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Chapter 10: Circusman's Act
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While Tyria and Crushman were fighting Diveman, Dash and Zero had gotten into a rather bizarre battle.

Circusman looked like a clown, a rotund, scary looking clown. His body was orb shaped with buttons and a collar, and his navi symbol, which was of a clown face, was located towards the bottom, where a crotch would be on a humanoid navi. Two disembodied feet were below it. His head sat right atop the body, complete with jester-esque hat, bright red lips, rubber nose, and star shaped eyes. Four white hands floated around his body.

'' Hee hee hee!'' he giggled in a high pitched voice. '' You... you're the famous Zero, and he's Dash, right?'' the clown asked.

'' We are.'' Zero said, summoning his saber, while Dash morphed his hand into a buster.

Circusman rubbed his two lower hands together. '' Good good. It's showtime! Happy Clap!'' His two upper hands vanished and one appeared next two Zero, and the other next to Dash. Then the two smashed the two navis together. Zero sliced his in two, while Dash blew his apart with a point blank buster shot.

The hands reappeared, whole, nest to Circusman. He did several back flips in place, each time making a sproing noise. When this odd ritual was finished, he put two of his hands together and produced a whip. '' Fear Whip!'' he shouted as he cracked it.

Two flaming hoops appeared and a robotic lion leapt out at each of them. Dash picked one of them off with several shots, while Zero held his saber in front of him, letting the animal split itself on the blade.

'' Alright Dash, Shotgun, slot in!'' Terry said, slotting in the chip.

'' I'm sending you a Hi Cannon.'' Slate informed his navi.

Their hands morphed into the respective weapons and the two of them fired. Circusman was two slow to dodge, and so took both hits.

'' That hurt you meanies!'' he fumed as the shots left burns on his body. He made a very rude gesture with all four of his hands, which then vanished and reappeared near the two navis and began to assail them with slaps and punches. Zero twisted back and forth, trying to cut them, while Dash was attempting to hold them off with buster shots.

Circusman eventually gave up on this tactic, and instead produced what looked like a deck of playing cards. He made a big show of shuffling them, then drew the top card.

'' Ha!'' He held out a card displaying flying daggers. '' Knifethrower Card!''

Zero quickly leapt in front of Dash and summoned his Shield Boomerang, just as a hail of knives flew out of the card. Most of them bounced off the shield, but a few managed to slice their arms or the sides of there legs, which were not as well protected.

Circusman drew a new card, glanced at it, then giggled, barely able to contain his glee. '' Illusion Card!'' This card showed the outline of a humanoid figure, with a dotted outline of the same figure next to it.

Clones of Dash and Zero appeared. They looked exactly the same as the originals physically, but their colors were slightly darker, and they had blank expressions on their faces.

Copy Dash morphed his hand into a buster, while Copy Zero summoned a Z-Saber, except that it was redish purple, instead of blue green.

'' Darn it.'' Zero grumbled. '' We're going to have to fight these things instead of Circusman...''

'' Well, we're the originals.'' Dash said confidently. '' They're just cheap knock offs, so they shouldn't be any trouble at all!''

C-Zero lunged towards Zero, while C-Dash prepared to fire on Dash.

Zero countered his clone, then dodged a blue energy blast that C-Zero had thrown. Dash hit C-Dash before he could fire, then followed up with a volley of his own.

The clones really weren't difficult to beat at all. They just kept trying to attack, never even attempting to defend themselves. Dash simply blasted C-Dash until it was deleted, while C-Zero was cleanly cloven it half by Zero.

Slate slotted in two chips. '' Grasseed and Assasinsword, double slot in!''

The green bulb appeared in Zero's hand. He lobbed it near Circusman, so that grass appeared beneath his feet. Then, Zero's hand morphed into a sword.

'' Now what was the point of that?'' Circusman taunted, thumbing his nose at Zero.

'' Well, since you're standing on grass...''

Slate sent an Areasteal, and Zero warped over to the clown. '' You're a perfect target for my Assasinsword!'' He slashed the rotund navi, who squealed in pain.

'' Finish him Dash!''

Terry slotted in two Volcano Cannons, so Dash's hands were replaced by cannons resembling Volcano viruses.'' You're done Circusman!'' Dash shouted, charging up his weapons. Since Circusman was standing on grass, he was, quite literally, toast.

But as he was about to fire, Dash let out a small cry and began to grimace, as if in pain.

'' Dash! What's wrong!'' Terry shouted.

'' I... I... it's...'' Dash stammered.

'' What are you stalling for!'' Zero yelled. '' Fire!''

'' R-Right! Yahhhh!''

Circusman raised his hands as if trying to swat the advancing fireballs away, but they ignited him anyway. '' Wahhhhh!'' he shrieked.
He then logged out, the only way he could save himself.

'' WHAT!'' Chirol cried in disbelief. '' How did you! How could you?''

Terry smirked. '' We have tricks of our own. They may not be card tricks, but they get the job done.''

Chirol shot them a look of pure malice and tried to run past them, elbowing Terry in the stomach to get him out of her way.

'' That wench...'' Terry groaned as she disappeared down the stairs that led to the building's interior.

'' Let her go, there's nothing more she can do to us.'' Slate told him. Then he addressed his PET. '' Zero, access the data logs to see if any unfamiliar signals have been received or sent recently. Since these antennas were only meant for ship to port communication, it shouldn't take to long to find signals from an unknown address. Since there haven't been any ships here for decades, they'll be easy to find. In the meantime, I'll compose an email to let everyone know about the current Lloyd crisis.''

'' What are we going to do now?'' Terry asked his leader.

'' For now, we act like nothing has happened.'' Slate answered. '' He will know that his gambit has failed, so he'll be especially wary.''

Terry nodded, then took out his PET. '' Dash, what happened back there?''

'' I, I don't really know...'' Dash said, looking down. '' It felt like something rose up inside me, something primal...''

'' Alright, I'm definitely having you scanned when we get back to base.'' Terry said sternly, looking Dash straight in his artificially purple eyes, a constant reminder that something was wrong.

'' Aha!'' Zero exclaimed from inside the antenna. '' There were signals sent to a point, and received from that point as well!''

'' Where?'' Slate asked.

'' A point that's west of our base. It's in a fairly hilly area, but it's not as far out as Region 174 was.''

'' So there should be a building of some sort there, right?'' Terry asked. '' If so, then there must be some one there.''

'' Right.'' Slate said grimly. '' I believe that we need to have a little talk with whoever is sending these viruses all over the country.''

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I discovered during chapter 9 that a fight was hard to do when the opponent only had 3 attacks. So, I gave Circusman card tricks, in addition to his other attacks.

Oh, there was a big reference to the Zero Series here. Can you find it?

Well, now we're a little more than halfway done with the story, but now I've uploaded everything that was on my computer, there's none left! Looks like I have some typing ahead of me…