The biggest worry Pomni had on her mind that day was whether she was going to drown (again). It was already bad enough that Caine decided to make this day "aquatic week", but they hadn't been to the beach once, either! In preparation for her inevitable swimming session, Pomni grabbed a snorkeling set from a big chest set to the side of her room. The set matched her colors perfectly, with it being red, blue, and yellow. Taking a deep breath, Pomni stepped outside...
And her face was nearly blasted off by a stray rocket. "Holy s& !" she exclaimed as she jumped backwards, her head smacking against the wall. She looked down the hall to see Jax (of course it was Jax) sprinting towards her. Behind him was some weird kind of robot that looked human, but wasn't really.
The robot in question had a weird visor with purple eye-light things dancing across the screen. Pomni initially thought it was a new kind of headset Caine had given to one of the Circus residents, but she quickly dashed that thought when she saw the visor was attached to the metal head of the robot.
As the robot was sprinting after Jax, she (the voice sounded feminine to Pomni) screamed, "Give me back my mom!" Pomni looked back towards Jax and saw that he was holding some disgusting spider thing. It struggled in his arms while pulsating, just like a heartbeat.
"How did this thing make you?!" Jax asked tauntingly.
"Um, Jax..." Pomni started shrinking away, not wanting to respawn this early in the morning. "Maybe you shouldn't insult the NPC with rocket launchers." No one heard her though, as both Jax and the robot girl sped past her without acknowledging her presence.
Pomni took a second to realize the weight of her statement. Caine had let in another NPC. Pomni immediately got flashbacks to Gummigoo, the first (and only) NPC she befriended. She learned the hard way soon after that NPCs and players don't mix.
"Um... Caine?" Pomni started walking down the hall in the opposite direction of Jax, hoping to find her crazy AI overlord. "Another NPC escaped..." Just as she was about to round the corner, something slammed into her full-force. Both Pomni and the mysterious person fell to the ground.
"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry about that!" Pomni took the outstretched hand placed in front of her, rising to her feet with a grunt. However, when she finally looked at the guy, she realized he looked exactly like that other robot, but with wings.
It's safe to say Pomni freaked out.
Pomni dashed down the hall, leaving the male robot confused and calling after her. As this was the Circus, every other step Pomni was sliding and glitching all over the place. At some point she ended up hanging from a ceiling light (don't ask her how, she still doesn't know), calling for help.
"Hello there, my auspicious adventurer! What seems to be the problem?" Caine materialized out of thin air beside Pomni, scaring her off the light and sending her crashing to the floor (once again). However, she hit the ground at an odd angle, making her clip through the floor halfway. When she tried to get out, she was stuck.
"Caine... Help, please!" Pomni continued pushing against the floor, becoming increasingly more desperate for help. Her fear only increased when she saw Jax running towards her down the hall, both robots now in pursuit. Somehow the pulsing spider-thing had latched onto his right ear, and was now swinging around while holding on for dear life. "CAINE! F *&%* HELP ME!"
"Now, what do we have going on here?" Caine drifted towards Jax and the two robots, completing ignoring Pomni (who was still stuck in the floor). He suddenly gasped in a dramatic fashion, saying, "NEW VISITORS!"
As if by magic, everyone was in the main hall, and the purple female drone was carrying the spider. Pomni sighed in relief as she found herself freed from the floor, and shrieked in terror when she realized she was standing right beside one of the robots.
"What the heck! I'm not that scary!" The purple drone leaned towards Pomni, her eye-lights flickering menacingly. "I should be asking you all why you look so messed-up."
"Messed up?!" Jax leaned out from where he was standing in the line, only to be forcefully dragged back by Ragatha, who appeared strangely calm in this entire situation. Then again, Pomni guessed new visitors weren't going to look normal either way. She took a deep breath and forced herself to act normal.
"Welcome, our three new-" Caine was cut off as he was body-slammed into the ground by yet another robot. This one also looked female, with short hair held back by what looked like a headband.
"OH MY GOD, THEY'RE GOING TO KILL US!" Pomni started screaming and running around, completely disregarding her friends, who were trying to calm her down.
"V! Stop beating that guy up. Not only does it look weird, it's going to get us nowhere." The purple drone flew up (she had wings?!) and pulled her fellow female drone away, both of them settling on the ground. Caine immediately popped up from where he was a puddle on the floor.
"Well, that was an interesting introdu-" He was immediately knocked over by Pomni, who was still running around like crazy and screaming her head off.
"Hey! Jester girl!" The purple robot grabbed Pomni by the arms, which only made them stretch out to unrealistic proportions as she continued running. "What the-"
"Can we please calm down?" Ragatha was attempting to chase after Pomni, but it was like Pomni had some sort of speed booster on. No one was able to catch her on foot. Eventually, the male drone flew over and picked her up, effectively stopping her frenzied rampage.
