[img]http://i.imgur.com/ZEQcnsM.png[/img] [b][u]Phillis Circus: Big Top[/u][/b] Xandra didn’t know what to expect. She had hoped for her and Trixie to have been able to enter the Big Top unawares, and after seeing everything that was occurring inside, formulate a plan with which to help their friends. But fate was unkind – the magician girl Tammie had heard them and immediately shouted out at them, prompting Trixie to respond in kind and cause an exceptionally loud ruckus that sidetracked all of the Phillis Circus performers’ attention towards her. It wasn’t Xandra’s preferred means of infiltration, but Trixie’s distraction certainly worked, and if the metallurgist was honest, with how her other friends were faring against their opponents they didn’t have the luxury of time to discuss the finer points of a plan. They had to act, and act now. Smiling with relief at Lucien’s freedom (even if the poor man did scream and roll about to and fro from his mild burns), Xandra hurried along the periphery of the audience’s seating as quick and as low as she could, hoping to race around as close as she could to Estelle and Crispin’s fights without being spotted by either the serious looking ringmaster or the massive wall of a man, Abram. With all of the noise Trixie was making, so far it was working. Reaching near to where the foursome were below her, Xandra frowned briefly at watching Estelle attack a familiar man in a baseball cap who neglected to properly defend himself, and then at the way in which the other two looked to them – the scary ringmaster’s hand outstretched towards her, his finger’s drumming up and down in midair. She had no clue what was going on, but it seemed suspicious enough. In truth, Xandra would love to do anything but fight these people, but after seeing what they were doing to her friends, and her own struggles against Poppy and the stilt men outside… she’d have to take a leap of faith. She set Estelle, Lute and Aria’s weapons briefly down beside her, and then… Suddenly, a chair came flying over the audience seats, spinning wildly through the air and grazing Vance’s head, causing him to fall down to the ground. Abram turned in surprise at the sudden assault, turning to look up at the familiar small girl above who quickly picked up Estelle’s weapon again and then threw it as hard as she could to her friend below. He was lost in complete disbelief at what was happening, and then turned back towards Vance. [img]http://i.imgur.com/BzPWL7E.png[/img] “Vance! Are you okay?” Abram hurried to his friend and boss, kneeling down to help lift the man up again. Checking his head over, he could see a trickle of blood drip down from the man’s forehead, but otherwise the injury was minor. Even so, it was enough to loosen his concentration, and from there… [img]http://i.imgur.com/2uDBgEK.png[/img] “Xan!” Estelle shouted out. “Thank you!!” The brown haired girl nodded, and picking up Lute’s sword and Aria’s belt of knives again, began sprinting again towards her best friend’s position next to Guinevere and her dolls. ------------ [img]http://i.imgur.com/8mPMSWF.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/jKbWTfD.png[/img] [b][u]Phillis Circus: Outside[/u][/b] Marcus’ head rebounded with a painful grunt as Poppy’s foot kicked the wind mage from behind. He staggered forwards before righting him, feeling for the back of his head and the small bump forming as he turned to look back at the spinning acrobat’s foot dancing in midair back again for another kick. Turning to glance again in Poppy’s direction, he saw the rest of the acrobat’s body move to attack Amy, sweeping the rest of her severed foot’s leg out at Amy’s legs in a move to upend her. Marcus had met a lot of different people in his life, with many different talents, but this woman was certainly a first. Moving to the side, he reached out his hand and grabbed the attacking foot, squeezing it tightly in his grip. At that point in time the rest of Poppy suddenly froze, her eyes bulging and lips contorting in mild pain. Amy was granted the space and time to look down at Poppy, and with a hate filled glare, rose her own foot up to stomp down on Poppy. Her heel hit the floor, the acrobat having separated her body in time to have Amy’s leg otherwise stab through where her chest normally would have been. After this, Poppy shot a hand out towards Marcus, aiming to him powerfully enough to wrest free his control of her foot… …but stopped as her face and body lit up with nonstop laughter. “H-h-hey! Quit that!” Poppy yelled, her body writhing from side to side. Marcus, meanwhile, was tickling the underside of her foot. “Fascinating,” The wind mage commented. “You can divide your body, but you still retain the same sensory receptors as before. Still feel pain and the like.” “I – hee! – said – haha – stop it!” Poppy shouted again. But her shout trailed off into an echo, as another, more powerful gust of wind blew Poppy’s body back with unbelievable force. Her head and all the pieces of her body were sent flying backwards towards the Big Top, crashing through the giant tent’s roof and landing somewhere inside. He couldn’t be sure, but Marcus could almost believe he heard the strange girl yelling out “Wheee!” as she flew. Marcus didn’t have much more time to think about it before one of the lasers fired by the stiltmen siblings singed past him and Amy, thankfully enough avoiding them. The pair, both with their own particular deadpan expressions (Amy’s of grump, Marcus’ of smiling geniality) turned to Lily and Stevie. ----------- [img]http://i.imgur.com/rxPNBnW.