Circo De la Luna

I own nothing! So that's SSB.

Yeah. Yeah. I know... late late update.

When he came back to his senses, the police constable groaned faintly as he was laying uncomfortably on something that felt like smooth floor. Noting there still wasn't a single source of light anywhere nearby, Chief Constable Falco Lombardi dragged himself up into a sitting position.

Falco blinked twice to try to get his thoughts together. Before visiting his wife, Kat's, grave; he was celebrating his 70th birthday as well as his 54th year in the Police department. Even if he was as old as he was, he was still at the top of his game and health; bringing in human scum on a daily basis and receiving the righteous praise and prizes he deserved. He was the main source of inspiration and the main man in the force. He was the best. He knew he was the best and he soaked up every second of it. It was all about him. The Police world directly revolved around him. Without him and his heroic antics, the cities would be grounded with human vermin tormenting innocent furries and Pokemon like they have always done. Perhaps in a similar fashion to how he was now... or worse.

The officer brought his hands on his face to check if he was blindfolded. Fortunately his touch didn't meet anything else but his own blue feathers, making the beast chuckle lightly. He wasn't even tied up or shackled - just what kind of a capture was this?

"What an amateur," the leather-clad bird mused to himself as he took out his reflector and began sending small beams of blue light around. It wasn't much, but enough to reveal that he was indeed on a dark-wooded floor, surrounded by walls which seemed metallic. Reaching his other hand forward to examine the closest wall a bit better, the police constable flinched backward a bit as it seemed like a hand reached towards him from the dark - but quickly after that he kicked himself mentally; it was just a mere reflection. Was he surrounded by mirrors? Yep... even the floor was a giant mirror. A faint snort passed the bird's beak as he rose up, swiping dirt off from his suit with his other hand.

"To be truly honest, at first I didn't actually know what I should even do with you", a smooth voice spoke up from the darkness, causing Falco flinch a bit again. Gazing around with the faint light the small, broken reflector allowed, he tried to locate the source of voice. When the try seemed to be more or less in vain, the constable simply settled for a mocking statement: "Looking at what you've done so far, I'd say you still don't know what you're doing."

He was answered with a faint chuckle which was followed by just as amused words: "Oh, I'm afraid you misunderstood me there. I just couldn't decide what would be agonizing enough for you."

"Oh, I'm terrified," the bird-creature rolled his eyes, snorting again, as he still tried to find the source of the words spoken to him.

"Please do save your sarcasm - usually it could be entertaining, but not this time", even though the voice began with the same, light tone, it dropped into a purely murderous in a matter of seconds: "Instead of watching your little plays of arrogance, I'm just waiting to see you crawling on the floor, face painted with suffering."

"How honest of you", Falco replied casually, ignoring a faint shiver sprinting up his spine due to the sudden change in the voice tone. Again, all he got back was a chuckle.

"I'm a man of a simple policy", the voice continued again, tone returning to a calm, yet sickeningly grim one: "Messing up with my circus is one thing, ruining my evening is another - but if you fuck with my crew, I'll make sure your very existence will be sorry for simply existing."

"I didn't touch your crew," he snapped back.

"Well... I'm sure you remember Mario and his wife. You and your partner Mewtwo paid them a visit at a certain tea shop."

The officer couldn't stop himself from inhaling uneasily, his mouth feeling suddenly dry. He frowned a bit, yet it didn't take too long for him to raise a smug grin back on his beak as he stated: "I'm excited to see you try."

At least now his capturer's identity had been confirmed - and Falco would pay even his prized blaster to the red-clad Master of Nightmares if he was wrong. The only mystery remaining was how the Ringleader had been able to get him trapped here... and how could he get out of there?

"Oh, so am I," the Ringmaster's deep voice snickered, "To see how full of yourself you are after all."

With that, the bird's surroundings began to light up slowly, the withdrawing darkness revealing dozens after dozens of the royal's reflections. Exactly what he expected... but it was next to impossible to deny that the armed avian felt a bit confused as he put off the reflector which had worked as his light till that moment.

