Author's Note: Roll up! Roll up! For chapter 5 of Ace Lightning and the Carnival of Doom 2005. Googler is gonna have some fun. Also, a cameo reference to Doctor Who, can you find it?
Chapter 5: The Greatest Show In The Sixth Dimension
Lord Fear limped through a dark circus, the tent coloured red, yellow, blue green and purple. Lord Fear had his head bowed as he walked across the floor, Staff Head looking sadly at him.
"I know you are upset my lord, but try as she might've, our Lady Illusion couldn't seem to defeat Ace Lightning…" said Staff Head.
"Indeed my loyal staff, but Lightning now has four pieces of the Amulet, while I have just two!" snarled Lord Fear. He then looked up and his bony face was covered with a large evil grin.
"Maybe, this can go my way…".
The two villains entered a small room where only a large black cannon stood. Lord Fear looked about the room, as if expecting something to happen. Staff Head raised an eyebrow as Lord Fear looked around.
"So, my lord. What is your genius plan?" asked Staff Head.
"Well, my totem of terror, Thunderfoot has been bitten by a mutation spiders, and Thunderfoot will slowly transform into a spiders…an evil spider!" explained Lord Fear "As for Sparx, she is probably the weakest of the Lightning Knights, and taking her out will be pretty easy, Shockwave is Random Virus' cousin and we can destroy them both at the same time, and Ace Lightning…I already have his demise planned."
"Right…so who are you looking for?" asked Staff Head.
"My clown of mayhem…Googler!" laughed Lord Fear.
A faint bellow of laughter floated around the room and then the cannon suddenly fired a small brown spiked ball into the air. The ball bounced about and then rolled over to Lord Fear. It split open to reveal a jester wearing a metal mask and colourful clothes. He had a brown shell like back with tiny spikes scattered about on it. The jester wore a red and blue glovepuppet on his hands. This was Googler. He bowed before Lord Fear.
"Reporting for duty, sire!" laughed Googler.
"Excellent, prepare your troops. Ace Lightning is on his way!" said Lord Fear.
"The same Lightning, who sent me to White-Hot Oblivion in Dimension Two?" asked Googler angrily.
"The very one." replied Lord Fear.
"Oh goody! Googler gets to play!" laughed Googler and stared at his glovepuppets, Zip and Snip.
"So, what are you gonna do to Ace Lightning?" questioned Staff Head curiously.
"I'm gonna googlerise him!" replied Googler and all the villains laughed.
Meanwhile, outside the circus, Ace looked at it, he could sense another amulet fragment hidden somewhere in giant tent. He turned to his allies, Sparx, Thunderfoot and Shockwave. Thunderfoot's transformation had gone another step: He had grown longer spider legs and he had developed another four eyes. He looked very freaky.
"Okay, who's coming in there with me?" asked Ace.
"I will" replied Sparx "I'm ready to kick some butt!".
"I'd better stay out here and try and stop Thunderfoot from going bug-crazy" said Shockwave.
"What's that supposed to mean?" snapped Thunderfoot.
"Um…" said Shockwave.
"We'll leave you guys too it" said Sparx and she and Ace headed for the large circus tent.
Inside the circus, Ace and Sparx found themselves in a large circus ring, several audience stands surrounding the outside. The two entered the ring and heard a shriek of evil laughter.
"Googleness gracious me, it's Ace Lightning! Yesssiirrrreee!" laughed the voice.
Ace looked in the direction of the centre ring and spotted Googler dancing about on a podium.
"Googler, I'd thought I had seen the last of you. Chew on this you maniacal menace!" said Ace and fired lightning bolts from his wrist cannons towards Googler. Googler smiled and leapt off the podium as the bolts struck it.
"It has been a while Acey, and this time, you're gonna be googlerized permanently!" laughed Googler.
"You cackling clown! I'll finish you off here and now!" shouted Ace.
"You'll have to beat my friend first…" said Googler.
One of the audience stands was smashed to pieces and Anvil, the giant bulky rhinoceros wearing an iron anvil, came charging towards the Lightning Knights. Sparx wasn't quick enough to attack Anvil, as he smashed away with his fist. She landed on the ground with a thump. Ace quickly charged up and powerful lightning bolt and it damaged Anvil. Anvil tipped back his head and roared.
"Grrr… Anvil break Sparx, now Anvil breaks you!" snarled Anvil to Ace.