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/UPINOf1.png[/img] [b][u]Phillis Circus: Outside[/u][/b] Sammie’s whip lashed at the ground with a snap, narrowly missing the majority of Lute’s body, but still grazing his cheek, as he jumped forwards to close the distance between himself and the magician girl with his own tackle. Sammie tried to shift and strike with her whip again, but Lute’s body collapsed on her first, throwing the pair down to the ground as another scuffle began. Lute’s hands tried to feel for Sammie’s wrists to try and forcibly restrain her wild thrashing, whilst Sammie continued to struggle and punch at him, digging her nails into his cheek and scraping them. Cammie came to a stop behind the two, watching the skirmish unfold with no way of knowing how to get involved with a scuffle like this. Like the quiet androgynous man, the three beasts that belonged to Abram similarly watched in silence, the trio having now begun to calm down now that their hated foe, Lucien’s bear, had disappeared. They watched, transfixed at the catfight before them, their eyes following each roll and punch that was thrown. And almost as soon as it had began, the fight stopped. With a weighty thoom, both of Sammie’s hands were pinned down to the ground, and Lute sat silent atop her, glaring down. He sighed as his opponent tried to squirm herself free. “Lady, you need to stop this right now-” [img]http://i.imgur.com/AC28Z34.png[/img] Lute never had the chance to finish his sentence, as a sensation he could only liken to what he’d imagine felt like being hit by an out of control steam train slammed into his back, ripping him off of Sammie and hurtling him with unbelievable speed at the Big Top tent. From behind, Max blasted forwards with his fists punching the virtuoso, his thoughts laced with anger at the unseemly way this man had insulted and attacked Sammie! She might not have been his actual honey, but she was his honey’s [i]sister[/i] and his friend to boot, and there was no darn way in heck he’d stand back and allow him to do that! Lute’s body went flying off from Max’s grip as the rocketman stopped his forward propulsion in midair, with Lute sent dizzily spiralling straight through the air and arching to land smack dab in the centre of the Big Top’s performance ring (and thus, in the middle of the confrontations occurring between Vance and Guinevere’s groups). At the same time, another body came flying into the Big Top tent, this time ripping through from the ceiling. Both figures actually, as fate would have it, ended up colliding into each other at the same time, falling down together with an ungraceful splat. “Ow…” Lute and Poppy unanimously moaned. ------------ [img]http://i.imgur.com/2uDBgEK.png[/img] [b][u]Phillis Circus: Big Top[/u][/b] “Crispin…” Estelle began to speak again, standing herself up and off the fire brawler’s body, a hand rushing to her face to wipe her tears away. The other hand held onto the hilt of her Fireblade, drawing it free from the ground in which it stabbed. The tear wiping hand fell from Estelle’s face, her palm outstretched to Crispin’s own, pulling him back up to his feet. “I’m sorry,” She said. “I… I couldn’t control my body. He…” Estelle glared over her shoulder towards Vance, who concentration was lost in a sea of anger and disbelief at the audacity of the attack just now inflicted upon him and his circus. From Trixie’s assault on Tammie, Xandra’s assault on his own person, Aria’s attempt at breaking free from Guinevere and her plushie’s resulting retaliation and his sister’s deflection of Baltimore’s efforts to stop Vance, his anger and disbelief was building and building… and then peaked to an entirely new level once Poppy, Lute and Max unceremoniously appeared from out of nowhere. “Cretins…” He hissed. “He took control of it.” Estelle spat to the ground from beside Crispin. “He took control of my body and he [i]used[/i] me to attack you.” From where the blade of her sword met the hilt, a burning orange flame surrounded it, growing in intensity and heat down the length of the metal to the hilt. As if to match Estelle’s mounting anger it grew brighter and brighter, hotter and hotter… and Estelle’s shouts grew even louder. [b]“I’m going to beat the crap out of him!!”[/b] [b][center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMlKmELIhgY]Phillis Circus Big Top Boss Battle: Ladies and Gentlemen[/url][/center][/b]