"All in all, it is all about you, isn't it?" suddenly the Ringleader's mocking voice seemed to come right from behind the officer, causing the avian to turn swiftly around out of reflex. After the turn, another reflex kicked in, making the bird jump a bit backwards as he was suddenly facing his captor - or at least a reflection of him on the mirror. A small, crooked smile made its way on the Ringmaster's dark lips as he raised his top hat a bit with his other hand as a greeting.

"About time for you to show up", Falco remarked as he straightened up and raised his beak in a cocky manner, eyeing the reflection of the red-clad man with suspicion. Oddly enough, unlike the Falco's, the Ringmaster's reflection didn't seem to copy itself to every surrounding mirror.
"It would be unprofessional to start a show without a proper opening", the red-clad master of the Circo de la Luna simply answered, though there was a lurking tone of malevolence in his words. The Constable settled for a faint scowl, subconsciously moving his feathers on which he wore many decorative rings. Meanwhile the Ringleader's smile had turned into a grin, a sinister amusement following his words as he stated: "Tonight: we will really see what makes you, Falco Lombardi, tick and what you really value. Yes, I'd like to welcome you to the egocentric world; I hope you enjoy your stay."

Without leaving the blue bird time to react, the reflection of the blue haired ringmaster disappeared from the mirror, leaving the constable alone with his thousands reflections.

For a while, the grey-jacket clad bird simply did nothing, only stared at the endless sea of his reflections, who simply more or less stared back at him. He didn't mind mentioning he did look good, even if he had been dragged to a place he didn't actually even want to know better. The jacket, even if it had gotten a bit dirty and wrinkled from here and there, sit well and his grin was as well-looking as ever. Feeling a self-confidence build up within him, the avian grinned a bit wider. As if the Ringmaster could do anything to harm him. It wouldn't be that hard to get out from a shiny excuse of a maze like that - only a few little blasts with his blaster, and-

Suddenly his stream of thoughts was cut as the reflections around him suddenly became something more than just mere reflections; they moved, they were alive - they even made noises. Screamed, whimpered and gasped as every each one of them was tortured, abused and killed in a different, brutal way, agony plastered on their faces as they died and disappeared only to be replaced by a new reflection, which was to suffer the same fate. Gagging as he did so, Falco gasped for air a few times. Turning his gaze away from the reflections was no help - he was surrounded by them, after all - so he settled for covering his eyes with his hands for a while.

After recovering from the first shock and calming himself down, the Officer lowered his hands again, grimacing as he felt a sickening taste raise in his mouth as he gazed around again.

"Sick", he whispered to himself, shook his head and breathed in deeply, rebuilding his momentarily shaken self-confidence. As his reflections surrounding him continued their never-ending, gruesome show, the Chief Constable concentrated on setting some of his explosives up. He really wanted to get out of the place. As if it wasn't enough that he had to watch himself being mauled to death over and over again, the pained voices the reflections made echoed between the mirrors - and they all were his noises as well. So, as soon as he had set the timer right, the Constable released it towards the mirror he thought had the most distance to him - he didn't want to suffer from the blast wave or the mirror shatters after all. What he wasn't expecting was the bomb's blast to bounce right back at him, emitting a stuffed scream as the energy burned right through his clothes and knocked him over.

Hitting the mirror-floor hard, the bird groaned and arched his back, feeling even more disgusted as the smell of burning flesh - his burning flesh - floated in air from his chest. While he was still panting on the floor, trying to calm down enough to heal the still sickeningly sizzling burn covering almost his whole chest, a red-clad image formed on the mirror beside him.
"I'd be more careful if I were you", Ike's mockingly sweet words made Falco hiss, yet the sound was ignored by the tanned man, who continued just as lightly: "Don't you know the mirrors reflect everything?"

