Welp, everyone, this one's been a while comin'. Way back at the beginning of A Clone of My Own, May had mentioned that the Tatsuki Brothers Traveling Carnival, a place we haven't seen since season three of The New Adventures, was gonna be in town soon. And that's where this one-shot comes in.
Born of a desire to revisit some of these places without the stress of a mission to deal with, we're just going to have some carny fun today. As for timeline placement, this takes place between Time to Come Home and The Rage on the Stage, which means Henya will be enjoying this carnival time, too.
I won't bore you with author's notes any longer, so here's the feature presentation! Sit back, relax, and enjoy Carnival Cruisin'!
1:34 P.M. – Beverly Hills
"Oh, I swear, it better still be here..." May stated.
"So, what's got May so excited?" Henya wondered as the spies followed the lead of a very excited May, who was searching intently for something downtown.
"Well, that's a story, Henya," Nick chuckled. "Long story short, though, there's this carnival that May really loved as a kid, and, well..."
A loud squeal cut Nick's explanation off as May reached out to grab Nick's hand and yank him off in the direction she'd been looking, leaving the rest of the spies to catch up, not even bothering to hide their amusement.
When they caught up, much like the first time, they saw May staring in wide-eyed excitement at the front gate to the Tatsuki Brothers Traveling Carnival.
"Oh, thank goodness they haven't left yet," May quipped.
"You really thought they were gonna just pack up and vamoose when they're still within their advertised time frame?" Sam chuckled.
"Well, given a lot of what we've been through lately, I didn't want to take the chance," May admitted. "And you know that I, of all people, would never pass up a chance to visit this place."
"Well, then how about we head inside and see what it's all about?" Henya chuckled.
With Nick paying for their tickets (he'd promised May he would, after all), the spies all made their way into the carnival to see what was different about it this go-round.
May couldn't help but smile as she got a good look at everything the carnival still had. In fact, it seemed to be even more extravagant than the last time, when Kawaki had still been in charge.
"Man, it really got an upgrade from the last time, didn't it?" Alex quipped.
"Well, it does kinda help that the original Tatsuki Brothers' children are running the show now, and with younger mindsets, they can add more pizzazz with a modern touch," Mat stated.
May saw something out of the corner of her eye and her smile only got brighter.
"Ooh, follow me, Nick! They've got a bumper car track!" May laughed.
"Holy crapbaskets, I haven't seen one of those since my last trip to a water park when I was thirteen!" Nick quipped.
"You rode the bumper cars at a water park?" Clover gasped.
"Well, to be fair, I'd gotten a pretty nasty sunburn the day before, so I couldn't really do much pool-related stuff," Nick admitted as May dragged him off again. "I'll see you guys in a flash!"
"Well, guess that leaves up to do some exploring of our own," Melissa chuckled as the rest of the spies began to explore the carnival.
"I have to say this would beat the 50th State Fair back home," Mat remarked.
He treated this like he was on a date with Sam and some of the spies went off in other directions.
"There's no way I'm leaving with an empty stomach here!" Blaine exclaimed when he got off a ride with Clover.
Clover was on board with that, but Alex was already munching on some food when they got to a table.
"Somebody couldn't wait," Clover chuckled when she saw Alex eating already.
Some of the spies shared some chuckles, and they joined in some good eats.
"Hey, did anybody see Mat and Sam?" Nick wondered.
"Not since they went on one roller coaster earlier," Dawn stated, just now realizing this.
Clover looked around and chuckled at what she saw next: Sam had a plush doll in one hand, and Mat's hand in the other.
"How did..." Blaine wondered.
"Mat won one of those horse races," Sam chuckled. "Against four others."
Nick and May returned from the bumper cars, and they happened to overhear Sam's statement.
"Hey, right on, man!" Nick exclaimed with a thumbs up.
Haruka and Bridget came back from a different game of their own. Neither one of them won a prize.
"I guess Sam or Mat was luckier than us," Bridget groaned when they saw Sam with the big plushie Mat won.
