X2.2 – A CIRCUS OF BROKEN PROMISES

X2.2.1 – Kidnapped

Roa woke up with a jolt. He felt nauseous. The ground beneath him was shaking as he sat up.

"Where—" he said as he looked around, noticing that he was inside some kind of wagon.

He stood up, barely able to keep his balance, shoving his face between the metal bars of a tiny window. He noticed a thick forest outside, filled with plants he had never seen before and the occasional small dinosaur scuttling about.

"Where are we?" asked Rosso, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder as he scratched his head.

"This doesn't look like Grand Market," he said. "Looks like we jumped. I don't—"

"They took us! We've been kidnapped, remember? When we were heading to the bathroom?" said Rosso louder, causing the boy to turn to him.

"That big guy!" said Roa. "I remember not feeling well, but then everything went blank."

"Yeah, that's because one of the circus people bonked you on the head from behind. Then he came after me. I tried to use the Haste Gift to gain some speed and fight back, but nothing happened," explained Rosso, shrugging his shoulders.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I couldn't use my aura for some reason."

The Sunflower made a thumbs-up and attempted to manifest the Compass. Nothing.

"I can't either," he said with a worried look.

"Looks like you kids are not as young as you look. You must have drunk from the fabled waters of immortality, haven't you?" said a man's voice from behind. "So--the legends are true."

"Who are you?" the children turned around.

"I'm nobody. Just another prisoner of Madame Solstice," a scrawny, middle-aged man said, slouching against the wooden walls of the wagon.

"Why did they take us?" Roa asked.

"First you tell me where the magic waters are—just in case I ever make it out of here," the man said with a stare. "I could take a few years off my back," he said, staring at his emaciated body.

Roa hesitated for a moment. "The fountain we drank from is in Ardor's Forge, at the chokepoint—but it's probably overrun with Shadows now, since its doors were opened. So, why are we being kidnapped?"

"No clue—but it's probably because that woman wants more free labor for her twisted shows," the stranger said.

"Where are they taking us?" asked Rosso.

"I have no idea. The circus moves constantly from world to world. It goes wherever Madame Solstice decide it goes—and that means wherever the biggest audiences are."

"It's alright. Our friends will come after us," Roa pointed out with a smile.

"Wrong, kid. Nobody is coming after you. The old hag is not that dumb. She closes the Exits behind her."

"Closes? You can close Exits?" Rosso asked.

The man laughed. "How in the hell did two rookie Jumpers find the legendary Waters of Ambrosia without even knowing how Exits work?" he laughed again and shook his head. "If you look at a portal in the eye, it closes—but, it takes about two to three seconds to disappear, which means you can effectively jump inside before it does. Let me guess, you also don't know what happens afterwards, do you?"

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"Well? Go on. Spill the beans, man."

The man shook his head again. "If you close an Exit and jump inside in time, on the other side, in the world you jump to, the portal opens. It's a good way to go back and forth between two worlds. You close it on one end to open it on the other side, then you go back to where you came from, if you need to."

"Wait, so we can go back to Grand Market then!" said Roa.

"Wrong. I told you; the old bag is not that stupid. Plus, it's too late. We've already jumped three times during your nap," the man said. "Madame Solstice always scrambles the portals behind her caravan. She'll close the first on one side, so that no one can follow her, then she'll jump again through another Exit, to yet another world, but this time, she won't close it before she jumps. This way nobody she captured can go back and escape either—and the path is broken, either way."

"I'm confused," said Rosso, scratching his head but then stopping. "Ouch—and we weren't taking a nap, man. They hit us over the noggin."

"Well, it doesn't matter, either way. No one is coming to save you boys, and you're going to have to get used to being a part of," he raised his hands and shook them in the air, "the most spectacular spectacle in Existence!" he said, rolling his eyes, then plopping his arms down.

"What's that noise?" asked Rosso.

A weird look and smile appeared on the stranger's face. "We are about to jump again."

The two heroes looked at each other. "We have to get out of here, now. The more we jump, the harder it will be to get back to Nirvana and the others," Roa said. "Stand back!" He made the shape of a gun with his hand and pointed it at the wall. Nothing. "My Gunhand doesn't work either. Why?"

The man smiled. "You boys drank the waters, became young again, but now you can't use your aura like you did in the past. You're not used to your new bodies—which means you are not used to their auras either."

"Damn it," they said in unison as the wagon fell into the portal and they lost consciousness in its darkness.

"Get up!" said a tall, angry-looking clown staring down at Roa.

"Who—"

"Get up. The boss wants a word with you both," he said, dragging them to their feet.

His big, hairy hands wrapped around their tiny wrists, pulling them out of the wagon by force. A massive, medieval-looking town surrounded them, filled with wizards and orcs. The heroes were brought inside another wagon and thrown to the ground in front of a large desk. The tall man walked out, slamming the wooden door behind him.

"Well, thank you for agreeing to meet with me, boys," said someone.

"We didn't agree to anything. Why did you kidnap us?" said Rosso.

"Ooh, we started on the wrong foot, didn't we? My name is Mr. Balter, and I am Madame Solstice's right hand man. I practically run this circus—you could even say it's mine, or just about. And who might you boys be?" he said with a large smile on his face.

"Suck it, cat-man. We're nobody of concern to you," Roa said.

Balter laughed. "That's no way to treat your host."

"You're not our host—you're our kidnapper. Let us go, man," Rosso said, pointing his finger at him.

"I'm afraid that's just—not going to happen. You see, we're running a very lucrative business here—and the show must go on."

"If you want free labor, look elsewhere. We refuse to work."

"Oh, no no no, no. I can get all the free labor I need. We have access to thousands of worlds. No—you're here because a little bird told me who you really are—or at least, who one of you is," he stared back and forth between the two. "More importantly, it's what you know that I am after."

"Crap," thought Roa, trying to keep a straight face.

"Turns out that one of you is the famous hero of Black Fortia—the Sunflower," Balter said. "The one who managed to find the way to the Core. So, spit it out. Which of you is it?"

"We won't tell you," said Roa.

"It's you, isn't it?" Balter said, causing the two kids to freeze. "Or—is it you?" he said, staring at Rosso. "It doesn't matter. I don't really care."

"How are you going to get your wish, then, if you don't who's who?" asked Roa.

"Wish?" Balter laughed. "I don't believe in such fairytales—but, most Free Folk do, as does the Old Order, which means that regardless of whether the Dreamer even exists, there's plenty of people willing to pay immense sums for that information—and for the one known as the Sunflower," he smiled as he sat up.

"We'll never tell you our names. You won't know who to sell," said Rosso.

Balter laughed again. "I'm going to sell the Sunflower to the highest bidder, and I'll throw in his friend, just to sweeten the deal. Then, the buyer can sort out who is who. How about that? Ingenious, isn't it?"

The two kids stood in silence, their angry eyes staring at the evil Jumper, then down to the floor.

"But I am feeling rather—good, today. How about I make a deal with you boys?" he said, as the two looked up again. "You entertain my audiences, make them laugh, make them cry—wow them. I want to hear claps so loud that they sound like the ocean. If you manage to entertain them enough—I will let you go. But only if the circus reaches a whole new level of—glory, thanks to you."

The two looked at each other.

"Deal?" he said, sticking out his hand.

"Alright," said Rosso, after a moment of hesitation.

The Sunflower shot him an angry, surprised look, causing his friend to lean over and whisper in his ear.

"Don't worry. As soon as we have an out, we'll escape," the boy from the desert whispered into Roa's ear.

"Great," said Balter. "Let's make those people enjoy their meaningless, miserable lives!"

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