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The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei
Omake: Operetta and Stereo Embark On An Adventure
by Regina Magia


Everton in Liverpool, a Friday afternoon a month before Redet Lum's expulsion from Earth...

"Ugh! Do you believe that outfit?!"

"It's so tacky, I can't look at it!"

Bonnie Anderson shook her head as she walked away from the two popular girls in her class at the North Liverpool Academy, letting their mocking flow off her like rainwater. So what if they didn't appreciate her love of punk and rock music? So what if the teachers gave her detention for wearing earrings and baring her midriff?! So what if she was seen as a social pariah at school...!

Bonnie herself was Gifted with the power of the Sonic Valkyrie, Sekokaer'buo ("Stereo"), thus no longer had any reason to reside in Merseyside, much less on Earth itself. The only reason she had come today was to pick up Milo Farrell, a fellow Terran-turned-Yizibajohei she recently befriended. He — who was now the current incarnation of the Master of Happy Tones, Tyuotadite ("Operetta") — was as much a rock fan as she; he had introduced her to the joys of folk and glam music. She reciprocated by introducing the Jamaican-Briton to bands like Bon Jovi, AC/DC and similar groups. As a result, he had become her only friend at this school full of what definitely were the textbook definition of "umale".

So when she had been Gifted, Bonnie invited Milo along for the ride.

Spotting him by the door to Room 123, she ran over. "Hey! Ready to go?!"

"Yep!" he replied as he hoisted his backpack onto his bag, moving to follow her out of the school. "You bring your music...?"


The southern polar continent of Yiziba, a day later...

"Okay, let's recap the script..."

Now clad in their jumpsuits, Milo and Bonnie sat across from two natives who asked the Liverpudlians for help in their pending fight scene campaign. The blonde fair-skinned woman with a wild hairstyle was the current incarnation of the Mistress of Barriers, Tyuoduto ("Impasse"). Born on the southern polar continent as Rokibame'e La'anomug'ga, the would-be glam rock singer met Milo and Bonnie two years ago, shortly after both were Gifted. Her companion, who resembled an African-American linebacker for a gridiron team playing for the NFL, was the current incarnation of the Slick Morpher, Dimkuo ("Slideshow"), which made him a master allasomorph. Born on the southern shores of the central equatorial continent, Ieguseam We'eka'arum befriended Rokibame'e shortly after both had been Gifted themselves while still kids; they had formed a battle group partnership and had taken on all comers since that time.

"The planet that's earned the interest of a lot of people here is Prueki," Rokibame'e explained. "It's located beyond the outspin edge of Yehisrite space. According to what Daturie and Kikhodato both discovered thanks to their videocams-in-the-stars, the people of this world are due for their own Dawn of Power within the next series." As both Terran-borns nodded in understanding, the Mistress of Barriers added, "There's no Great Crystal of Power on the planet and the mesonium content in the biosphere's nothing to write a script on. Still, occurrences of metahuman abilities beyond any mastery of background lomtumsam has started to crop up and the norms are taking notice; it's not so different than what was happening on Earth before your second worldwide fight scene six mini-series ago."

"Mystery men," Bonnie mused.

"As your people called it," Ieguseam affirmed with a nod, crossing his arms. "Given what all our first-selves went through during the Dawn of Power, many people here on Yiziba believe the humane thing to do is to go to Prueki and help the locals there adjust to what's happening around them. If we do that, we can help them avoid things like the Starvation Times. Not to mention some of the umale leaders on Yehisril looking their way in case things go insane."

The Liverpudlian teenagers smirked. While relations between the Free Planetary State of Yiziba and the Royal Kingdoms of Yehisril — one of the four large local galactic powers within close reach of the World of the Forge — were peaceful, the attitudes of the latter race when it came to trying to understand what drove the former pretty much could be summed up by a glance at the character of Obelix from any Asterix comic from Belgium whenever the menhir deliveryman confronted something that just didn't make sense. And while most of the ruling crown princes of that vast swath of territory weren't really interested in expanding their domains into other races' territories, there were the troublemakers like the current ruler of Kyotos, Prince Sheko; all one had to do was check out what was REALLY going on with Tariko Katabarbe's other would-be "wife" to see why. "Well, no sense in those casting rejects from Star Trek trying to butt into this," Milo noted. "Any possible opposition, Roki?"

"One group," Rokibame'e warned. "The natives of that world are under the control of a being named Jikan. He's a Daevan. Similar to the Goa'uld: A parasitical race of insects that love to possess host bodies since they're so small in natural form, they're helpless against any potential predator. There are a whole swarm of Daevans on Prueki now. Unlike our would-be echo voice-overs from that swamp planet the Unas come from, the Daevans are interested in maintaining 'order' on those planets they take interest in." As her childhood friend and the two Terran-borns scowled on hearing the sneer in Rokibame'e's voice when she said that word, she shook her head, "Damned homr'bu umale!"

"So we go find this rebel group you told us about who know the truth of this Jikan bitch, unleash a fight scene on her arse to knock her off her stolen throne, right?" Bonnie asked, then she nodded as she sat back in her chair, swinging her legs in contemplation. "Damn! Never thought I'd finally get out of that arse-wipe of a school, to say anything of going to visit other bloody planets!" She and her friend shared a knowing look. "Getting 'superpowers' and fighting alien control freaks just puts icing on the cake!"

"Hell, if we get to introduce them to rock music, so much the better," Milo added, causing a round of laughter from the others in the room...

Fin...


WRITER'S NOTES

Some Yizibajohei social terms introduced here:

Recap the script — To review a meeting or briefing.

Videocams-in-the-stars — Multimedia sensor probes that can scan anything, usually always found in high orbit over a planet.

Nothing to write a script on — Same as the Terran "Nothing to write home about".

Second worldwide fight scene — The Second World War.

Would-be echo voice-overs — Anyone who speaks with an echo in their voice to sound imperious or god-like.

A couple translations: Lomtumsam — Literally "pure chaos", the Yizibajohei euphemism for magic; Homr'bu umale — Literally "scripted same", this is used for a group of people who behave exactly according to a set of rules with no deviation, as if they were following the instructions in a drill manual.

Daturie (the Academician) and Kikhodato (the Philosopher), by the way, are Elizabeth Wakefield (from Sweet Valley High) and Tánja Chapáeva (one of Fred's original characters).

The concept of Outspin implies travelling in the opposite direction parallel to the central axis of a spiral arm within a galaxy away from the galactic core. The opposite direction would be Inspin. Going directly towards the centre of the galaxy is Coreward, while moving away is Spinward.

Also, for those who don't know the Asterix comics created by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo in the 1950s, Obelix is a magically-altered Gaul warrior who is blessed with super-strength, super-speed and some forms of invulnerability. Whenever he confronted something he thought was insane, he would tap the side of his head with his index finger multiple times and say "(subject) is crazy!" That's how many Yehisrites (first introduced in the TSY story "Ancient Ties") view Yizibajohei; yes, the warriors of Yehisril admire the metahumans of Yiziba for their passion in battle...but in the eyes of any Yehisrite, Yizibajohei seem to fight for NOTHING AT ALL, which doesn't make sense to any of the former race.