Sam pointed at Mat and nodded.
"I'll buy you lunch in return, Mat-honey," Sam then giggled.
She then took Mat elsewhere to find something to eat. They both returned with slices of pizza, and Mat also had some popcorn.
"You mind if I steal a couple, Mat?" Alex asked.
"Yeah, help yourself," Mat replied.
Alex did so while both Mat and Sam had their pizzas.
"Aren't you going to try the bumper cars yourselves?" May asked.
"It's that much fun?" Haruka wondered.
"Oh, man, you should have seen us out there," Nick chuckled. "May was having the time of her freakin' life racing through that track and trying to powerslide through the sharp turns like we were playing Crash Team Racing again."
"It's not that hard once you get the hang of it," May countered.
"I'm surprised there were bumper cars at a water park of all places, though," Mat commented.
"To be fair, that place had a bit of everything," Nick responded. "Besides all the pools, it had a lot of things for everyone to do."
That was when May noticed Sam and Mat finishing their pizza and sharing the popcorn Mat bought.
"We might have to go on separately from you guys," Mat laughed.
"Yeah, especially considering I'm the one being dragged around here," Nick laughed.
"We're not gonna stop you guys, so go ahead and just have fun!" May quipped as she once again dragged Nick off to check out another activity.
"That girl," Bridget chuckled.
"She certainly looks like she's having fun," Henya laughed.
"Yeah, this carnival really means a lot to May," Melissa replied. "We're all glad that it didn't get dismantled after its previous owner did a lot of crazy things with it."
While the spies all regaled Henya with tales of their previous mission that involved the carnival while heading for the bumper car track, Nick and May continued to explore the carnival itself, seeing many familiar sights while also searching for anything that was new since their previous visit.
"Wow, I still can't believe that it looks even flashier than before," May gasped. "I didn't think that was possible."
Nick's eyes were then drawn to a pirate-themed attraction nearby. Right up May's alley, he figured.
"It looks like a target test kinda game," Nick quipped. "What about it, May, you wanna see if you've still got the ol' throwing arm?"
"Nick, you've seen me throw a giant metal ship anchor, like that one, with all the speed and precision of a javelin tosser," May chuckled. "This target test is going down."
While May was doing that, Nick had noticed another target throwing game nearby with a plushie that he knew May would love, so he decided to try that one out while May was focused on the pirate-themed one.
Eventually, after focusing his throws (he wasn't anywhere near as good a thrower as May, at least when not using his psychic powers), Nick was able to knock down enough of the targets (in this case, bottles) to win the prize he wanted.
"Man, I saw you concentrating there," the stand owner chuckled. "You really wanted that plushie, didn't you?"
"Hey, my girlfriend's into that, so I figured 'why the heck not'?" Nick quipped as the stand owner handed him the plushie he'd been playing for, a plushie of a red-haired lady pirate from a show May had been enjoying recently.
"Aw, you missed the fun, Nick," May chuckled as she walked up to him. "You missed me absolutely dominating those targets, as I said I would."
"Well, I managed to knock down some targets of my own," Nick quipped as he handed the plushie he'd won off to May.
"H-Holy crapbaskets, Nick, did you actually find a Houshou Marine plushie?!" May gasped. "They've been sold out just about everywhere I've been looking!"
"Guess it was just a stroke of good fortune that I found one here," Nick replied. "When I saw it as one of the prizes here, I just knew I had to get it for you."
May placed the Marine plushie into her Jetpack Backpack before leaping over to hug Nick tightly. "Thanks for finding one for me, Nick," May giggled before leaning forward to kiss Nick. "I really do appreciate it."
"No problem at all, May," Nick replied. "Now that that's out of the way, let's go and see how the others are doing."
"I hope Henya's having fun, too," May quipped. "This does seem like it's her first time at a carnival."
Nick and May reached out to hold hands before racing off to see what the rest of the spies were up to.
They had returned to the same ride to see Sam and Mat had gotten in line for the bumper cars.
"I wonder what Mat's going to say about the bumper cars," May laughed.
