"Welcome to the Circus of Value! Haha ha ha"

As Eleanor's body regained cohesiveness she felt something sticking her in the back. She felt copious amounts of relief when Stanley non-surgically removed his elbow from her spine. She rolled over and found herself looking at a clown's face upside down.

"Welcome to the Circus of Value," the clown greeted for the second time.

The annoying clown abruptly ended any sense of ennui Eleanor had been feeling. She sprang to her feet knocking Stanley to the ground. No more flooded room filled with moving mannequins but instead a room crammed with copper pipes and a peculiar lifeless aquarium filled with red fluid.

"Billy," she gasped. She turned in circles hoping, praying for a different reality; like waking from a bad dream. Eleanor frantically drew her fingers through her hair. The corner of her eye drew to Max who was assisting Stanley regain his feet. Her feet followed her eyes into a mad charge across the metal grate floor.

Max had just finished making sure the thigh bone connected to the hip bone, etc and thanked her stars, and Dr. Alexander, that the plasmid was only a couple feet off. She witnessed Eleanor hastily get up and never mind knocking down her old man. She sighed quietly hoping her future children, the mere thought made her blush, never acted- reacted this badly. Max extended her hand to her old man. "Common get up you old dog."

"I feel more and more like one every day."

Max hardly had time to laugh because right then a pair of hands dragged her away from Stanley, who felt a little hurt being treated so poorly, and pressed her against a large pipe. A frenzied mop of hair was bowed between the two arms holding Max still.

"What was that?" Eleanor seethed her eyes now peering into Max's own.

"What, that? That was me saving your life."

"What about Fred? What about Billy? What about their lives. And what does my life mean without them!"

Eleanor quickly released Max and stormed off. What direction she was headed in: she did not care.

Max sighed again. Was she this troublesome when she had thought the worst when Stanley had been kidnapped just a moment ago? She hoped not.

Stanley walked over to Max and squeezed her shoulder. "You okay honey?"

"Yeah I'm fine. Suppose we'll have to find the ingrate."

Stanley replied with a nod. He knew Max's mind was already made up and he did not want to piss her off any more than she already was. He liked his jewels were they were and not speared to the wall.

Meanwhile, Max was silently gritting her teeth. "Screw having kids," she whispered.

"Did you say something?"

"No, let's go retrieve her."

Eleanor, having furiously stomped off on her own, made her way down several small flights of stairs and through an airlock door marked Live Test Facility. The door opened slightly slower than she liked so she returned the favor by stubbing her toe with a swift kick.

"Son of a whore," she swore under her breath. She was a bit more than teed- off but also scared and miserable. "Billy, Fred…" Tears she had been denying wet her face. She could not protect anybody she cared about. In her uselessness she wanted to scream in agony.

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

She had not even opened her mouth when a wail sounded throughout the hallway. Eleanor ran to the handrail overlooking the corridor just as another adjacent metal door squealed open allowing a tiny girl through. The little girl was wearing a pink dress with white buttons.

"A little sister," Eleanor gasped.

As she ran into the room, the little sister hazarded a glance behind and tripped falling on her face. The monster chasing her cackled at her misfortune until it ran into the airlock door. It was the little sister's turn to giggle as she got up and brushed off her dirty dress. But her merriment was short lived as the automatic door slowly responded revealing a pissed off brute holding his bloody nose.

"Uh-oh," the girl exclaimed.

"Yeah, uh-oh right pipsqueak," replied the bloodied brute splicer.

The little sister faced her opponent and slowly back away. She frantically searched or an exit but the brute kept advancing. The little sister backpedaled until she bumped into something. She tilted her chin upward to see a man wearing a bandana and armed with two revolvers.

"No dinaro, no ammo," the vending machine replied.

Seeing no escape the girl made the fiercest face she could summon but the fear in her caught in her throat caused her to gulp.

Seeing his victory at hand, the brute splicer chuckled as he closed the gap. His big feet plodded closer and closer.

But not if I can help it, thought Eleanor as she jumped over the handrail to the floor below.

Both the little sister and the splicer heard a splashing noise and turned to see the woman dash from the puddle where she had landed. The Brute was the first to take notice that the woman heading toward him, fast.

"Hey who are Y…," was all he could say when the bad woman kicked him in the groin. He fell onto his back with a thud.

Eleanor quickly retracted her foot and motioned to the girl, "you! Run away. Now."

The little sister stood still for a moment while her face went from surprised to irritate. She put her hands on her hips and marched over to Eleanor. She stopped a couple feet short.

"Which foot did you kick him with again?"

Eleanor did not understand the reason for the question but felt obliged to answer. "This one," she replied pointing to her right leg: the leg that did not hurt: the leg she had not used to kick the door.

The little sister nodded. "oh, right. Thank you." The girl then proceeded to bring her foot back and kick Eleanor in the leg.

A sharp pain surging up Eleanor's right leg caused her to jump on her previously sore one.

"That's for kicking teddy," the girl shouted before Eleanor could inquire. The girl followed her kick with a quick shove that pushed Eleanor to the ground. "And that's for ruining our game of tag you jerk."