"Let go of me!" Pomni kicked against the male drone's body to no avail. He settled down on the floor, continuing to hold Pomni.
"Anyways..." Caine picked himself up off the floor for the last time (hopefully). "It's time to welcome our new players!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa." The other female drone with yellow eye-light things walked towards Caine, looking dangerous. "What do you mean players? This isn't some weird video game that Uzi likes, is it?"
"I have know clue who this Oo-zee is, but I can say that you are the new players at..." A drum roll came out of nowhere, adding "tension" to the room. "The Amazing Digital Circus!"
The three robots (and the spider, it seemed) gave Caine blank stares. It was the male drone who spoke up. "We're in a circus?" It took a second, but his yellow eye-lights lit up in glee, a smile spreading across his face as he rocked on his heels in excitement.
"The bad kind." Jax somehow appeared right behind the male drone, scaring him slightly but doing nothing to damage his cheerful demeanor.
"Ugh. N, I don't want to be in some stupid circus right now," the purple drone groaned. The spider started fidgeting in her arms, making weird noises that suspiciously sounded like human grunts.
"Come on, Uzi! Please?" N gave Uzi (Pomni decided these were their names) a sad look, not too different to that of a puppy dog. Uzi groaned and tried to look away, but eventually caved in.
"Fine. But the second this gets boring, we leave."
"HAH! Funny joke!" Caine flew down in front of the robots (whom Pomni were now calling N, Uzi, and V respectively). "You can't leave, though."
Once again, Caine got a blank stare from all three of the robots. V was the one who spoke up this time. "We can't leave?"
It was the robots' turn to start panicking. N's look of excitement immediately transformed into one of dread, and he started asking questions rapid-fire without pausing for answers. Uzi started arguing with the spider in her hands (THE THING COULD TALK?!), and V began to threaten Caine with a sword that just popped out of her arm.
"Slow down there, my robotic ruffians! We don't have time for arguments. We need to get on with today's adventure!" Pomni remembered the theme of "adventures" over the past week, and suddenly started worrying that everyone was going to get electrocuted. To be fair, she had valid reasons for worrying; there was no way the robots weren't going to get wet (unless they flew the entire time, which seemed unlikely).
"Slow down there! I'm not going to listen to some stumpy ringmaster who sounds like some primitive robot! I'm leaving!" Uzi's wings appeared once again, and she took off through the ceiling of the tent, phasing through it (as there were no actual wall collisions for the roof yet).
"That's going to be a problem." Caine disappeared and reappeared almost an instant later with Uzi, here eye-lights hollowed.
"What did you do to her?!" V pulled out her hand-sword thing again and pointed it at Caine.
"It's her fault for going out into the void without the proper safety information! Besides, she'll be fine soon enough. Anyways, on to adventure!" With a snap of his fingers, Caine sent all the robots and players through a brightly-colored portal.
Thankfully, they weren't anywhere aquatic. Unfortunately, they were right next to a smoking volcano. Caine's voice played through a set of speakers. "Hello there, everybody! Today's adventure is Vacant Volcanic Vacation!" Pomni was starting to wonder whether Caine was running out of ideas for the names of the adventures; they had been pretty bland or just plain weird lately. "Your objective is to escape the exploding volcano! Be the first to reach the finish line to receive a special reward. Ready?" Pomni was not ready. "Set?" Oh God, oh God, oh God. "Go!"
The volcano erupted, sending molten fluid flying through the air directly at the group of players. All of the robots took off immediately, with Uzi carrying the talking spider in her arms. Everyone else (everyone who wasn't a robot) start running for their lives.
It turned out that Caine built this adventure much like many racing games Pomni had played throughout her life. This gave her a boost of confidence seconds before she was slapped in the face by a plastic ball. Then again, she was never really good at those kinds of things.
When Pomni regained her senses, she saw Jax chucking plastic balls over his shoulder at an alarmingly fast speed, hitting whatever happened to be behind him. To her right was Ragatha, holding an umbrella to shield herself from the plastic balls, and to her left was Gangle, whose Comedy Mask miraculously hadn't broken. Ah, wait... There we go. Pomni was wondering where Kinger was when she saw him running across the tops of the trees. How he managed to do that, Pomni didn't know, but he certainly was making progress.
The robots, on the other hand, were nowhere to be seen. Pomni knew she shouldn't be scared of the new visitors, but they hadn't exactly made the best impression. They also appeared to be very dangerous (one could turn her hand into a sword!), which further added to Pomni's unease.
Pomni looked behind her to see that the lava was moving faster and faster, almost as if it was actively trying to catch up to her. She was pretty sure Caine intended for this chasing mechanic, and she hated him for that. Why couldn't she just be placed in a calm environment for once?! Seriously, was it that hard to ask for-
Pomni hadn't noticed that the lava had almost caught up to her until N picked her up from where she was running. Naturally, Pomni started resisting the robot's help, but immediately stopped when she realized N was the only thing between her and being melted.
