“I got it, I got it!” One of the many tiny Jaid clones in the underground movie theater figured out what fun thing they should do first. “In movie theater. Watch a movie! But not just any movie. Forgotten name, but that one movie mom never let us watch!”
“Yeah, and prince didn’t let us watch it either when we suggested!” another clone recalled. “He was too scared.” “Too wimpy.” “Loser prince!” “Dumb-head prince.”
“But we big girls now, we can watch it! Show them we’re not scared!” “““““Yeah!”””” It took the group a while to find the movie, including a few false starts until they quickly realized they’d picked the wrong one. But they finally found it, a slasher film that any reasonable parent would have kept far away from their young children. Most clones then settled back down into their seats as the movie started to play
A few, however, went over to the theater's built-in concession stands. There was a popcorn machine that the girls had running on full blast, handing out bags down the rows of seats like they were working a factory line. A couple more were filling fountain drinks with the biggest cups possible, ones that were a hefty percentage of the size of their bodies when compared.
A few spills were made during the process, and some of the tykes tried to clean it up, but they were admonished by the others, saying that it wasn’t fun and to leave it—delegating the chore to an adult clone when the fun time was over.
Eventually, every Jaid had their own oversized bag of popcorn and matching bucket-sized cup of drink, and they finally started to get invested into the movie in front of them. But there was one major problem: not that the film was too scary, though it did cause a few shivers and clinging hugs to other clones during some jumpscares.
Rather, their under-developed minds and attention spans betrayed them, and they quickly got bored. About a quarter-way through the film, when a subplot had taken focus and there’d been no actual action for a while, the mob of clones reached their breaking point! “Boo!” one started when two of the on-screen actors kissed with no hint of them being slaughtered by the killer any time soon.
This was then watched by the rest, all hating on the movie for not being what they’d pictured all these years. Drinks and popcorn went flying, splattering against the screen, as the young children began to riot. But that quickly came to a halt when one of them suggested what would happen if Mallea saw the mess they’d made.
Despite their drive to have fun, the group quickly shifted into diligent mode, cleaning up the mess until the theater was spotless. Fortunately, with all of them together, it barely took a few minutes, and then they immediately shifted back into their fun-starved selves.
“To the playground!” a clone shouted, suggesting the next target of their amusement. It was an easy idea, since to people of their age, playgrounds were fun incarnate. The horde burst out of the theater into the underground and rushed down the tunnel, sprinting with abandon. They then skipped up the stairs at the exit nearest the school and dashed right over to the playground.
The clones divided and conquered all the equipment in seconds, spreading out until every joyful object was overrun. And the Jaids began playing with all their hearts, squealing with glee as they experienced rushes of adrenaline they’d long since forgotten from their youth.
But it wasn’t enough. One of the clones took up the mantle of leader for this part of their day, though she was closer to a drill sergeant, making sure the other clones were having as much fun as possible. Their time was limited, so they needed to make the most of it, and they also had to make up for the minutes wasted on cleaning.
“Swings. Swing faster, more clones on top!” the commander yelled at those huddled around the swingset. There were already multiple clones per swing, stacked up on each other's shoulders. But that wasn’t acceptable because there were more Jaids standing around, waiting their turn. They could just unsummon themselves, but it was all about achieving maximum fun-per-moment. The clones piled even more until the topmost child’s head was nearly brushing against the top bar.
“Monkey bars! More monkeying around. Get across faster and then go again!” The many mini-knights became an infinite loop of acrobats swinging across the bars. To add to their throughput, some of the clones clambered side-by-side, while a few shimmied or ran across the top. They started to look like a military platoon undergoing hellish training, but were ecstatic the entire time.
“Merry-go-round. Round and round and round. Faster until it comes out the ground!” Those that were on the small metal spinner picked up speed. The capacity of the wheel was at bursting, but that didn’t stop those pushing it from digging in their heels and spinning it beyond its limits. Eventually, it got so fast that it was like a whirlwind, with those onboard clinging for dear life.
