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Thursday
1:54pm
C L O W N S
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(( ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴꜱ: Lightning Girl/[@FourtyTwo] | ᴍᴇɴᴛɪᴏɴꜱ: [various] ))[/center][/color]


Something felt different when Alaine took off to fly back to the Ferris Wheel -- aside from the fluttery feeling behind her ribs that didn't have much to do with the carnival at all. No, it was something in the air. Her flight felt off, like she was lower to the ground than she meant to be and had to work a little harder to stay above it.

Confused, she scanned the carnival grounds idly. Maybe the sudden amount of sugar in her system was messing with her? Or--

Her eye caught on a small figure below. A child, walking along the rows of food stalls with their parent, suddenly collapsed.

The parent exclaimed in surprise and Alaine immediately dropped down; her feet hit the ground a little harder than expected, almost like it had moved up to meet her. She didn't dwell on it for the moment, instead immediately moving for the parent trying to rouse their unconscious child.

[color=pink]"Amanda! Amanda, wake up-- wake... wake up..."[/color] The woman stammered, cutting herself off as Alaine approached.

[color=gray][b]"Hey, what happened? Are y--"[/b][/color] Her question died on her lips as the mom suddenly wobbled and keeled over as well, Alaine diving forward to catch her awkwardly before her head whacked the ground.

The movement made her dizzy -- at least she thought it was the movement -- and she attempted to carefully lower the woman the rest of the way to the ground, one hand reaching to find a pulse point as she turned slightly to look around for help. [color=gray][b]"Hey! Can I get some help?"[/b][/color]

No reply came. Almost every other person in the immediate area was passing out. She could hear James in her ear, asking for a sit rep. His voice and Lightning Girl's response were background noise as cries of surprise and fear started echoing all around, people panicking over unconscious friends and family or reaching up to find their noses suddenly bloody, steps stumbling as the echoes of mass chaos came from all over the carnival -- garbled with some heavily static announcement over the speakers.

[i]Something was very wrong.[/i] Alaine jumped to her feet and nearly fell over herself, a sudden wave of dizziness making her head pound. Her lungs were beginning to feel a little tight. [i]Wait[/i]. She knew what that was. Like the first few times she'd shot up into the sky upon discovering her ability to fly, unpracticed and not thinking about thinning oxygen... 

Was the carnival [i]flying?[/i] No -- there was no way. Right? Alaine dug a heel into the ground, steadying herself as more people began to pass out, creating a rather macabre scene of bodies strewn all around the fairgrounds like some kind of mass extinction had just hit. Although there were still quite a few figures on their feet, actually... and more were approaching every second, stepping from around tents and booths and all bearing one very unfortunate similarity.

They were all clowns.

Unfriendly looking clowns, at that.

[i]Shoot. Shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot.[/i] How had she not noticed? Well, she knew how she hadn't noticed, she'd been distracted. 

The realization made her head snap to the right, back the way she'd just been flying from. [i]Jet[/i]. What if he was unconscious somewhere? She was used to high altitudes in her own way, though this definitely felt wrong. She wasn't in control of this ascent, her body wasn't acclimating like it would if she was taking herself up. She didn't know how fast she was moving, she couldn't accommodate it. She didn't think Jet was used to high altitudes like that at all.

Her feet shifted, almost starting to step back that way -- but she stopped herself as a small seed of fear tried to take root in her stomach. Was she really about to abandon the remaining conscious civilians, easily fifteen or more in the immediate area, for one person? One person who was also superpowered and perfectly capable of handling himself in a bad situation, unlike the literal [i]children[/i] crying a few yards away from her?

Alaine didn't take the time to seriously consider it and determine the answer, instead pivoting on her heel and lunging for the nearest civilians. Two kids who looked twelve or younger and a teenager. 

[color=chocolate]"What's going on?"[/color] the teen gasped, pulling the two younger kids to himself. They all had similar noses. Probably siblings.