Ignoring the pain it caused to his chest, the royal shot back up, glaring daggers at the red-clad reflection in front of him as he began to work on his injury. The Ringleader merely chuckled at this, stepping from the mirror to the next one beside it.

"Besides reflecting your image.." the red-clad man began calmly, yet remarkingly as he passed the reflection of Falco's whose face seemed to be melting away, muffled screams raising from the reflection's throat as acid burned through his feathers and skin tissue. A disgusted grimace raised to Falco's face as he followed the Ringmaster's reflection with his eyes, trying his best to evade stopping to look at his own.

"They reflect your thoughts, your feelings, what you value..." the Ringleader continued, seeming to ignore that he stepped on the remaining of one of the reflection's brain, his low voice unfairly covering the death screams of another reflection, who was fast burning to ashes. Without completely realizing it himself, the Chief Constable began to follow the reflection of the red-clad man, walking almost beside him through the macabre-filled mirror corridors. His fingers twitched for using his weapons to blast the mockingly smiling master of this... nightmare away from his sight, but the still pulsating pain on the bird's chest held down the urge.

It was just when the Chief Constable saw something other familiar and red-clad from the corner of his eye when he took off his gaze from the Ringleader, a short and dry gasp passing his lips as he stopped in his tracks. Noticing this, the trickster slowed down his pace too, a crooked smile curling on his lips again as he followed Falco's gaze to one of the nearest mirrors.

"Your secrets...", it felt like the ghostly-spoken words were left to hang in the air as the avian stared blankly at the mirror in front of him. Back at him stared two pairs of eyes - ones of which belonged to his own reflection, whose gaze was filled with terror and pleading and ones filled with glee and joy, combined to a ever so happy smile that he had always treasured.

"Kat?" a shaking whisper passing his lips, Falco reached his hand forward to touch his dead wife, but it stopped in the mid-air as a heavy blow from an axe landed on his reflection's head with an unnaturally loud crunch. Yet, he couldn't turn his head away as the axe-wielding image of his feline bride gazed right back at the officer and giggled playfully, sending a flying kiss from the mirror just a moment before the image disappeared.

His mouth growing even drier, the avian shivered underneath his jacket, desperately trying to pull his shattered thoughts back together. He couldn't let his senses fall apart now, not just because of some gruesome picture plays. None of them were real - they were only images, only reflections on mirror.

"They aren't real", he repeated to himself in a commanding way, cursing how his voice shook because of his gasping breath.

"Are you sure about that?" the reflection of the Ringmaster snickered beside him, laying a dark, sly gaze on the shaken bird. For once, he didn't dare to raise his gaze to glare at the red-clad man. Even if he was tempted to, even if he really wanted to show he wasn't anxious, Falco couldn't bring himself to do it. In a way, he hesitated because it felt like that if he had risen his gaze, his beliefs might've been shaken again. Instead, he lowered his head and pressed his eyes shut, focusing to calm himself down just like he had done when he had woken up in this cursed labyrinth of mirrors.

It took a relatively long time of silence from Falco to get his thoughts sorted out again. The situation wasn't that bad - he had just been a bit surprised, that's all. If blasting didn't work, he'd just have to walk out of the place. Maybe not the most stylish way, but neither it was too hard - he wasn't so sure which direction to go to, but eventually he'd have to find out the exit. It wasn't like the place could go on to the infinity and beyond. The worst thing that could happen would be a rampaging headache tomorrow due to the endlessly ongoing stream of screaming.

Inhaling slowly and deeply, the Falco raised up his chin again, nodding determinedly to himself. "This is just a play", the bird snapped at the red-clad reflection, who just cocked his head on the side. Scowling at this, the Chief Constable turned around begin walking through the mirror corridor in a storming way, trying to keep his mind off the suffering reflections beside him.

"Don't think this is enough to-" the bird was about to mutter under his breath, but his voice was cut by an ear-ripping, high-pitched scream which pierced the air, silencing all the other voices and freezing the royal in his tracks.

