Prologue Part 2

The Void. A fitting name for a space that consisted of literally nothing. It wasn't a purely white or black void though as far away in the distance one could see massive pixel-like blocks of data appear and disappear in a constantly shifting motion as if they were not truly there. Overall, it was a place with no real up or down as there simply was nothing of consistency. No ground, no sky and no end.

That was until something was there.

Arcs of electricity crackled to life in this seemingly infinite nothingness, concentrated around one area where the pixelated space began to bend, twist and stretch. Finally, the fabric of this reality gave way, revealing a black nothingness beyond as something pushed its body into the Void. Once it was through, the tear it had come out of started to widen and become bigger. More energy poured into this anomaly, seemingly fueling its growth.

In the meantime, the being that had come out of it set its sights around the Void. It could tell that there was more to this place than just empty space. With that, it set out in one direction, determined to reach some place beyond the emptiness.

Inside one particular area of the Amazing Digital Circus' grounds existed a rather fine restaurant.

Outside one could see a picture of a lush green jungle, while decorative lamps hung down from the ceiling over the many tables. The "guests" of that place though were far less lively as they appeared to be nothing but wooden mannequins. They were going through the motions of chatting with one another and sitting on the tables in groups of two to three people and made gestures with their clunky, unmoving stubs they had for hands, but no words were actually spoken aloud.

Of course the fancy place was as fake as its faceless occupants and the still image "outside" its windows, minus two figures standing out like sore thumbs in the middle of it all. calling them real would however also be a bit of a stretch. One was literally a transluscent bubble with two cartoonish looking black beady eyes and a mouth full of sharp triangular teeth, hovering over a chair. Meanwhile actually sitting on a chair opposite to the bubble was a short person dressed like a circus director though their head was literally a set of fake teeth with a pair of heterochromatic eye balls inside. The right eye was blue and the left one green, while a small top hat sat on the jaws.

"Haha! And then Zooble said that my adventures are not fun at all. What a joke! Even if they don't want to admit it, Zooble sure got a lot of humor." Caine said as he leaned on the table with one arm, while Bubble laughed along.

"They sure do. I think everyone who comes here has that sense of humor." Bubble grinned, making Caine laugh almost falling out of his chair.

"I know right? We sure have a merry band of little stars." He said as he was about to grab his cup of digital coffee, when all of the sudden the cup glitched out of existence. "Huh? I thought I ordered digital coffee without digital caffeine." Caine said when all of the sudden something blared coming from his wrist. Pulling back the sleeve of his red suit, he was met with a whacky gadget with a screen roughly the size of a smartphone with weird trumpet like pieces as well as some buttons attached to its sides. On the upper corner it read 'WHACKY WATCH' in bold dark purple letters on the pale liliac plastic of the gadget.

"WARNING! WARNING!" It read in neon green letters before the screen suddenly began to corrupt and glitch, making it entirely unreadable.

"Uh..." Caine looked in confusion as Bubble floated over to him and took at look at the device herself.

"Looks like you need a new watch." She said when the screen suddenly showed static and the air was filled with static noises. The noise became louder and louder, making Bubble float away in discomfort while Caine hit and turned each button in an attempt to shut it up.

"Why... you..." He groaned until Bubble finally had enough and pulled it off his arm, before throwing it against the wall. The screen cracked loudly and turned black as it now laid there, leaning against the wall so that both of them could still see the screen. "Oh thanks for that. I was about to pull the hammer out." Caine said and pulled out a large wooden hammer that was bigger than himself.

But then they heard the static again, making them look at the device. The display now showed a neon green background with a single magenta red eye in the middle looking directly at the two of them with a yellow iris, before it disappeared and was replaced once more with pitchblack screen. Then a new line of text appeared on the screen in glitchy neon green letters.

"H̴E̴L̶L̶O̷ ̴C̴A̷I̷N̵E̶ ̵.̵ ̸.̷ ̷.̶" The text read, before the device simply glitched out of existence.

"Oh. This is... mildly concerning... I'm sure it's nothing!" Caine said in a confident tone, while Bubble gave him the flattest look that she was legally allowed to do.

It was then when the entire digital space around them began to shake violently and glitch. Mannequins clipped through walls and ground, tables started distorting and floating alongside decorative fake digital plants and cuttlery and plates spun around their own axises.