[color=gray][b]"I don't know,"[/b][/color] Blackstar replied honestly, shaking her head and glancing quickly around. Clowns, everywhere. Not good at all. There was a booth nearby though; the employee who'd been inside was nowhere to seen, but that might've been because they were passed out behind the counter. Pointing to the booth she added quickly, [color=gray][b]"Hide and don't come out, alright? It's all gonna be fine, don't worry."[/b][/color]

One of the younger kids, a girl with curls that reminded her so much of her own younger sister, looked like she was on the verge of tears. Alaine gave her a quick smile and a double thumbs-up as the teen hastily dragged his siblings towards the booth.

Turning again, Blackstar scanned the clown-filled surroundings. Only one thing to do -- distract and fight. 

[quote][color=FF69B4]"And actually, I am an [i]EVIL[/i] clown named GAGGLE, and you have all been fooled. Now time for my master PLAN where I eject you all into [b][i]SPACE[/i][/b]. Goodbye."[/color][/quote]
The audio on the speakers finally broke through for her and she made an exasperated face. What was even the point? Was he just after the heroes there and the civilians were collateral? Or was he trying to hit the highest number of casualties possible? Was there any rhyme or reason at all?

There were a few clowns closing in on her, others chasing down any still-awake civilians. Blackstar took a breath, ignoring the pounding in her head and launching herself up. Simultaneously, her energy flashed into existence around her hands, extending out into flickering blades of inverted light. 

While briefly in the air, she scouted the surrounding carnival grounds -- looking, without meaning too, for the familiar black and gold of Asteroid first, before scanning for any of her other teammates. Instead, she caught sight of one clown not actively hunting down heroes. He was ducking into a bathroom with what looked like a limp balloon in hand.

A bathroom? Immediately she thought of the story Jet had told her about his and Madcap's adventures with a secret passage and tunnels. No way that had something to do with all this... Actually, no it made a lot of sense that [i]that[/i] would have something to do with everything else. Whenever there were tunnels under someplace that wasn't supposed to have tunnels, something was usually amiss.

She made a note of the suspicious clown but focused on the current task first. Diving down, away from any running civilians, she made a display of herself. She was as good at drawing attention as she was avoiding it, when she wanted to be. 

It worked. A swarm of bloodthirsty clowns started scrambling her way as she straightened up, blades flickering at her sides, stars flashing in the corners of her vision. She didn't bother counting her would-be assailants, she could handle them easy. She was already starting to get mad, blood churning in her veins as her head pounded -- this Gaggle bastard wasn't just picking fights with heroes, he was endangering [i]children[/i], hundreds of innocents. 

Not okay. Not at all. 

[color=gray][b]"Yeah, yeah, c'mon,"[/b][/color] she muttered eagerly, fists tightening, weight shifting as she got ready for the collision. The white lenses of her mask began to burn with the light of her eyes behind them, her lips quirking up slightly as the adrenaline started to blur the lines between solid land and the cosmos. 

The first of the group reached her and lunged, swinging something. She didn't even register what, her body feinting to the side like she'd seen it coming from a mile away. Back came her bladed fist, ready to punch down, punch [i]through[/i]--

The clown had stumbled down to a knee and twisted around then, hastily trying to parry as he looked up at her. 

All at once, she was somewhere else entirely. A desert, in the dark, early hours of the morning. There wasn't a murderous clown scrabbling on the ground in front of her, there was a man from a cartel, thrown out of a van she'd slammed into moments ago. He was begging. He had kids. 

But she killed him. And then she turned around and flew back to that compound, and she kept going and kept swinging and she could [i]taste[/i] the blood again--

Alaine stumbled backwards, blades of cosmic energy flickering out like someone had flipped a switch on them. Cold sweat beaded her brow as James' words rang in her head.

[quote][color=lightblue]"Weirdly, it's shorter, as coroners tend to just want to know how to put down the mess they're about to walk into on their forms. We work in one hell of a fucked up business."[/color][/quote]
She couldn't do it. She didn't [i]want[/i] to.

[i]Whack![/i] Something struck her across the back and she stumbled forward, fists jumping up as she spun around -- but no blades came that time, the glow from her eyes smoking out like a dying fire. 

[i]Great,[/i] she shouted at herself mentally. [i]Great frickin' time to have a moral crisis, Alaine! Yay! [b]This is fantastic![/b][/i]

The clown who jumped forward then looked way too excited to throw a punch. Alaine took it like a champ, right in the face.