"Looks like you calmed down, clown buddy!" The robot seemed very cheerful considering the situation he had just been thrown in, but Ragatha was overly positive too, so Pomni couldn't really judge.
"How are you not terrified or freaking out right now?" Seriously, Pomni could not understand how one person could take so much at one time. She had nearly broken down when she first entered the Circus, and she didn't even have to be plopped in a random environment to do so!
"Oh, I've had plenty of adventures. Compared to them, this is tame!" Again with the overly-cheerful demeanor. Pomni hated to say it, but it was already started to grate at her. At least he'd get along with Ragatha.
"Tame? How the heck have you experienced anything wilder than this?"
"Oh, that's an easy question. Where do I begin..." Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at the situation), N didn't have the time to finish his though process as a big glob of lava fell out of the sky and right onto his back.
"OH MY ROBO-GOD! THIS FEELS BAD! THIS FEELS SO SO SO BAD!" N started spiraling out of the air, his wings slowly falling off his body. "HANG ON, CLOWN BUDDY!"
"At least say my na-" They crashed into a thicket of trees, Pomni flying out of the robot's hands and slapping into a particularly hard trunk. Just as she was regaining her senses, she saw Uzi leering in front of her.
"What did you do to my friend?!" She gestured at N, who was attempting to put out the remnants of the fire the lava had started. "Last I checked, he had functioning wings."
"Well... The volcano erupted, and I guess that caused lava to fall out of the sky... Although I'm not sure how accurate that is to real life. Anyways, one of those globs hit..." Pomni paused for a second, trying to remember the male robot's name. "N? Yeah, N. And, well, now we're here." She glanced over at where N was frantically batting at flames. "Trying not to cause a forest fire, by the looks of it."
"I feel like I should believe you, but I also like to be an annoying skeptic, so I'm just going to ask you random questions for the fun of it." Uzi laughed to herself, as if she found her own joke funny. Pomni didn't really get it, but didn't dare voice her opinion.
"Um... Guys? A little-OH DEAR ROBO-GOD, A DEER'S ON FIRE!" N gestured at the burning form of the forest animal. Pomni nearly vomited rainbows at the sight.
"Huh. Cool. You think we can eat that?" Uzi didn't seem fazed by the situation whatsoever, which only added to Pomni's confusion and panic.
"Why do you want to eat a burning deer?! Help it! It's going to-" She paused for a second. "Wait. Can animals die in this place?" From the way the deer was now laying on the floor, wheezing, she guessed the answer was yes.
"We're in a simulation, right? It should be fine." She walked over to the deer's now-dead body and kicked it. "Oh... Welp. Too bad." She sprouted wings and took off, leaving N and Pomni frozen on the ground.
Pomni regained her senses when she smelled burning trees. She looked over to see the lava heading straight towards her and N. "N... N, we need to get out of here!"
N's eye-lights snapped back into focus. He grabbed Pomni in his arms and attempted to fly, not remembering that his wings were completely destroyed. This left the two to start running for their lives, skipping over rocks and vaulting over fallen trees.
Pomni didn't think things could get any worse until she was once again bombarded by little plastic balls. She looked up to see Jax on a floating platform, shooting the balls out of a gigantic machine gun. "Take this, suckers!" He seemed to be aiming directly at Pomni, but that was probably because she was the easier target out of her and N.
"Hey! That's not very nice!" Pomni expected N to stop there, but he raised his arm and sprouted a little tube. She was confused at first, but fell back in shock when a flying bomb erupted from hit. It hit the platform Jax was standing on, exploding it and sending the purple rabbit falling to the ground. Pomni stared at N, not really scared, but more surprised.
"What the heck! I finished first, and now I have to get there all over again?! Screw yo-" His words garbled into screams as Uzi picked him up and started flying him over the trees. "WHATHEPUTMEDOWN!"
N looked at Pomni. "Is it just me, or has there been a lot of screaming today?"
"You're telling me." The finish line was finally in Pomni's line of sight, which spurred her on to run faster. N matched her pace, seeing the finish line as well. Pomni could also see Uzi flying Jax in from the side, Jax still thrashing and kicking against the robot's attempts to help him.
Finally, Pomni and N made it to the platform. The flowing lava somehow arced around the platform, leaving a circle of safe land around it. Soon after, Jax and Uzi landed down. Jax immediately ran away from the purple robot, screaming, "LET ME GO! YOU STUPID THINGS DON'T KNOW BOUNDARIES!" Pomni so wanted to call Jax out on his statement, but she let in go to prevent the creation of more drama.
Pomni turned to N. "You know, you guys can be really nice for robots."
"Oh!" N looked at Pomni. "Technically, we're worker/murder drones."
Pomni's mind immediately started whirring. "Murder... drones?" If her newfound friends were somehow murderers-Wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait.
"You guys are human, right?"