Ace dived to the floor as Anvil slammed his giant hammer onto the ground. Ace rolled over and spotted Googler bounding towards Sparx, He raised both his arms and shot lightning bolts at Anvil and Googler. Anvil managed to avoid the attack, but Googler was struck in the back and he fell over. Sparx slowly managed to stand up and grasped her sword and ran at Anvil. Anvil laughed as his anvil met with the steel blade held by Sparx. The two metal weapons collided and smacked against eachother for several minutes. Ace flew into the air and set one of his wrist cannons to maximum power. He then unleashed his lightning stream attack, a powerful outburst of lightning bolts, pricking Anvil all over, like giant electrical thorns. Anvil groaned and roared as he suddenly faded away. Ace approached Sparx who looked back.
"Way to go Sparx" said Ace.
Sparx nodded and she saw Googler rising out of the corner of her eye. She hinted too Ace and the two ran towards the crazy clown. Googler saw them coming and he rolled up into a ball and bounced down a corridor and into another room. Ace and Sparx followed him and found themselves in a big room with crates and planks of wood scattered about, a bit like an obstacle course. Ace spied Googler bouncing up onto a large green trampoline and then springing up into a hole in the fabric above.
"Come on!" said Ace and he and Sparx headed into the room. They had to quickly take care of some monkeys who appeared from behind a crate.
Ace led Sparx up a ramp and onto a large green crate. The two jumped across to another crate stacked on a cage and walked across a wooden beam. The two then came to the trampoline and climbed onto it. Ace looked up at the hole in the roof.
"We need to get up there, we'll jump right now!" said Ace and leapt up and bounced on the trampoline, making Sparx fall over. Ace then fell over and landed right on top of her. The two stared at eachother. Sparx blushed, but then got lost in Ace's eyes, while he got lost in hers. The two stopped their daydream and Sparx slithered from under Ace's weight and helped him up. The two laughed worryingly.
Ace decided the best thing to do was to have himself and Sparx jump up at the same time.
"On 3, 1…2…3!" said Ace and he and Sparx jumped up really high and shot right through the hole into a dark room. There was millions of TNT barrels placed around the room.
"This must be the Boom Room" said Sparx.
Ace, who was looking carefully around the room for any signs of movement, was suddenly punched in the back of the head by Googler's blue glovepuppet. Ace fell to the ground. Googler cackled with joy at the sight of his old enemy on the floor.
"You socked it to him, Snip!" laughed Googler.
Ace got to his feet and fired a lightning bolt at Googler. Googler danced around to avoid it.
"Anvil drained your energy, Acey!" explained Googler "And now I'm going to totally shut you down!".
"Just you and your sock puppets?" challenged Sparx, raising the Sword of Jacob in front of her.
"Actually, no" said Googler and out of shadows came a horde of circus folk, along with Pigface and Dirty Rat.
"You've got to be kidding?" cried Ace.
"It's googling time!" laughed Googler and threw himself into the air laughing. Ace desperately fired lightning bolts at the flying jester, but missed every time. Googler landed on the ground and fired Zip and Snip at him. Sparx jumped in their pathway and zapped them with lightning bolts from her sword. The two glovepuppets returned to their owner's hands. Pigface then suddenly squealed and led the rest of the circus villains in a dangerous charge. Sparx gasped and fired lightning bolts in every direction the army came. Several bolts took out enemies, before they even had the chance to attack, while others were just hurt. Ace punched Googler away and joined Sparx in target practice. Sparx slashed against a lion and sliced off its fangs. The lion roared and threw Sparx to the ground and pounced on top of her. Ace blasted some clowns and then wrestled with an elephant wearing boxing gloves. Sparx kicked the lion and then defeated it with a blast from her sword. The lion fell over. Ace was attacking a bear, which kept thrashing his arms, but Ace ducked and punched the bear until he died. Pigface walked over to Sparx and towered over her.
"Mmmm… Pigface get to eat Sparx!" squealed Pigface with delight, licking his lips with his long slimy tongue.
"I don't think so porky!" shouted Sparx and fired a lightning bolt at the swine with her sword. Pigface squealed with pain as he was hurt.
Pigface growled at Sparx and lunged at her. Sparx jumped out of the way as Pigface came crashing to the floor. Sparx then swung her sword and fired another bolt at Pigface. This one was more powerful and Pigface shrieked as he faded away, like Anvil.