Well, if her nose hadn't been bleeding before, it definitely was then. She spat blood to the side and threw her arms up just in time to block another punch, but the hits were already coming from every angle. Something sharp bit into the back of her shoulder and she wrenched away, not exactly in the mood to get stabbed to death in the middle of being bludgeoned. 

[color=gray][b]"[i]Hrk[/i]--"[/b][/color] Okay, well. Her vision spun briefly -- whether it was because of whatever had just smacked her in the back of the head or the altitude sickness, she wasn't too sure. This wasn't the way she would've liked things to go, but with a mental block in the way of her cosmic blades... being a nice, distracting punching bag was just going to have to do.

And no, she wasn't calling for backup -- everybody else definitely had their hands full, and Alaine wasn't the type to ask for help for something she could do herself. Like take a beating.

Of course, getting beat up was only going to be "helpful" for so long. In fact, if there was anyone around -- they'd either gotten away already or passed out by then. She got distracted trying to see through the disturbingly thick crowd of clowns, getting one in a headlock just long enough to peer past him.

Looked like the goons on the edge of the crowd were getting bored, starting to stalk around and rip through the booths. Booths where people were hiding, if they were still awake. Blackstar startled, realizing she wasn't being [i]enough[/i] of a distraction.

She needed to [i]do[/i] what she'd [i]known[/i] she'd have to do. She had to [i]do it[/i]. 

Someone grabbed one of her arms, yanking her back; she let go of the clown she'd had in a headlock, bringing a leg up to plant her boot in his ribs and push herself off of him instead, attempting to jump into the sky despite the spinning in her head suggesting she not try that. She didn't have to worry about whether or not flying was a bad idea though, she didn't get the chance to get away. She'd barely gotten a foot above the nearest clown before one of them had jumped up and grabbed her ankle.

Any other time she would've just kept going and kicked him off, but it wasn't any other time. She was disoriented for multiple reasons and flailed instead of flying, yanked down like a runaway balloon -- only she hit the ground a lot harder than a balloon.

And the ground was [i]definitely[/i] not a good place to be.

Alaine winced, right eye twitching under her mask as blood dripped down from somewhere and got under the lens; she rolled away from the first kick, but as she tried to push to her feet she was just shoved down again. Someone heavy put their full weight in their boot and stomped right between her shoulder blades, knocking what little oxygen she still had out of her for a moment. 

Gasping as the kicks rained down, her head picked up just enough to see droplets of her own blood splattering against the ground in front of her face.

The sight was familiar.

[i]Too familiar.[/i]

[center]―✧―[/center]

[i]Red droplets spattered onto the ground as she ducked her head down, breathing ragged, listening to the voices of a drug lord and his men as they started barking back and forth in Spanish. The sound reached her ears like it was coming through water. She could feel her whole body shaking, panic still heavy in her chest as she struggled to think.

What could she do? She knew she had enhanced strength, but she didn’t know how strong – so far she hadn’t had much success with those chains. Was it leftover tranquilizer in her system? The physical effects of being hung upside down for who knew how long? No doubt everyone in that room was armed – even if she did break loose, she’d get shot before she could get out. And she couldn’t get shot. She was the only one who had any chance at saving her family, she couldn’t [/i]afford[i] to get herself killed.

But what could she [/i]do?[i] Oh God. [b]Oh God oh God oh GodohGodohGod–[/b] She was starting to hyperventilate. 

This was all her fault. She thought she could play hero. She thought she was big enough to decide when it was okay she’d killed someone. She hadn’t paid attention, she’d been sloppy, she’d been [/i]stupid[i]–

They were gonna kill her family. [b]They were gonna kill her family.[/b] She had to do something. [/i]She couldn’t do [b]anything[/b]. 

[i]She was alone. No one was coming to help her. No one had [/i]ever[i] come to save her. No one was going to be able to save them [/i]except[i] for her.

The drug lord was screaming in the background, words she didn’t understand pounding through her skull as she squeezed her eyes shut tight, feeling her veins beginning to burn. 

Her eyes were closed but she could see the stars. Dimly at first then brighter. On the edge of her vision then more, and more, and brighter, and wilder, until the darkness behind her eyes was full of them. 