"Oh this is not good..." Caine thought out loud.

"You think?" Bubble asked while the cake on her plate glitched out of existence.

"Pomni? Are you alright?" Ragatha's voice woke Pomni up alongside her soft knocking on the door. The girl stuck in the body of a cartoonish jester groaned as she rose out of bed.

"I'm up..." She said still somewhat groggy, despite the fact that they didn't actually need any sleep in this... place. Pomni dragged herself over to the door and opened it, revealing the familiar doll that was Ragatha.

"Hey. Good morning." Ragatha said when she saw Pomni peering out from behind her door. Her smile faded a bit as she looked away with her one eye and scratched the back of her neck sheepishly. "You know, we are going to start soon."

"Okay..." Pomni replied as she stepped out of her room and walked towards the usual place where the members of the circus usually gathered in the morning. As she trudged over, she felt a hand on her shoulder, making her stop and look up at Ragatha's worried expression.

"Look Pomni. I know the past few days haven't been easy on you. But... if you ever need help, just ask. Okay?" The doll said, causing a small smile on the jester's face as she looked at her.

"Thanks Ragatha. I appreciate it."

"Ugh! Do you need to be this sappy in the morning?" Came the annoyed voice of Jax as he was already there along with Kinger, who had emerged from his pillow fort.

"Jax! You could be a bit nicer for a change." The doll crossed her arms while the cartoon rabbit in orange dungarees merely shrugged with his usual grin.

"I am nicer than usual already. I just am slowly going back to how I usually am, Rags." Jax said when Zooble and Gangle also walked out of their rooms. "Oh hey, Crybaby and Patchwork are also here. Guess we can actually start now." He said.

"F**k you Jax." Zooble said, the automatic censorship of the circus' family friendly space bleeping out the curse word with a cartoonish sound effect. Meanwhile, Gangle walked over to Pomni, her comedy mask looking a bit sheepishly at her as the red ribbon shaped like a humanoid shifted uncomfortably.

"Morning Pomni..." She said in a timid tone, clearly not at all happy with the way Jax had called her crybaby. The jester gave her a sympathetic look, but before she could say something Caine appeared in a puff of smoke.

"Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood Morning my little superstars! How are you today?" Caine said enthusiastically. No one said a word and for some reason a cricket chirped at the awkward silence. "Wonderful!" Caine added not caring for the lack of a reaction from the actual people he talked to. "I hope you are ready for today."

"Whatever." Zooble said with their arms crossed.

"Well I had an adventure planned for you guys, but..." Caine suddenly froze mid sentence in the air and didn't move at all. Pomni looked a bit uncomfortable as she leaned over to Ragatha.

"Does this happen often?" She whispered to the doll, who shrugged.

"Every now and again."

"Can we go back to doing nothing now?" Zooble asked fed up with the whole thing already as they turned around, only to have Caine be right there.

"Haha! Of course not. Now as I was saying, I had an adventure planned for the day." Caine said before looking slightly uncomfortable as he adjusted his tie. "Unfortunately, it appears that something has gone wrong with the... preparations and I had to scrap that."

"What? Forgot to save your changes?" Jax asked with a cheeky smile. Caine laughed it off.

"Almost, but no. Anyway, today's adventure will take place in a familiar place. I'm sure you all still remember the Candy Canyon Kingdom and what fun that was."

At those words, Pomni's mind went blank. She did remember that adventure, but for all the wrong reasons.

"Well you are in luck, because you are going back."

"Ugh. Seriously?" Jax asked annoyed at the prospect of revisiting the place they had been to not too long ago.

"Oh don't worry your head. I made sure to include some things for you as well, since you seemed rather... vocal about your criticism." Caine said as he pulled out a scroll of paper, which then fell to the ground and kept rolling away. "But no reason to worry. I got everything under control." Caine said while putting his hands on his hips and a nonexistent breeze blew the coattails of his suit slightly like the cape of a superhero.

"Yeah, no thanks. I'm gonna..." Zooble was about to ditch the adventure (again) when all of the sudden the whole circus glitched and a pixelated rift opened beneath the digitized humans, causing them to fall down into a black abyss while screaming in fright. Upon closing, Caine was left alone, floating in the air, still striking his superhero pose though his eyes were locked on the spot where the circus members had been standing just moments ago.

