Another ad lib chapter done quickly. I just want to get the damn thing moving already. Standard disclaimers apply.


He had known worse calamities than this, though he doubted anyone would believe it if he said so. No matter, really.

Still, he knew that he had. Had no idea when or where or how but at some point or another he had been in a place just like this, all wrapped in fire and distortion, with the walls bleeding into each other and breaking into pieces in small, confined explosions, as if nothing left was solid anymore and everything could just blow up in your face at any given second. It was all very confusing, really.

The carnival, mercifully, seemed to have been spared a lot of the onslaught –another thing he wouldn't know how to explain when his Lord demanded it of him. Then again it was all probably the result of some incredible powers his Lord had conjured up himself to protect the carnival from such mortal terrors.

'Then again, I don't honestly think mortals are clever enough, to come up with something like this.'

And what was this, anyway? Asides from a mess the size of the whole ruddy sixth dimension, that was. Nothing mortal. Nothing Knight, either. The last time he checked, knights didn't have the ability to make the whole world change shape around you.

The minions, of course, were not dealing with it all very well.

Not so far in front of him hovering just beyond the carnival gates, a stream of purple light ripped apart a trashcan, which then vanished is if it had never been there. As soon as it hit the gates, however, the purple flames had died again. Very peculiar indeed. As if the carnival itself were in some way protected from whatever lay beyond.

'What the freakin'… hey, hey Staffy! Staffy what the heck is goin' on here?'

Ah. Right on cue. 'Now if I had the answer to that, my dear vermin…' Staffhead said, curling himself calmly around one of the banisters of the haunted House. '…would I be standing around and watching it happen rather than working with our lord to find some means of stopping it, before it turns the carnival to… whatever it seems to be turning the rest of the world to.'

'Yeah well I wouldn't put it past ya, stick. You know something.'

'There are a lot of things you wouldn't put past me, rat. I'm sure our lord knows what he is doing.'

Of course the rat was far from happy with that answer, but it meant nothing to Staffhead.

'Listen, stick, I don't care what the boss thinks. It's pretty damn obvious even he ain't got the moxy to conjure up or conjure away all this crazy stuff, and as for you? Puh-leeze.'

'Oh , you do wound me, my dear ratty.'

'Good. Maybe you'll wipe out if I do it enough, huh?'

'What was that, Ratty?'

'Nothing, staff…. Just praising the greatness of our lord some more fer protecting us from this great unholy terror or whatever-it-is-ness, you know how it is.'

'Hm. Yes. Listen, as far as we can tell something is keeping the shockwaves of this… whatever it is well away from the carnival,' Staffhead said, calmly. 'Now if that isn't our good Lord's doing then I have no idea whose it might be. And while we're on the subject,' he turned to the caravan the mortal in their service usually called home.

If the mortal looked puffed up and anxious under usual circumstances, today he was outdoing his own reputation. Pathetic mortals tended to respond even less aptly to change than the lower class minions did. 'We are certain that this chaos has in no way penetrated the carnival, aren't we?'

'W-well uh… There's the fun house. That's not protected. The whole floors gone.'

'What exactly do you mean.. .the floor is gone?'

'I mean what I says I means. Seriously, no walls just the whole freaking floors gone. It's all goopy and freaky under there! I mean if we can't get it fixed by the holiday season next month the customers will be walkin' around on the pipes!'

(Earth and base, ripped asunder,) the words hit Staffhead like one of Lightning's electrical pulses. He couldn't say where they came from. He knew only that they meant something. (Earth and base, ripped asunder…)

'… Please try and sort out your priorities, mortal. If I were you –and thank the seven hells I'm not– I'd consider yourself lucky if you have any customers when this is all over.'

'So you do know what's happening, then?' The rat's tone was an odd mix of panic and sleaze that Staffhead found oddly entertaining.

'Well…' Staffhead looked back at the sky. It was grey now, deep and dark as if filled with clouds where none could be. Somewhere in the distance strands of violet were creeping upwards into the sky. 'If you all might recall… the uprising in Canary Warp, not long before our glorious upheaval of Sixth Dimensional society.

'I knew it. Quit skippin' around the point and spill already, stick. What's happening around here to make the world go crazy?'

'I might have an idea,' Staffhead muttered, between his teeth. Only for the first time in all his years in serve to his master, he didn't feel quite as sure of himself as he could have been.


When metal heated up, it had a tendency to warp and buckle under the slightest pressure. They used to warn him all about that back in the early days of his… replacement therapy. No more missions to molten caverns or Boiling Avenue. No more trips to White Hot Oblivion (not that he had been especially bothered about that particular rule.)

None of those places were a fraction as hot as this. None of them were a fraction as angry. None of them had held the incredible potential of electricity that could turn the very air to ash and dust.

Back in his power-application classes at the academy, Electricity had been advertised by his tutors as the most powerful artificial force on earth. Even stronger than the elements of nuclear, heat, air and shadow all combined. Random was never sure whether or not he believed that assumption.

But he believed it now.

'This is what power looks like. Real power. The kind of power none can possess. Except perhaps for you.'

He had no idea what was happening, only that whatever it was, he was trapped in the middle of it. The sky existed only as a hot white light. The earth was molten stone and metal as the junkyard fell about all around him. Ace. Ace was out there, somewhere… lost in the burning heat. But he couldn't actually see the junkyard anymore, so, how could he be certain… how did he know where the power came from?

Is it from me? Can I… do all this? Create all this chaos? How?

'Who knows how? But…if you can, then you can use it. Wipe the Lightning Knights away. Wipe away all weakness. Then everything

…No. You can't survive this. Neither can I. We're not strong enough.

'I am strong, stronger than anything. It's the rest of the world that is to weak to handle it.'

Random couldn't come up with an answer to that. It was…strange, how much sense his evil side tended to make. It's always been like this…just me and the evil inside me.

…Wait. No. No, not always. It can't have been…

…Ace?

Ace… What am I supposed to do about this?

You know I don't like asking for help, my friend…

Help is just for cowards, after all.