God, she was so scared. She’d never been so scared in her life.

She’d never been so [b]furious[/b] in her life.[/i]

[center]―✧―[/center]

Stars. They were pulsing behind her eyes like the insistent, overwhelming voices they were.

Alaine's arms weren't curled over her head to protect herself, they were there trying to hold herself in.

[i]I don't want to do it. I don't want to do it.[/i]

She'd come there on John's advice, joined SDN, scrubbed herself out of recent history to avoid [i]that[/i] happening again. She couldn't do it again. She [i]wouldn't--[/i]

The glow of Blackstar's eyes streamed out through the gaps between her arms and fingers. Some of the abuse from the clowns faltered, just for a second; but it was enough. Sucking in a breath, she used the momentum and the extra surge of energy in her veins to shove off one of the heavy boots pinning her down and shoot up into the sky, fast enough that none of them seemed to expect it or could manage to grab her again.

She didn't know what had happened to the civilians she'd been endeavoring to help protect, and she couldn't take the time to look. The madness needed to stop, [i]immediately[/i], and she could tell from the way her limbs were shaking and her head was spinning that there was no time to waste. 

Fumbling through the air, she flipped herself over the top of a large tent and out of sight of the mobbing clowns; sliding down the canopy, she let herself drop to the ground, grunting slightly as her boots made contact. One leg buckled and she toppled over unceremoniously, rolling into the dirt with a muffled wheeze. 

[color=gray][b]"Ah... ow..."[/b][/color] Alaine inhaled shortly, allowing herself just a half-second to lay there and wince before gritting her teeth and pushing herself up. [color=gray][b]"Hffph..."[/b][/color] Huffing a few strands of loose, mousy hair out of her face, she looked up and spotted the bathroom that weird clown had headed into.

[color=gray][b]"[i]Move[/i],"[/b][/color] she growled to herself, verbally urging her limbs to work. She was gonna be feeling that tomorrow, that was for sure.

Up she got, stumbling a little and sloppily dragging her arm across her face. A glance down, still blinking and squinting that right eye behind a cracked lens, revealed she was quite the mess. The white on her uniform made the blood stand out pretty obviously. Probably a good thing most of the kids were unconscious, honestly...

Blackstar steeled herself and gathered what strength and resolve she had, stalking towards that bathroom. The stars were swirling in the edges of her vision, a cosmic force she was desperately struggling to keep in check simmering in her veins. That part of her was almost reveling in the too-quick ascent and the looming threat of joining the cosmos again.

[i]No more flashbacks. [b]Not now[/b].[/i] She strode closer, a determined scowl settling on her bloody face. [i]If you've gotta kill a clown -- then you've gotta kill a damned clown.[/i]

She could do it [i]once.[/i] If she had to. If that was what it took to save the whole carnival.

Kicking the door in, Blackstar reached out and braced herself heavily on the frame, yelling into the bathroom, [color=gray][b]"Hey! Google or whoever the heck you are!"[/b][/color]

No reply. She looked around, shaking her head slightly as the blood in her eye irritated her. Something was off. Nobody in the stalls -- nobody at the sinks, but one of the sinks was dripping. Zeroing in on that one, she pushed off the doorframe and stepped over, pausing briefly as she caught sight of herself in the dingy mirror above it.

...Yikes. 

Frowning at her one cracked lens, she refocused on the sink, not sure what she was doing but feeling more and more peeved by the second. A step back -- then another kick, this one aimed right at the sink. The basin chipped and cracked, knocked slightly back into the wall... which, in turn, seemed to fall back into a particularly rectanglular slot. 

[i]Secret passage.[/i] Blackstar let the energy crackle around her hand briefly as she didn't bother trying to find a code or lever, simply bashing the wall in until the passage beyond was revealed. She didn't waste time while hopping over the rubble, slipping down the passage into a wider space. Still no clown in sight, but she could see openings to other passageways branching off in all different directions, long passages. No telling where Gaggle had gone, and no way she could find out; maybe if she had a few hours to spare, but she wasn't even sure she had a few minutes. 