"What? Frighten you?" the Ringleader's velvety voice questioned as another shriek raised into the air, sending shivers down the Falco's spine. Not that the screaming itself was so horrifying, he had been listening to it for a good while already after all, but this particular voice sounded so different. So... Young. "Oh, but I don't have to do that," chuckling, Ike's voice continued, yet this time his reflection wasn't anywhere close to be seen, "You do it very well yourself."

Even though the mocking words angered him, Falco could feel cold sweat rising on his skin as he listened the high-pitched screams which were coming from behind him. Somewhere inside his mind, there was a part which told him to ignore it, just to continue forward - but that would be an act of cowardice, wouldn't it? It would be ridiculous. He wasn't afraid - he couldn't be afraid - he was the enforcer of law in a world of terror.

Grasping onto that thought and ignoring the alarming bells in his mind, the bird turned swiftly around on his heels, glaring murderously at the source of the peculiar screaming - yet the look on his face died away at the very second he realized what he was looking at.

The reason to the peculiar tone of the shrieking voice was revealed - this reflection seemed to be him during his younger years. Tears glistering on his bruised eyes as the small, fragile body was abused in a horrifying way by someone who looked like-

Falco felt a violent, sickening tug on his insides, causing him to clutch his stomach and slam another feathered hand on his mouth to stop himself from throwing up.

No. NO.

Making a sick, gurgling sound, the Falco grasped the sides of his beak, forcing himself to turn away from the mirror, the high-pitched screams still ringing in his ears, piercing his mind. Still gagging, he tried to gasp some air to get the disgusting taste leave his mouth, his body shaking violently as he was almost bent in two.

"It's your fears the mirrors are reflecting", the Ringleader's smooth whisper sounded twisted and pleased as his reflection appeared on the mirror next to the bird again. Before Falco had a chance to straighten up and scowl at the red-clad man, yet another forceful gag twisted him in half again, almost managing to knock him over. Yet, he was able, even if just faintly, hear a mercilessly amused chuckle: "I'm not responsible of them - yet, at least."

Grasping his head almost violently, Falco's breathing grew more rapid as he compulsively tried to assure himself that the wetness he felt on his face was nothing but sweat. His knuckles were already beginning to turn white as his grip on his head tightened still, a large variation of emotions storming inside his mind, mixing to each other, eventually bursting out as an enraged scream: "FUCK YOU! I'm not afraid of him! I defeated him!"

"Don't be upset. Daddy always managed to install fear in people's hearts. You never defeated him... because..." a laugh. Before he got a hold of himself, the Constable clenched his hands into fists and tried to smash the grinning, red-clad reflection along with the mirror beside him, not really caring if the broken glass was to cut him. Yet, when the fist made contact with the reflecting surface, instead of breaking underneath the force, it gave away underneath it, sucking the royal in.

A surprised yelp turned into a shriek as a strong, stinging pain pierced the bird's side, ripping and burning his flesh, as if somebody had just stabbed him with a hot knife.

Then, in a blink of an eye, the law enforcer felt himself land hard back on the mirror floor. Gasping horrifiedly the feathered furry gazed around, noticing he was surrounded by the endless sea of mirrors again. Out of reflex one of his hands shot to the place he had been stabbed, but surprisingly, it found nothing. There wasn't even a scratch on his shirt.

Yet, he could have swore he tasted the strong, tangy taste of blood in his mouth, felt it dripping over his lips and staining the outfit around the wound - but regardless all this, his hand felt nothing like such and as he gazed down, he couldn't even see the assumed source of pain. He tried wiping the blood off his lips, then glancing at his hand - there wasn't even a faint shade of red on it.

"What the-", he whined in a raspy tone before coughing out what he think was blood in his mouth, but nothing landed on the floor before him.

Suddenly, just as quickly as it has stricken, the odd feeling vanished, leaving the royal laying on the mirror floor in confusion, panting heavily, cringing at the sight of his reflection.

