Midnight Hope continued looking for Ben and Max inside the Haunted House. It felt like a maze until she sees hope leading her to something secret.
"Hello? What's behind curtain number one?" Midnight Hope announced, using her ring to reveal a secret passage.
The passage seems to lead to an underground tent…no doubt it's a secret lair for the mastermind.
"Don't worry, Ben. I'll save you and your grandfather. And that's a promise," Midnight Hope stated, going down.
She lands and sees the tent up close. It was huge, mixed with white and black colors. She opens a little to avoid detection. And what she saw shocked her. She sees Ben and his grandpa Max in held captive, along with a bunch of other bystanders who entered the Haunted House and didn't come back out.
"What in the name of Odym?!" Midnight Hope responded.
The victims were wired to a machine that drains them of their life forces, due to cause of fear. The machine was huge, and Ben and Max were experiencing their worst fears. Mostly Ben, who was screaming the most.
"I don't know how this happened nor why, but I'm gonna end this!" Midnight Hope replied, charging up her ring and aiming it at the machine.
Just then, someone was walking in. Aborting the blast, for now, Midnight Hope remained in her hiding spot. She sees what looks like some kind of ringmaster...or a clown...or maybe a ringmaster clown.
"Well, well, well. Your fears have fed my machine a lot," he said, and then looks at Ben. "I never thought you would be scared of a harmless little clown like me, boy." the clown ringmaster was mocking him, as Ben screams in fear.
Midnight Hope did not like that one bit.
Let's be honest. When you discover that innocent people, along with the person you love, are being held captive by a psychotic clown ringmaster, you'd be pretty mad and disgusted, too.
"Freaks! Front and center!" The ringmaster clown said.
Midnight Hope then sees three people that appeared very hideous. One was a big bulky guy, another was a skinny guy with an ugly mouth that looks like he never brushed his teeth, and the other was a girl with the long orange hair that moved like tentacles.
"You did a good job getting the boy and geezer. However, not the girl that was with them," the ringmaster explained. "She's still missing and managed to slip right through our trap somehow."
"Sorry, boss." The bulky freak said. "She must have ran away before becoming succumbed to fear like the others."
"Sorry doesn't cut it. Go find her before our cover is blown!" the clown ringmaster ordered. "Two of you will guard the machine, in case these customers decide to play hero."
'So, the haunted house here is just some giant trap to kidnap innocent people and make them go through their worst nightmares?!' Midnight Hope thought. 'Why does this remind me of those alien spiders from GL's stories involving the fear crystals?'
While I figured out who was responsible for this evil scheme, I still don't know how they were able to do it. As in how they managed to get me in some weird nightmare trance in the first place? And why do they want to collect people and feed them fear from that weird machine? Seriously, this feels like one of Batman's villains with the Scarecrow combined with the Joker. Either way, I'm still gonna find a way to stop them.
Midnight Hope fled to the top of the tent so one of the freaks going outside won't see her. She noticed it was the girl with the long wavy hair that went to go find her. Which means the ugly big mouth and the bulky guys are guarding the machine.
'I think it's time for a little interrogation with one of those freaks,' Midnight Hope thought, deciding to take on the girl freak.
Midnight Hope then quietly tried to sneak up on the girl freak, but the girl freak secretly grinned.
"Gotcha," She whispered, as she turns her head to see the Blue Lantern and tried to attack her with her hair.
"Whoa! Talk about a monster hairdo!" Midnight Hope stated, dodging the hair-like tentacles. "Time to tame that mane!"
She then constructed her hockey stick and some pucks to whack at her freaky opponent.
The freak girl tried to hit Midnight Hope with her tentacle hair. However, with the blue hockey stick and puck constructs, Midnight Hope shot them at the freak girl.
"Knock it off!" the freak girl said. She then jumped and flipped over Midnight Hope and tried to hit her in the air with her hair.
"Oh, no, you don't!" Midnight Hope said with a grin, first constructing a shield to deflect the hair hits and then catching her with a large hand to hold both the girl freak's hair and body. "Ha! Got you now!"
"Let me go, you blue version of Green Lantern!" The freak girl grunted, trying to break free. "When I tell Zombozo about this, you're gonna regret messing with us!"
Midnight Hope squeezed tighter on the construct grip, as she pulled the freak girl close with her game face. "Start talking. Who is Zombozo? What's your sicko plan? How are you putting people in deep trances before strapping them to your weird machine to do what?! Answer me now!"
"I won't talk!" the freak girl replied, trying to get some of her hair out.
"Then, I guess we're doing this the hard way," Midnight Hope stated, making her ring glow while focusing. "I wonder what would happen if I give your hair a bit of a trim?"
She then constructed large scissors, ready to snip the freak girl's hair.
Normally, I wouldn't do threats like this. But desperate times call for desperate measures. And I'll do anything to get Ben back. Same with saving everyone else.
Besides…I wasn't actually going to cut her hair. Those are just craft scissors I use when making collage art. Of course, she doesn't have to know that. ;D
"ALL RIGHT, ALL RIGHT, I'LL TALK!" The freak girl yelled with mercy.
Midnight Hope set the scissors aside and had the girl freak face her.
"The name's Frightwig, and I'm part of a group called the Circus Freaks. The rest of us have been collecting everyone's fears for our boss, Zombozo, to feed later," the freak girl named Frightwig explained. "Along with stealing people's loot as our end of the bargain."