One more hasty glance around to make sure she wasn't about to be ambushed and Blackstar turned, hurrying back the way she'd come as she reached up to speak into her comms. [color=gray][b]"I've got some tunnels over here, what's everyone's status?"[/b][/color]

She stopped as she reemerged into the bathroom, frowning as no answers graced her ear. No LG, no Payback, no Fenom-man. She tapped the outside of her cowl over where the earpiece was, already high heartrate not getting any better. No Hat Trick, no James, no Eclipse... 

[color=gray][b]"Hello? Team?"[/b][/color] Still no replies. 

Was -- was everyone gone?

Alaine faltered, tapping at her ear more insistently and ignoring the pain. [color=gray][b]"Hello? Guys? I-- Jet? [i]Jet?[/i]"[/b][/color]

In distress she shoved her fingers under the cowl, fumbling for the earpiece and scooping it loose. She pulled her hand back and the device tumbled into her palm with a few loose chips, obviously damaged. Probably from where she'd been getting whacked and kicked in the head... Alaine tried to rein in her emotions, throwing the earpiece to the floor agitatedly. 

Who was closest? [i]Lightning Girl[/i]. She was probably still near the Ferris Wheel...

Stepping outside Blackstar steeled herself and pushed off the ground with a wince, not taking the time to see if there were any clowns in the immediate area coming after her. Up she went, ignoring the way she wobbled midair and scouring the ground for the gray-clad heroine, in case she'd moved away from the Ferris Wheel.

And she had, apparently; barely a minute later Blackstar had spotted her, out in the carnival grounds with a trail of downed clown assailants in her wake and more closing in. Faltering midair at the sudden sighting, Blackstar course-corrected and circled back, struggling to fly as smoothly as usual. Her body was confused by her flight and the flight of the carnival under her, still unable to figure out how to compensate. 

Lightning Girl wasn't doing good. Even without comms, Alaine heard that scream. 

The stars at the edge of her vision responded in kind, flaring like old, eager voices in the back of her mind. She felt herself falter in the sky again and gritted her teeth; through the blood still bothering her right eye, she could see more clowns coming. How there was that many she had no clue, but they were clearly headed for the injured heroine below.

Alaine could help.

It wasn't that she didn't want to or that she'd rather run away -- she was going down there, no doubt about it, but she knew there was only way way she'd [i]really[/i] be able to help.

The cosmos swirling in her blood jumped at the notion, searing at the various points of pain scattered across her body, tingling at her fingertips. 

[I]I don't want to[/i]. Alaine didn't know who she was pleading to. The stars listened but they didn't answer. They never gave her any other option. [i]I don't want to--[/i]

No other option. Lightning Girl was hurt, her fellow teammates probably were, too -- innocent people were hurt, dying, maybe already dead, countless children among them. 

She didn't want to touch that side of her power ever again, but she'd known she'd have to eventually. It was a disease in her blood, always with her, always in her head, and it wanted the one thing she kept refusing to give it, one thing hero work was bound to supply. Her head was a warzone -- a disorienting clash of old horrors and the very real promise of new ones, pleas to be someone she still liked and the overwhelming realization that the only way to help was to sacrifice what she wanted. Like always. 

Like since she was a kid and she wanted to watch the horse movie but Brook wanted to watch Barbie. [i]Sacrifice[/i], let her little sister be happy. Like when she was eighteen and she wanted to be a ranch hand but her parents worried it wasn't sustainable. [i]Sacrifice[/i], go to college, get a degree to ease their concerns. 

Like when Lightning Girl was bleeding and screaming and the carnival was on fire and Jet was probably out there somewhere too and she didn't want them to see her like [i]that[/i], she didn't want them to look at her and know she could do [i]that[/i], she didn't want to be that monster she hated.

[I][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8FhYSP0xiY]Sacrifice[/url][/i].

Blackstar slammed into the incoming clowns before they got to Lightning Girl, where the other bloodied heroine was hanging onto a claw machine. She didn't pour ozone like LG, and her blades made of dark, cosmic energy only flashed when they formed; she wasn't a bright, twinkling star come to the rescue, she wasn't graceful. She crashed down like a meteor come to cause a mass extinction. It wasn't pretty. [i]It wasn't pretty last time, either.[/i]

To her, she looked more like a villain than any kind of hero.

