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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, the fourth Friday of October in 2012, two hours before supper (Tōkyō time: Saturday, midnight)...

"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 was Gifted with the power of the Sonic Valkyrie, Sekokaer'buo ("Stereo"), thus she 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 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. "You bring your music...?"


Near Habitation Ten on the southern polar continent of Yiziba, a day later...

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

Clad in their jumpsuits, Milo and Bonnie sat across from two natives who asked the Liverpudlians for help in their pending fight scene plot. 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 reborn glam rock singer met Milo and Bonnie two years ago, shortly after both Terrans were Gifted. Her companion, who resembled an African-American linebacker for a gridiron team playing for the NFL, was 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 Bolem and Kikhodato Bolem 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 of course; the mesonium content in the biosphere's nothing to write a script on. Still, occurrences of metahuman abilities beyond mastery of background lomtumsam has started to crop up and the norms living there 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 folks like them back then," 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 quite peaceful, the attitudes of the latter race when it came to trying to understand what drove the former could be summed up with a glance at the character of Obelix from any Asterix comic 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" Elle de Rosenbach to see why.

"Well, no sense in those casting rejects from Star Trek trying to butt into this," Milo noted as he made a dismissive wave of his hand. "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, then unleash a fight scene on her arse to knock her off her stolen throne, right?" Bonnie asked, then she nodded as she sat back, 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.

Raucous laughter escaped the others in the room...

Fin...


WRITER'S NOTES

Some Yizibajohei social terms spoken of 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.

Quick translation list from Yizibajohei: Daturie — The Academician, native battle name for Elizabeth Wakefield (of Sweet Valley High); Kikhodato — The Philosopher, native battle name for Tat'jána "Tánja" Chapáeva (one of Fred's original characters); Lomtumsam — Literally "pure chaos", the euphemism for magic; Homr'bu umale — Literally "scripted same", used for people who behave exactly according to a set of rules with no deviation, as if they were following the instructions in a drill manual.

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 the team of 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 just 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 The Senior Year story "Ancient Ties") view Yizibajohei in general. Yes, the warriors of Yehisril admire the metahumans of Yiziba for their passion in battle...but in the eyes of any Yehisrite, Yizibajohei in general seem to fight for simply NOTHING AT ALL, which doesn't make sense to any of the former race.