..."

"I mean heroes are everywhere."

"That is definitely true, but the thing is they shouldn't be able to be here... it's fine, but this mess..." Mr. Johnson sighed.

"I could help clean up if you like." Marcy said knowing feeling a bit responsible.

"No need, you three enjoy your time, I'll go speak with my people to see what happened."

Mr. Johnson walked off leaving Marcy feeling like crap, that's when Katherine and Cameron appeared from around a tent making their way to Marcy.

Cameron had his hands behind his head as he said, "Best superhero duo making their way here."

➜ [ Meanwhile ]

Mr. Johnson entered one of the tents and sat in a chair glaring at the mirror in front of him. He slammed his fist down onto the table.

"What happened there?" he asked himself. "This didn't go as I expected. How did one of those alien heroes even find their way to my carnival? It's theoretically impossible."

"Seems like things aren't going your way," a young red-haired woman said. "I'm telling you that you should stop this now."

"Things are going my way!" Mr. Johnson exploded. "What happened there were just small loose ends that I wasn't prepared for. That's all. The script is still the same."

"This script is old now. Just throw it away, please," she pleaded.

"The script was well thought out. What was the loose end? What changed everything? Wait a minute, the girl and the boy. But the girl was with me, and the boy...he wasn't with us. Could he be the one who called the alien hero, or could he be the alien hero himself? Either way, he's the loose end that must be taken care of."

"How long will it take for you to jump back to reality and realize that things will never go the way you imagine them?" she asked.

Mr. Johnson gritted his teeth as he turned the chair into a cloud of smoke that sucked into his arm. He turned to the woman. "Everything will happen exactly as I imagined it, and this time I'll make sure there are no loose ends," he said, as an illusion of Cameron appeared.

[ Meanwhile ]

The three were at a carnival game where participants had to toss a ball at a collection of cups to win a prize. Cameron and Katherine were competing against each other to see who would win first.

And that makes five," Katherine declared. "How much did you get again?"

"About the same amount, but one of the cups I hit was made of a glass-like material," Cameron responded.

"Of course it was. What do you think, Marcy?" Katherine asked, turning to their cousin.

"I think I feel bad for leaving things like that. We practically ruined the man's carnival, and he was already upset when those guys messed up their act. You know what, I'm going to check up on him," Marcy said, bringing up a completely unrelated topic.

Marcy walked away, leaving Cameron and Katherine to shrug in the background and continue playing their game. As she walked, Mr. Johnson suddenly appeared before her in a cloud of smoke, startling her.

"Hi there," he said with a grin.

"Mr. Johnson? How in the world did you do that?" Marcy exclaimed.

"Us Carni's never reveal our secrets, but I'm curious, why are you walking by yourself? Where are the other two?" Mr. Johnson asked with a sly grin.

"They're back at the gaming booth. I just wanted to come and see if I can help you with anything, since I feel like a complete shit hole," Marcy admitted with a slight shrug.

"It's okay, Marcy, but I wouldn't mind your help with a stage performance of mine," Mr. Johnson said, his expression softening.

Suddenly, Mr. Johnson and Marcy both disappeared, leaving behind a cloud of smoke.

[ Moments Later ]

As Cameron and Katherine walked through the carnival grounds, they spotted a group of boys making their way toward them.

"Those definitely aren't my friends." Cameron commented.

"You have friends?" Katherine joked.

The boys stopped near Cameron and Katherine before one of them spoke up. "Listen, we know this might sound weird, but we heard you're an adventurous guy. And, well, we wanted to show you something cool."

Cameron's eyes widened in excitement. "Something cool? Like what?"

The boys exchanged glances before one of them spoke up. "Like secret carnival rides. You know, the ones the normal folks don't get to ride."

Cameron was intrigued, leaning in to hear more. "Secret rides? Hidden in one of these tents?"

The boys nodded eagerly, now all chiming in at once to describe the rides in vivid detail.

Katherine shook her head. "I don't know about this, a ride that lights up when the moon is out? That sounds fake as shit."

Cameron turned to her, "Come on, Katherine, don't you want to at least find out if these stuff are true or not? We'll be back before you know it."

Katherine hesitated before shaking her head, "I rather go find Marcy and see what she's up to instead of taking part in this, plus I'm all puckered out so I'm not in the mood for exploring."

"Suit yourself." Cameron said.

➜ [ A Little While Later... ]

As they approached the entrance to a large, closed tent, the boys turned to Cameron, their faces now solemn.

"What's wrong? Aren't you guys coming with me?"