Ace impaled two lightning spears into an acrobat man and he then grabbed a monkey by the tail and tossed it across the room, straight into a strongman who collapsed onto the floor. Googler sprung at Ace, but the Lightning Knight ducked. Sparx slashed her sword at Googler who was flung right out of the hole in the floor, into a small bucket of water below. Ace eyed Dirty Rat flying between the gun powder barrels. He fired lightning bolts at the rodent and Dirty Rat eventually faded out like his comrades. Ace then noticed a robotic clown approaching him.
"Exterminate!" the robot droned.
"Okay" said Ace and fried the robot with a single lightning bolt. The robot exploded and pieces of metal went flying across the room; several of which knocked out enemies.
Soon, all the enemies were defeated and the only one left to dispose of was Googler himself. Sparx looked down the hole and saw Googler unconscious in the small pool. Googler then opened his yellow eyes and looked about.
"Googler?" called Ace from above.
"What?" asked Googler.
"Do you know that water conducts electricity?" asked Ace.
"Yes!" snapped Googler.
"Well then…" said Ace and he threw a large TNT Barrel into the pool with Googler.
"Uh-oh…" said Googler.
Ace formed a lightning bolt between his palms and tossed it at Googler. The ball hit the barrel and a giant explosion engulfed Googler and the pool, in the form of a growing white dome. Ace grabbed Sparx around the waste, blasted a hole in the ceiling with a lightning bolt and flew out of the tent as the giant explosion ripped the circus to pieces and a giant light flew up into the cloudless dark sky.
Ace and Sparx landed safely and watched the fireworks. Ace spotted a small fireball flying down towards them. It slammed down into the ground and made a small crater and several flames flickered around the crash site.
They peered into the hole and saw a frizzled Googler, his body and clothes burnt and smothered in ash. His mask was cracked and one of his large shoes had been ripped to shreds. Zip and Snip had also taken a beating and they were pure black. Ace slid down the side of the crater wall and stood over Googler, who began to cough and splutter. Googler opened his eyes.
"Wha-? What hit me?" asked Googler and spotted Ace standing over him.
"Hey Googler, have a nice flight?" joked Ace.
"ACE LIGHTNING!" shouted Googler in disbelief.
"Yours truly. Now I suggest you handover your piece of the Amulet. Come on, spit it out!" said Ace.
Zip mumbled something and spat out the bottom piece of the Amulet. Ace collected it from the puppet and placed in it his pocket.
"Thanks Googler" said Ace and he clambered back up the side of the crater and he and Sparx vanished. Googler slowly bounced out of the hole and look out as his enemies left.
"I'll get you next time, pretty boy!" shouted Googler and he rolled away back towards the haunted house.
When he got there, he was greeted by a grumpy Lord Fear.
"I'm guessing you lost…" said Lord Fear, unimpressed.
"Ace Lightning out googled us, but we'll get him next time" said Googler.
"Who says there will be a next time?" asked Lord Fear angrily, approaching Googler.
"That's right mate, Lord Fear doesn't like failures" agreed Staff Head.
"Hey don't blame me! It was Snip…" shouted Zip rudely.
"Oh, so we're playing the blame game." said Snip "Okay, it was your entire fault!".
"Shut up, you putrid puppets!" shrieked Lord Fear and blasted Googler with his staff until the jester faded out.
Outside, Ace and Sparx entered the midway and were shocked to discover Shockwave unconscious on the ground. Beside him was Thunderfoot's axe. Ace ran over to his friend.
"Shockwave! What happened? Where is Thunderfoot?" asked Ace.
Shockwave opened his sapphire eyes and slowly sat up groaning. He had several bruises on his face and arms, and his nose was bleeding.
"Lady Illusion and some weird cat creature ambushed us and Thunderfoot mutated again and the cat took him off to the medieval attraction of the carnival" explained Shockwave.
"We've got to save him!" said Ace and he picked up Shockwave and the three superheroes ran off in the direction of the next attraction.
As they disappeared into the darkness, another figure, with a large robotic claw and a glowing red eye appeared.
"Yes Lightning, go to Climbcrag Castle, for it is there you and your foolish friends will die!" said the figure.
Will Ace, Sparx and Shockwave find and save Thunderfoot from the villains? Will Ace restore the Amulet? Will Googler get revenge on Ace? Where is Random Virus? And why do boys like to stick ferrets down their trousers? All to be revealed next time in Ace Lightning and the Carnival of Doom 2005, Chapter 6: Random Virus and the Climbcrag Castle.