"The most important thing is..." the Ringmaster's grim voice crept into the avian's consciousness again, "These mirrors reflect all the pain you've ever caused."
Still in an aftershock from before, continuing to subconsciously handling his midriff, the royal couldn't find words to answer to the smug human. Settling for trying to stumble back on his feet, the Falco spotted the Ringmaster's reflection from one of the nearest mirrors with a smug grin on his muscled face.

"So", the black-hat wearing man stated matter-of-factly, though there was a creeping tone of malicious amusement in his words, "if I were you, I'd watch my step - you have a long journey ahead."

Stumbling backwards a bit and only barely avoiding falling into another agony-filled mirror, the Falco finally managed even somewhat form a scowl on his face.

"I'll get out", he hissed challengingly, even though it was possible to hear his voice shaking a bit. The announcement merely made the jacket-wearing man;s reflection's grin grew a bit wider.

"Maybe you will, maybe you won't - in fact, I don't even care", it was almost possible to hear a faint, playful tone in the Ringmaster's words, and it even continued when his voice darkened otherwise to the brink of malevolence: "But even if you did, don't think our discussion is over."
Falco couldn't stop himself from jerking away a bit, yet he managed to maintain his murderous glare. Eyeing the Falco's expression for a while, the Ringleader chuckled lightly and took his top hat in his other hand, bowing in a polite way before he turned to leave: "Make it worth your while - as I said, it's all about you. You should be thrilled."

Laughing in a pleased manner as he disappeared from the mirror, the Ringleader left the red eyed bird alone in the middle of the mirrors, which still continued to display their gruesome visions, screams fulfilling the corridors and piercing the Constable's mind again.

He could see blue all around him. Blue, red, white, and yellow. They were everywhere, following his every little movement like robots but not at the same time. They had his image but they were showing weakness. His anger flared. No one had ever dared copy him before. No one had ever dared mock him.

He leaped at the nearest clone, his voice rising up in rage. Through his anger, he shattered the mirror and little pieces fell to the floor. But now they were shards, hundreds of them! He could see himself in THOSE as well...

"I'll get out!" Falco yelled as he looked at himself. The mirror should have made him bleed! Why was he still fresh? He tried to ram a new reflection, but this time he fell into his reflection's place like before.

Gurgling, bubbling and screaming. He was drowning and water filled his lungs... he needed oxygen... and then again, as quick as he entered, he was thrown out of the mirror.

"I'll get out", he whispered to himself, trying to get his legs on the move but his body seemed to protest against it. What if he was to fell into a mirror again? What if the floor sucked him up?

Where was he even supposed to go?

What if there even wasn't a way out?

Raising his hand on his ears and pressing his eyes shut, Falco crouched down. He couldn't think in this horrendous, screeching ruckus.

There were too much noises, too many reflections.

There was too much him.

"What did you do to him?" The ringmaster turned around to see his strongman, peering in at the entrance of his caravan at the drooling officer on the ground. His eyes were blank and reflected no light while his face was permanently sketched in horror. Pit nudged the bird with his toe, only to get the bird's motionless body to get a bruise. No reaction, no nothing.

"I made a prison inside his own mind. It's his personal fantasy. I found out that all he cared about was himself." Ike moved over and began scribbling something on a sticky note as the angel-looking teen examined the seventy year old.

"So its all in his head?"

"That's right. Mental torture baby. Figuring the old coot would die physically anyway, I decided to make pictures in his head. Scar him for the rest of his miserable life."

"What for?" The ringmaster gave a cold laugh and slapped the yellow note on to his body. He then turned to the strongman, a more softer look in his eyes then before. However, Pit still cringed at his voice.
"Revenge... for all humans... and for Mrs. Mario. She always secretly wanted revenge for as long as I can remember. Perhaps now some of her sleeps can be peaceful... he's gone." Then another amused laugh as he looked at the bird, "hurry up and dispose of him and don't forget your gloves. Make sure the cops can find his body... we still have unfinished business with them."

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