Absolute Chaotix, Part Two



Carnival Island, Here We Come!



By Mello

Sharon cautiously flew through the door that said "Welcome to Carnival Island!" (she could walk fine, but she felt safer in the air, somehow--too easy to get stepped on, on the ground) and looked around.
Music that was reminiscent of the typical, old-fashioned carnival or circus music but too fast, and strangely dark and discordant, played in the background while Sharon walked among all kinds of strange rides and contraptions, all set against the same odd jet-black empty sky. Looked like wherever this place was, it was in the same universe as the portal-place. Sharon looked closer at the devices and realised what it was that was bothering her about this place: For one thing, even though the music was playing and all the rides were going, there was NOBODY HERE!
And secondly, it looked as if some of the rides could KILL you! For example, she could tell by looking that if one didn't get off that roller-coaster over there fast enough, one might be rammed into a bed of spikes; if one didn't jump off that bouncy-balloon here in time, they might have their heads smashed violently into a metal ceiling above!
Sharon shuddered and turned around to look for the portal. Freezing or burning sounded pleasant compared to this place. It was a twisted, scary nightmare version of a childhood fantasy. Let me OUT of here, she thought.
But the portal was, as you may have guessed, gone.
With a sigh, Sharon set out to investigate the Carnival. She soon realised that the laws of physics were a bit screwy in this place. She could run incredibly fast, and somehow also jump very high, compared to her size. (Of course, that hardly mattered when she could FLY, but since her back-muscles weren't very strong yet, sometimes jumping was faster and more efficient.) She leapt onto a strangely-spinning black disk that was rotating vertically in the air--it looked like nothing so much as a large black vinyl record--and found her feet magnetically stuck to it, forcing her to spin around upside down, as well. Furiously, she beat her wings as hard as she could and managed to free herself of it, then flew through the air to land on a balloon, which then popped and sent her up into the air to land on ANOTHER balloon, which then bounced her up to ANOTHER, and she landed on a ledge that was coloured like a circus tent. She took a breather there for a moment before she noticed that the ledge was rapidly falling towards a bed of spikes--AND deteriorating beneath her feet as it did so! Alarmed, she leapt off, and finally found a quiet place of actual solid ground to land on.
This place was INSANE!
As she stood there, panting, she noticed something odd--a large, golden hoop, about the same size as her entire torso, lying on the ground. Real gold? she wondered. It might be valuable. She started to pick it up, then had second thoughts. This place was incredibly dangerous...who KNEW what kind of horrid trap this could be? Maybe it was just put there to lure her.
Then again, after the nasty time she'd just had, she figured she DESERVED a little reward!

CHOICES

1. Sharon bends over to pick up the golden hoop.
2. Sharon decides not to trust it and leaves it where it is--OPEN.
3. Something else...--OPEN.

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