"Listen, man, we can't go in there with you. It's not allowed. But don't worry, we promise you'll have the time of your life. Trust us."

Cameron nodded slowly, then when he noticed the boys catching onto his uncertainty he smiled, "Okay, sure. I trust you guys."

The boys patted him on the back before, leaving Cameron to approach the tent alone. He hesitated for a moment because even he could feel something wasn't right.

He entered the room and it was like a whole new area.

Suddenly, a voice boomed out of nowhere, making him jump. "This, Cameron, is the spinning wheel of time. Hop on, and you'll be whisked away on a journey through the ages!"

"Sure."

Cameron took a deep breath before climbing onto the machine.

The ride went all for the most part there wasn't anything out of the ordinary happening and everything seemed normal, until a similar dragon from before appeared

Cameron exclaimed ducking from the dragon's fire. "Called It!" He quickly unpatched himself while the ride moved and activated the omnitrix pressing the buttons aggressively before slamming the dial the same second a new creature jumped at him.

Five Mimicks popped out and punched the weird pole like creature that arrived, "Speak about unoriginal, who even thought of you."

A ton more creatures appeared out of nowhere as the rollercoaster entered a dark space with only the rails and the rollercoaster being visible.

[ Meanwhile ]

"Seriously now, I think you should stop with this whole thing. Are you seriously thinking that some of these kids won't come out of this without some sort of trauma?" the red-haired woman said.

"Think? Think? I know that they will. That is the entire point of this whole thing. I want them to understand that reality is cruel, and nothing will go the way they want it to go in life," Mr. Johnson replied.

"And do you truly believe that this is the best way to teach them that lesson?"

"I KNOW that this is the best way! I'm trying to help these kids. I'm trying to help them learn a lesson that I failed to learn. Don't you see? By doing this, I'm saving these children from finding out the harsh truth about reality the hard way... now excuse me it's showtime!"

The scene shifted over to Katherine, who was seated on one of the pavilions, waiting silently for the play to begin. The stage lights turned off and the crowd cheered.

In a puff of smoke, Mr. Johnson appeared on stage and proclaimed, "Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the play of the ages: The Lady and the Dragon!"

With that, Mr. Johnson vanished, the stage curtains opened, and the lights turned on. Marcy stepped onto the stage, the lead actor in full costume.

"No way," Katherine whispered, completely taken aback by the sight of Marcy in such a girly dress. "I need to take a picture of this-"

Katherine grabbed her phone and prepared to capture the moment while a group of knights surrounded Marcy onstage. When Marcy didn't react, and when the knights killed one of the directors after they instructed them to get off, Katherine decided to intervene by teleporting into the middle of the action.

"Okay, this is getting a bit too much, now!"

Katherine used her powers to push the knights offstage, then knelt down to hold Marcy in her arms.

"Are you okay, Marcy?" she asked.

Marcy replied, "Yeah, but for some reason, I couldn't move. It was like something was restraining me."

Katherine nodded in agreement. "Something's not right here. Why would they allow those people on stage, and why isn't the audience reacting?" she wondered aloud.

As a knight sneaked up behind Katherine, Marcy was poised to jump in and save her, but in a swift move, the dark sphere disintegrated the knight.

Mr. Johnson appeared with an angry expression on his face and teleported in. "No, no, no! That's not how I envisioned it at all!" he cried out.

Katherine noticed, "You're the carnival owner. You better tell me what's going on, I have some concerns about- "

Mr. Johnson replied, "-You have concerns? I have some complaints! You were not following the script, and your whole family was not following the damn script!" His anger seemed to intensify as a dark gas emanated from his clothes, shrouding the area and transforming the scenery.

"Who in the world are you? You're definitely no carnival owner and, W-where in the world are we?"

"I go by U-Llusion... and we are in my zone of illusions, I invited you here to save you, not for you and your family to change my scripts."

[ Meanwhile]

Cameron tried his best to fight off the creatures, now as CrashSpring instead of Mimick, but it proved to be futile. The creatures kept coming, and despite his efforts, he was getting overwhelmed.

"Could you back off for a second?" CrashSpring exclaimed, dodging yet another attack from one of the creatures. "You guys just don't give up!"

He continued his fight against the many creatures that were jumping out at him from within the darkness.

[ Meanwhile]

Suddenly, a wall appeared in front of Katherine, blocking her path. Katherine, created a shield with the sphere that protected her from U-llusion's attack.

"Okay U-Llusion what the hell? What's the point of all of this?"

