"N, wake up! You fucked up big time."
That was the first thing N heard as he suddenly woke up. His teammate and possible crush, Uzi, was standing above him.
"Uzi…." N mumbled, sitting up. "What happened? Why am I on the floor?"
"There was this explosion, and suddenly we ended up here," Uzi told him. "I don't think we're in Copper 9 anymore."
Uzi reached out her hand and helped N get up off the ground. The area they were in seemed to be a colorful circus tent, with a checkered floor and a stage. They also saw a cast of characters scattered all over the circus floor. N looked down and saw that there were remains of an explosion on the floor.
"Did we kill these people?!" N blurted. "That explosion sure knocked them all out."
"No, we're fine," A voice said. N and Uzi look up and see a purple rabbit character hanging by his overalls. The explosion had sent him flying up near the top of the circus' Christmas tree.
"What's with the tree? It's not Christmas anymore," Uzi tilted her head.
"We were in the process of taking it down before the explosion," the rabbit crossed his arms, before raising an eyebrow at them. "You two aren't from around here, are you? Are you new characters?" He pointed between the two of them.
"Who are you? Why are we here?" N said as the rabbit freed himself from the Christmas tree.
"Name's Jax. Welcome to the circus," He answered. N eagerly shook Jax's hand.
"I'm N, a designated Disassembly Drone. And this is my best friend Uzi. She's a Worker Drone," N said, motioning between the two of them. "Our species usually doesn't get along, but we're best friends!"
"Right…" Jax said, almost skeptical. "Nice to meet you. If everyone else was awake, I'm sure they would've loved to meet you."
The three of them heard coughing, catching their attention. They turned to see a ragdoll character coughing on the floor. N immediately ran to her.
"Oh my goodness, are you okay?" He asked. Upon seeing N, the ragdoll screamed.
"Who are you?!" she screamed, terrified. Jax and Uzi caught up with N.
"Relax, Dollface. It's just the new guys," Jax told her, not hiding the smile he had as if he took pleasure seeing her so distressed.
"Nice to meet you, Dollface!" N said eagerly, not knowing the ragdoll's actual name. "I'm N, a designated Disassembly Drone–"
"Disassembly Drone?!" the ragdoll asked, beginning to panic again. "Are you here to kill us?!"
"Oh no!" N said. "Me and my friend Uzi just want to know how we ended up here." The ragdoll suddenly paused, confused.
"Wait, so you just showed up?" she asked, N nodding. "Then that means…POMNI!"
"Who's Pomni?" N asked. The ragdoll quickly scrambled up and started running around the circus. She found a king chess piece, a mask with ribbons, a pair of mismatched shapes, but not whoever Pomni was.
"Ragatha, calm down," said the mismatched shapes, sounding almost bored. "We should probably look for Caine. He might know where Pomni might be."
"What's going on?" N asks.
"Pomni's gone missing!" Ragatha said, distraught. She started anxiously rubbing her hands. "We need to find her. I really hope she didn't abstract."
Caine finally came out from his makeshift bunker, seeing the disaster of the circus following the explosion.
"My beautiful circus!" Caine cried. "It's ruined!"
He turned his gaze towards Uzi and N.
"YOU!" Caine shouted, pointing towards the robots. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY CIRCUS?!"
"Us?! We just got here!" Uzi protested. "It already looked like this when we arrived. I mean come on, a Christmas tree? In January?"
"WE WERE TAKING IT DOWN!" Caine yelled.
"Caine!" Ragatha shouted. "Pomni is missing!"
"What?!" Caine asked, surprised. "That's impossible! No one has ever gone missing in the digital circus! We should probably check the rooms to see if she abstracted."
Cut to everyone in the hallway, in complete shock. Pomni didn't abstract, but her door was replaced with a new door for N and Uzi.
"Hey, how come my face is on that door?" N asked.
"I don't get it…" Ragatha said, thinking. "Usually, when someone abstracts, their room stays here, but we X out their portraits."
She pointed to another room in the house; a clown character with an X on his portrait door.
"But Pomni just.. disappeared," she explained before looking at the character with big eyes and teeth. "Caine, we need to find Pomni."
"I'm sure Pomni couldn't have gone too far," Caine assured her. "I think our new friends N and Uzi will be able to find her for us!"
"How do you know our names?" N said, raising an eyebrow.
"I heard you two talking to Jax earlier," Caine explained. "Everyone, let's make a deal: Whoever can find Pomni the fastest, gets a special prize!"
Everyone ran off in a different direction except for Caine, N and Uzi.
"All I remember was that there was an explosion back home, and then me and N ended up here," Uzi said. "Did we just get sent into another world? Like in anime?"
"Looking into everyone's code," Caine began to explain. "Pomni wasn't erased. Her slot was simply placed somewhere else, and you two filled in her place. She could be, anyway," he shrugged.
"Or maybe we swapped places?" N asked, and Uzi gasped.
"That Pomni girl is probably in Copper 9!" Uzi exclaimed. She quickly turned to Caine. "What kinda person is Pomni? What does she look like?"
"Oh, you know, just the anxious Jester type," Caine says. "She frequently has mental breakdowns."
"THEY'LL EAT HER ALIVE!" Uzi panicked, turning to N. "N, we gotta find an exit and rescue Pomni. Then we bring her back here."
Uzi took N's hand, and the two ran off.
"Wait!" Caine shouted. "There is no Exit! I haven't finished it yet!"
But N and Uzi were already gone. They were going to help the circus and find Pomni before anything bad could happen.
One of the vacant doors in the circus suddenly cracked, a sign of bad things to come.