[i]Stars, everywhere[/i]. Her eyes were burning -- physically smoking cold, white light... but also stinging with tears, not that she'd realized it. It'd probably look a bit unsettling when that right side of her mask started trailing red down the rest of her face, like she was crying blood under it.

The cosmos were screaming in her head, and she didn't know if it was real, an effect of the oxygen deprivation, or actually people screaming as she ripped into them. She was seeing in jarring doubles -- the past overlaying the present. One minute it was a clown trying to get to Lightning Girl under her bladed fist, and the next it was a cartel man, scrambling to protect himself or protect his boss.

None of them made it far.

But there weren't as many as before; the overlap of memory and current events started thinning out as Blackstar swung one blade in a sharp arch, simply beheading the next clown that charged at her. And, for a second, there wasn't anything else to swing at.

The energy pooled in her palms and fingertips and she swallowed thickly, blinking as she registered the probably-momentary lapse in assailants. Her head was pounding. And spinning. And spiraling... There was a tug in her shoulders, like the ever-approaching stars were trying to pull her up. 

What had she been doing? She wasn't... it wasn't Arizona. Her family was fine. Right? She glanced down, seeing a drop, two drops of blood hit the ground, falling from her fist. She didn't think it was hers. In fact she [i]knew[/i] some of those hits had been deep. Her fists had probably been [i]in[/i] someone at some point. Someone[i]s[/i].

Alaine gritted her teeth, ignoring the copper taste in her mouth and squeezing her eyes shut, blades still burning quietly at her sides. 

[I]Right[/i]. The carnival. Lightning Girl.

Dread pooled in her stomach immediately, but now she was fighting not to let go of the power too soon -- while she was embracing it, the effects of her first failed fight took a little less of a toll, and there were probably still clowns nearby and headed their way. 

And she knew, in the far recesses of her mind where she was still very much just Alaine... that as soon as it faded out, she'd feel like she was going to throw up.

[color=gray][b]"Do-- Do you still have comms?"[/b][/color] Her voice sounded strained as she turned slightly, addressing Lightning Girl. She was breathing heavy, wobbling a little, and not fully turning her head -- as if she was purposely avoiding looking directly at the other heroine with her eyes smoking light through her mask. She was on the verge of going supernova again, and she knew looking too closely and seeing how exactly LG was hurt would send her chasing down clowns with a vengeance, when that wasn't what she needed to be focusing on.

More than that, she'd caught a glimpse of Lightning Girl's half-shredded mask. She was scared to see what expression might be on the other heroine's face if she looked. [color=gray][b]"Mine broke. There's -- tunnels. Lots of tunnels. Under us."[/b][/color]

The revelation was accompanied by a stiff jerk of one cosmically-bladed hand, the tip of the blade indicating the ground beneath them. [color=gray][b]"Goggles or whoever went... under. I tried to follow him but there were too many ways to go. I lost him. I--"[/b][/color]

Blackstar's strained voice, slightly deeper than normal and far less friendly, finally cracked a little. [color=gray][b]"I don't know what to do."[/b][/color]

[i]Blackstar[/i] hadn't said that, Alaine had. She hadn't meant to show that hand. She didn't want to do it. She'd just massacred a bunch of clowns in a decisively brutal way, severed limbs scattered among the bodies and gore spilling out of sliced-through, half-cauterized heads. [i]She didn't want to do it[/i]. But she'd [i]had[/i] to. She didn't know what else to do. 

If she could actually think, she might be able to find an answer. Obviously they needed to find Gaggle, and if he was in the tunnels that meant they probably needed to get in there after him. But how? What about civilians? What if the clowns followed them down and boxed them all in? What if the whole team wasn't even intact?

Even covered in blood and grime and draining the dregs of power from broken carnival machines -- as far as Alaine was concerned, Lightning Girl was the only one there who might know what their next move [i]should[/i] be. At the very least, she could spread the information about the tunnels. The violence had to serve a purpose. A [i]big[/i] one. Or else Alaine would spiral back into that place where she'd been months ago, and she couldn't do that again. [i]She couldn't...[/i]