"Oh..." He said when Bubble appeared.

"We might have to figure out those technical issues." She said when Caine pulled up a wooden desk out of nowhere.

"Alright!" Caine then literally pulled out a brain out of his head and put it on the table. "Okay, now work your magic, brain."

Naturally the brain did not reply verbally, but instead pulled out a small wooden sign from somewhere.

[No. ಠ╭╮ಠ ]

"What..." Caine simply looked at the sign with wide eyes in for a moment, before his empty head fell face first onto the table.

"Now that was something." Bubble said as the Brain pulled out a wooden sign from somewhere.

[Wanna go to your place, watch Netflix and chill?]

"Oh, I'd be down for that." Bubble said.

[Sweet! ≧◡≦]

Meanwhile

Gummy and licorice bats took off screeching into the night sky from their cave as a pale moon hung over the lands of the Candy Canyon Kingdom. Or rather what was left of it after the Fudge had gotten back inside the castle walls. Now though, the place looked even stranger. For example, until recently, there had not been a moon in the night skies above this place. And the skies certainly didn't have circuit like patterns run all over them.

Sitting around a campfire at the foot of a mountain made out of cookies, which was made of the sugar cane logs of lolipop trees, were two gummy crocodiles. One was orange and yellow with a long body and long arms that reached all the way to his waist, while the other was short and purple and orange with tiny arms and legs. The two brothers sat in silence as they looked out into the landscape, watching the swarms of gummy bats rise into the skies, while elsewhere the sounds of other creatures filled the night.

"You think the boss is okay?" Max, the shorter one of the two asked. It had been a while since Gummigoo had gone with that ragtag group of weirdoes. But Max trusted that his brother knew what he was doing.

"Of course. It would be weird if he didn't. It's the boss after all." Chad replied, before both of their stomachs growled. Both of them looked down at their white foam sugar bellies for a moment.

One would assume that food would not be an issue in a place that is literally made out of candy, but one of the problems that arose with the Fudge going on a murderous spree of eating any candy that crossed his path was that he left nothing behind. That and lately it had become even harder with how drastically the place had changed somehow. Now there suddenly were beings in these lands that were not made out of candy. Yet they seemed to have little problems eating them as well just like the Fudge did.

Suddenly, loud stomping disturbed the silence as they heard loud guttural snarls. Chad and Max turned around to see the mouth of the cave just slightly in the darkness of the night. It was like a pitch-black abyss out of which bats flew out in a frenzied panic. The two gummy crocodiles cowered together, holding one another tightly as a pair of green eyes peered out of the cave. They couldn't really make out the shape that this pair of eyes belonged to, but even these two rather idiotic people could tell that it was massive.

As it drew closer, the footsteps grew louder and shook the ground beneath them. Then it stopped suddenly. The two still couldn't make out what it was, but it was easily towering over anyone or anything they had ever seen, aside from maybe the Fudge. Green unmoving eyes looked down at them as they trembled in fear.

It was then when a large skeletal hand appeared out of the darkness and into the orange glow of the fire as it reached down towards Chad and Max. Each of the five fingers was easily as long as they were tall, tipped with a sharp claw. At that Chad and Max closed their eyes tightly, waiting for the inevitable end...

Except it didn't come... Cracking one eye open each, the two saw how the giant skeletal hand put something down in front of them. A bag filled with something. It was not even as long as one of its claws, but rather heavy compared to themselves. Once it had put the bag down gently, the arm withdrew back into the darkness and the being walked past them, its eyes turning away from them.

All the two brothers could make out in the weak glow of their lights was the crude outline of the massive body composed of nothing but bones as it wandered off. The only other thing they saw clearly was when a long bony tail, easily as tall as a gummy elephant or the gummy snakes, that used to live in the kingdom's castle's moat, swayed over their heads as the creature lumbered off.

By the time, the tremors could no longer be felt and the heavy stomping turned into quiet background noise, Chad and Max turned to look at the bag it had put down in front of them. It had tipped to the side due to the ground shaking footsteps, revealing its contents to be food which now laid in the sugar dust.

"Oh, that was nice of them." Max said as Chad nodded in agreement, not even going to question the situation at all.

Neither of them saw a sudden tear in the sky appear in the distance or the people falling down from it.