The Carnival

[Piper Juunanagou]

Five minutes after departing from the bridge of the attraction’s command center, Piper found herself rounding a final corner and entering back into the same area. With a grin on her face, the soldier looked down at the small screen on the vehicle’s dashboard and noted that her ruthless and nearly flawless genocide of the alien invaders had surpassed the attraction’s former high score—the one set by Gamer.

“I can see this guy’s inept in more ways than one,” Piper chuckled as the safety bar slowly began to rise up off her lap and into an upright position. Reaching down to her hip, the woman unbuckled her seatbelt and rose up out of the uncomfortable plastic seat. “Splendid!” She declared to a nonexistent audience as she placed her hands on the small of her back and stretched out her back to help alleviate the residual discomfort.

“Welcome back, Cadet Juunanagou!” It was the same robotic voice as before, but this time it was coming from a different communication’s panel. “You set a new high score! The world is proud to have marines like you fighting the good fight, Cadet,” the potentially automated voice added enthusiastically as Piper stepped out of the car and onto the boarding platform.

“Do I just follow this queue?” The woman asked after depressing the button on the panel. Despite the fact that she was alone, Piper nonetheless gestured toward the rope-lined walkway that led up to a set of large, circular metal doors.

“Now if you’ll simply return the gauntlet to its rightful harness, I’ll open up the escape hatch for you, Cadet,” the voice replied as a leather harness dropped down from the ceiling. For a moment, the Sentinel simply stared at the dangling series of straps and buckles, and then a smile slowly began to creep across her pallid countenance. Extending her gauntleted hand toward the exit door, Piper sucked in a deep gulp of air and gradually breathed it out as she focused on tapping into her ki.

“There we go,” the woman muttered as the palm of the glove began to shimmer once again. A beat later, an erratic burst of energy erupted from the soldier’s gauntleted fist and slammed into the metal doors. With no real reinforcements in place, the prop doors blew apart down the middle as the numerous pneumatic components that operated the door broke apart and began to hiss violently.

“Cadet Juunanagou, you are stealing Star Fleet property! Cease and desist immediately, or we will be forc—”

“Shut up,” Piper interrupted as she swung her hand around and blew apart the communication’s panel. Turning toward the ruptured door, the blond flexed her metal-coated fingers and smirked as she ducked under the gaping hole in the exit. A few yards ahead, there was a giant black curtain quite similar to the one she had passed through on her way into the boarding area.

“Cease and desist!” The two voices were very similar in tone to the panel Piper had destroyed moment’s earlier, but this time, they were actual robots with actual electrified billy clubs. Turning around, the woman frowned heavily as she leveled her newfound toy with the first of the two robot law enforcers. A beat later, Piper twitched as a bolt of energy leapt from her palm and slammed into the robot’s helmeted cranium. The machine’s head snapped back as electrical sparks and shards of glass and steel erupted from the impact site.

Moving her aim to the other advancing robot, the Sentinel gritted her teeth and narrowed her gaze as her gauntleted palm began to shimmer. Then—without much forewarning—Piper lost her strength and her arm fell limp at her side. Despite her tenacity a few second’s earlier, the woman was now gripped with a strange weakness. The dull throbbing felt like the muscle ache one experienced the day after working out a little too hard.

“Shit,” Piper groaned as she looked down at the stolen device. Had exiting the attraction somehow caused the gauntlet to require more of her ki to function?

“Cease and desist!” The remaining robotic policemen shouted as it lunged forward with its billy club hoisted above its head. Staggering backwards, Piper’s eyes widened as the electrified weapon passed just inches in front of her face. Although she knew she could probably handle the machine, the woman opted to go the less strenuous avenue, and after shoving the robot off balance, she pivoted on her heels and sprinted toward the exit curtain. Throwing her hands out in front of her, Piper shoved the heavy curtain aside and erupted out of the poorly lit building into the artificial sunlight of the carnival.

“Well that was unpleasant,” the Sentinel whispered between gasps for air as she found herself a little more winded than she would have liked given she’d only sprinted a couple yards at best. Nevertheless, she still felt a sense of delight in having triumphed over yet another of Gamer’s inept machines.

“Cease and desist!”

“Should have been able to call that one,” Piper groaned as she turned and watched as the robotic law enforcer came smashing through the heavy curtain and continued its beeline toward the rather exasperated woman. Clenching her fists, the soldier was prepared to combat the robot when she heard a rasping, reptilian voice bark a command her way.

“Duck!” The unknown arrival shouted, and with no real reason not to comply, Piper dropped down into a crouched position. A beat later, a sphere of violet energy zipped over the soldier’s head and slammed into the gut of the advancing robot. The orb erupted on contact—separating the two halves of the machine and scattering its charred, twisted insides in an impressively wide radius around its ruined corpse.

“…Super effective,” Piper whispered to herself as she rose up out of her crouch and turned to see that she had been spared from robot combat by Szar—the very same changeling she’d spent an entire drug-ridden SUV ride with so long ago. “Szar?” Piper asked as she took a step toward the armor-plated alien.

“Hello, Piper,” Szar remarked in a hoarse tone as he glanced around the woman at the broken robot. “I suppose that will teach our dear friend not to assail a woman, eh?” He added before punctuating his remark with a gruff chuckle.

“Didn’t you die?” The woman asked—ignoring the changeling’s awkward attempt at humor. “You were blown up by a rocket launcher after we tried to escape from that woman,” Piper added as a frown spread across the changeling’s reptilian features.

“I got teleported by that explosion,” Szar responded as he suddenly turned his gaze to the ground. “A few months after that, I threw myself in front of an attack intended for someone I had just met, and you know what, Piper? They sent me to hell,” he remarked as he dug the toe of his boot into the pavement.

… More zombies? The thought caused Piper’s right eye to twitch, but she was quick to slap a hand over it right before Szar lifted his gaze up to once again met hers.

“You okay?” He asked as he furrowed his brow at the woman’s odd behavior.

“Y-yea,” Piper answered quickly as she lowered her gauntleted hand away from her face. “That was just a touching story, Szar.”

“Bullshit is what it is,” the changeling rasped as he crossed his arms over his small chest. “You know how fun hell is? Do you?”

“I’m sorry,” Piper mumbled as she turned her eyes away from Szar’s rage-filled gaze. After a couple of beats, she looked back and flashed the shorter combatant a smile. “Do you want to ride the Ferris wheel?”

“Fuck yes.”