"So, the machine back there in the basement is draining those people like a battery by scaring the life out of them?!" Midnight Hope exclaimed in small anger and disgust. "How are you putting people in deep trances, first, before strapping them to your torcher machine?! Does it involve that mirror room?"
"We don't know how Zombozo does it, but yes. It is the mirrors. That clown got resources from people out of town to help create them as neuro-illusions while we capture our customers after they're in his trance when they look into the mirrors," Frightwig explained. " Once they're in their deep fear trance, we take them, place them in that fright machine, and it feeds Zombozo. He has an unlimited energy source to do so."
It all made sense now! The moment Ben, Max, and I stepped into that room full of mirrors, we were slowly hypnotized into seeing our worst fears. And when feeling scared enough, it paralyzed the victim until being nabbed. My instincts in not looking at the mirrors directly and for too long were right all along. And I guess being a klutz also managed to save my life, too. Who knew?
"How do I shut down Zombozo's fear operation?" Midnight Hope asked, still holding a firm grip yet moving somewhere.
"I don't know. None of us know," Frightwig said. "We just know it probably has to do with the energy source. He uses the material like a battery." The blue scissors were getting closer to Frightwig's hair. "That's all I know, I swear!"
"I believe you. Thanks for the talk, Frightwig," Midnight Hope said, opening a door and throwing her into the room that was filled with the same mirrors. "Now, stick around and reflect on some stuff!"
Frightwig saw her fear in the mirrors and she screamed, as Midnight Hope ran inside the tent and avoid detection from the other Circus Freaks.
Don't give me that look. I had to put her somewhere to not hurt people. And trapping Frightwig in that mirror room was the only option I got. Right now, I got to figure out how to shut that horrible machine down before Ben and the others continue getting scared to death. And fast.
Midnight Hope ended up on the opposite side of the machine, and she sees a window that glowed. It may be the energy source. Maybe a crystal? Or some kind of large battery in the shape of a clown? Or perhaps something related to being scared?
She sees what it was to find out. But what she saw... shocked her. She hears screaming inside the machine.
"What in the name of Oa?!" Midnight Hope exclaimed, being mindful of her voice.
She sees what looks like a girl, but not just any girl. She looked pale and had features that look like a ghost. And she appeared wired and trapped as the victims.
"This machine is powered by a ghost?!" Midnight Hope said, now mad than ever. "Oh, that does it."
It's bad enough that a freak ringmaster clown is using people as his energy supply. But a ghost girl? This kind of injustice will not stand!
So, Midnight Hope then tried to shut down the machine. But then the freaks took notice.
"Hey! Get away from that machine, girly!" one of them said, already coming to punch her.
Midnight Hope yelped, already jumping away.
"Get her!" The stinky freak guy said to the muscle freak.
The muscle freak then tried to chase Midnight Hope who was flying in the circus. "Get down here!" he yelled.
"Not happening, Numbskull!" Midnight Hope shouted, dodging the hits.
"That's Thumbskull to you, brat!" The muscle freak responded, trying to punch her. "Acid Breath, do something!"
"Very well," The freak name Acid Breath said, as he spits out a ball of acid from his mouth.
Midnight Hope evaded it fast. "Gross! I thought you were stinky, not melty!"
"Don't judge people on what you think," Acid Breath said, as he spits out more acid from his mouth.
"Eat construct pucks, Stink Breath!" Midnight Hope exclaimed, making her hockey stick and puck to whack plus aim at Acid Breath's mouth.
Acid Breath got hit by a lot of blue pucks. He pukes them out and Midnight Hope attacked him with a big fist construct, knocking him out.
"Now you're in for it," Thumbskull said.
"I don't have time for this!" Midnight Hope stated, ending the constructs and just walking towards Thumbskull until running towards him at full speed. "Thumbskull, have a knuckle sandwich!"
Midnight Hope then lifted her own right-gloved fist with strong Blue Lantern energy around it and knocked out Thumbskull with one punch.
For good measure, Midnight Hope grabbed a nearby metal rod to tie the two circus freaks up. Even covered Acid Breath's mouth from using his powers.
"Now that the Three Stooges have all been taken care of, it's time to end Zombozo's horror machine by taking out the source!" she stated, constructing something to cut open the large machine to help free the ghost girl.
Just then, she felt a bit of dread crawling on her shoulder. "Not so fast, Little Lantern Girl…"
To Be Continued…
Now the real boss fight begins. So, you all finally get to see who the real criminal mastermind of this story is. Zombozo and his Circus Freaks exist in No Watch Ben's universe and were never stopped half a decade ago when extracting their joy sucker scam.
However, in a universe with other clown baddies like the Joker taking the laughing business (not to mention clowns not as funny as they used to be), Zombozo eventually went to the scaring business instead and managed to get some resources from a few pen pal inmates from different places...including Arkham Asylum. Not to mention an anonymous donator from beyond the galaxy giving Zombozo some 'special materials' mined in a Forbidden Zone shipped months/years back before getting locked up.
Also, a certain Ectonurite character of mine does exist in this universe and becomes part of the story. Yay! More on that info for another time.
Hope you're all enjoying the story. No flames nor false review advertisements, please.