"The point of this is to help you," U-Llusion appeared and said. "When I saw you—a young hero, no, a young child aspiring to be a hero—I knew that you needed to come here so that you could learn early on that life never goes the way you imagine it." He disappeared.

As she scanned the room, looking for her opponent, an illusion of a dragon materialized in front of her. Katherine knew it wasn't real, but it was still intimidating. The sphere expanded engulfing the dragon out of existence which shocked Katherine a bit.

"There are a lot of young heroes out there in the world. What made me so special that you just had to pick me?" Katherine asked.

"Nothing," replied U-Llusion. "I don't choose who I want. You're not the first young hero to be in my presence and receive the opportunity of having a life-changing experience, and you're not even the first child to be here."

"So this has been happening for a while now. That explains those cases of children disappearing and being found again. Though your reason for doing this is kinda stupid. There's nothing life-changing about giving a child complete trauma," Katherine said.

"You're only saying that because you don't understand!" U-Llusion replied.

Suddenly, a pack of wolves materialized before her, snapping their jaws and howling. Katherine raised the sphere and a vortex formed around her, sucking the wolves into the sphere and then having them disappear.

"Trying to save kids? More like crushing their dreams!" Katherine exclaimed.

"No! That's the complete opposite of what I'm doing. I'm trying to save kids from entering the same mental state I was in when I was young. I had a huge imagination. I imagined my entire life, but for most of it, everything was according to the script... until I got older and then it wasn't," U-Llusion explained.

Katherine gritted her teeth, her reflexes sharpening as she battled wave after wave of illusions, some of which she wasn't even sure she had overcome. And then, with a sudden flash of light, her assailant was gone, replaced by faint wisps of smoke.

"So what I'm getting is that you're a product of a man who gave up when life didn't go his way," Katherine said.

U-Llusion appeared and then pulled out a knife. "Yes, I am. And I hate that fact, but it's true. But child, you have to understand-"

Through the darkness, a red-haired woman walked up with a look of concern on her face and cried out, "Stop! Biltrum, just stop!"

"-you have to understand that when life hits you, it hits you, and sometimes..." The knife lifted up, and instantly impaled the women. "You just - you just - can't carry on anymore, you just can't hold a straight face anymore. Some people just don't understand that, they really do not understand that at all..."

The woman fell to her knees, bleeding. Katherine's eyes widened in shock as she exclaimed, "You killed her!"

U-Llusion turned to look at the body. "I didn't kill her," he said. The woman's body started to change form, transforming into gas before taking on the illusion of her being held up by a rope while naked. "Reality killed her... in my perfect world, I didn't imagine any of that happening. My ideal script was flawless, but that was its flaw. And that's why I want to teach you at your age-" He glared at Katherine.

As Marcy ran up to Katherine, she exclaimed, "Wait a minute... isn't that-"

"Marcy, step back!" Katherine interrupted.

"-Life doesn't go the way you imagine it to go," U-Llusion said, appearing behind Marcy, and quickly snapped her neck. "The true form of reality is the illusion we don't want to construct into the world...Do you understand now?" he asked, turning his gaze towards Katherine, with a chilling grin.

The room started to shake violently, causing U-Llusion to lose his balance. He looked towards Katherine, whose eyes were pale and glowing as she trembled uncontrollably.

"Let the anger out. I know this is difficult to process, b-" U-Llusion started to say.

"-We... we will make you suffer," Katherine interrupted, her voice sounding like multiple voices layered on top of each other. She raised her arm, and the sphere merged with her hand. With a swift movement, she snapped her hand, causing the illusion creatures that U-Llusion had made to protect himself to disappear.

"W-what is going on? What are- how? My illusions, where did they?" U-Llusion stuttered in shock, unable to comprehend what had just happened.

Katherine simply snapped her fingers, and the entire scenery changed. They were now inside a spacious home.

U-Llusion could feel the panic rising within him as he found himself unable to move. His mouth and body were tied up.Suddenly, he noticed a shadow in front of him, and he raised his head to look.

His eyes went wide with shock as he saw the red-haired woman in a wedding dress, gagging for her life with a rope around her neck.

Katherine grinned, "Your past is the one illusion reality couldn't replicate... Reality is all an illusion..."

With a blink of Katherine's eyes, everything returned to normal. The carnival, the people, and the horrific scene he had witnessed were all gone. U-Llusion found himself on his knees, holding his head in pain.

Katherine also fell to a knee, holding her head and letting out a groan. "Ouch..." she said before noticing the sudden change in their surroundings. "What happened? Everything is normal again," she said with confusion.