"He'll probably like it," Nick deduced.
They watched Sam and Mat go on the bumper cars, and both appeared to like them.
"Wow, these are more like go-karts," Mat laughed.
Sam was having a good time herself.
After about fifteen minutes was when the bumper cars had stopped and everyone had to vacate them.
"Looked like you two were having fun," Nick told Sam and Mat when they came back.
"It's more like go-karts than bumper cars, honestly," Mat commented.
"Well, unfortunately, I can't take you to the same bumper cars ride near the pools right now," Nick laughed. "But maybe one day."
The spies then went to find everyone else.
Haruka, Bridget, and Nozomi were all having some snacks themselves.
"Looks like three more worked up an appetite," Mat stated.
"Well, a carnival always gets the appetite going," Bridget giggled.
"Did you see where Alex and the others went?" Sam wondered.
"I think they had a petting zoo and Alex wanted to see it," Haruka answered.
"I bet Alex is just going crazy in every way imaginable," May commented.
Some of the spies went to check out if May's presumption was right.
Sure enough, at the petting zoo, Alex was indeed going stir-crazy at all the animals there. Clover and Blaine had gone with her.
"OMG!" Alex exclaimed at the cute piglets and other animals there.
Nick and May were not surprised at all when some of the spies showed up, too. Nick couldn't help but chuckle at seeing Alex dart around while fawning over all the cute animals that were here. One of the little piglets even reminded her of Oinky.
Nick could relate, in a way. He had been quite a sucker for cute animals in his youth, too.
"Look at her go," May chuckled.
"Had enough, girl?" Nick asked, which got Alex's attention.
"Yeah, I think I got my fill of animal cuteness for one day," Alex laughed. "I just saw them, and I couldn't resist."
"Hey, has anyone seen Henya?" Haruka wondered.
The answer to that came in the form of a loud DING sound from not too far away. The spies all turned towards the sound and saw Henya trying out a nearby hammer game, having rather easily rung the bell.
"Wow, Henya, you nailed it!" Dawn laughed.
"Yeah, you made it look easy," Nick chuckled. "I tried that once and I couldn't even get the dang thing halfway to the bell, and you know how strong I am."
"Ah, you fell for that old trick, too, huh?" Henya quipped. "It's actually pretty simple. The button's straight up in the air, just waiting for you to hit it. The problem is the hammer itself, since even though both sides are totally flat, it's a bit fixed. One side's perfectly aligned, and the other's slightly slanted. If you hit it with the slanted side, the impact's gonna be weaker."
"And if you hit it with the right side, it's child's play," Nick finished. "Guess I'm just glad it didn't happen because of a six-year-old who'd definitely eaten her Wheaties the night before."
"Oof, I can relate," Melissa chuckled. "Not exactly my finest moment..."
Before long, the spies had all decided that they'd had more than their fair share of carnival fun for the day and headed out.
"Well, until we meet again," May stated dramatically.
"Hey, I'm sure they'll be in Beverly Hills again," Nick responded. "Remember, they go all over the world. Heck, we might even run into it during one of our mission travels."
"If that happens, you bet your keester I'm dragging you all back there," May chuckled.
"We wouldn't have it any other way, May," Bridget laughed.
"So, what'd you think of your first trip to a carnival, Henya?" Sam asked.
As Henya regaled the spies with the tales of everything she'd experienced at the carnival itself, May took one last look behind her at the lights and sounds of the Tatsuki Brothers Traveling Carnival, a fixture of her childhood.
Until next time, old friend, May thought.
Totally Spies: Carnival Cruisin'
~The End~
And that's all she wrote! As I mentioned, I wanted to have the gang revisit these kind of locations without having to deal with a bad guy who's trying to ruin it. The Jellyfish Pirates could tell you stories about that, honestly. ...hmmm...
And as always, thanks again to Mat for assisting me with this oneshot! I don't have much else to say other than the customary stuff, so until next time, have a fantastic day, don't listen to the screeching morons, and we'll see you next mission!