“Jungle gym is not a gym. It’s a battle! Fight to win, don’t stop until you’re top! Become queen!” They were playing king of the hill on the metal construct, or rather queen of the hill, desperately fighting for the top spot. As soon as one Jaid claimed their victory, they were tossed aside or ripped down into the masses, usurped by a new ruler in seconds.
The raucous jubilance quickly caught attention. It wasn’t anyone who would attempt to cease the chaos. Rather, the lingering eyes were from the children in the school who wanted to be out there playing themselves or were just amused by the spectacle. Their teacher, Andi, eventually came over to the window to see what all the fuss was about, and then had the difficult task of trying to corral everyone’s attention back on the lesson. She even went as far to pull down the blinds and block out the tiny-yet-abundant Fiend who had clearly lost control of their lives.
But the Jaids never even noticed the commotion they were causing, their attention fully and blindly focused on having as much fun as possible. Perhaps they were going a bit too hard, however, and some of the playing started to go awry.
First was the merry-go-round. So much centrifugal force was built that some of the teeny knights went flying in all directions. Likewise on the swings, a few of the clones got a literal crash course in astronaut training—launched towards space. On the monkey-bars, some of the grunts had their hands trampled and fingers pinch. In the jungle gym, the losers of the fight were buried alive, trapped in the middle in a cage of metal and flesh.
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The pain was shared across all the clones as well, so they were all in the know of their shared struggles. But in true kid fashion, they shrugged it off, barely even acknowledging that something was wrong, too enamored by how much fun they were having. Yet also like children, repeating the same actions eventually got boring. They shifted what each clone was doing a few times, but every new attraction had diminishing returns of amusement. So it was time to move on.
A few of the clones mulled around ideas as they continued to half-heartedly play, but nothing was sticking until one finally suggested, “New high score at the gym?!”
“Yeah, high score!” “New high score!” “Beat them all!” They were referring to the combat simulator at the member’s gym. Jaid had long-since cleared the original gauntlet of 100 levels after her return, putting her among a handful of others to actually fully clear it. At that point, it became a speed-trial to try and clear it faster, but eventually even that became too easy.
So now a randomized mode had been added. Wave after wave of fake enemies would spawn, mixing monsters, military, members of the Fiends For Hire and other dangerous entities including traps and drones. Then when the challenger quit or was defeated, the system would award them a score based on the time they’d taken and the calculated difficulty of the foes they’d faced.
Currently, Jaid was in third place behind Drim and reigning champion Itsy, but just ahead of Niloy and Xard. But today she’d beat them all, or that was the easy plan in the shared consciousness of the pack of juveniles. They honestly didn’t even care about the fighting part or consider the strategy and mental acuity a rough gauntlet of battle would take. But they had plenty of energy to burn and only cared about getting the biggest number possible.
The puny platoon marched across the compound, turning heads as they sang a simple song about becoming the best fighter while stamping along in formation. Yet when they reached the gym, they headed for the back door, wanting to avoid any potential confrontation with fun-bashing adults that might question why a bunch of toddler clones were running around unsupervised. Since there were so many clones, they couldn’t all fit into the back hall, however, so a few waited around while the others prepared the simulation.
There was an issue, though, in that the combat simulator simply wouldn’t start, and a small Jaid smacked at the screen, yelling gibberish in frustration. Perhaps it was because the clones weren’t recognized as an authorized user, or maybe she was simply pressing the wrong buttons. Eventually, the clone was pushed aside by another, demanding to try because their exact copy must have been doing it wrong.
A few of the small soldiers got bored waiting around and decided to explore the rest of the gym. And it wasn’t long until they ran into the woman who practically lived there. Nachi raised an eyebrow at the few tykes while she recalibrated a machine, but ultimately ignored them since it was none of her business, since even she wouldn’t bully small children into an impromptu torturous training session.
Yet the over-stimulated children dragged The Trainer into it against her will. “Wait, isn’t she the one who…” one of the clones started and then another continued, “Makes us hurt all the time!” “Too much working out!” “Exercise bad!” “Evil woman!”
The big meanie in question smirked at the accusations, but wasn’t going to take them lying down. “Oh, do you have a problem with that?” She spat back at the children. But right before her eyes, the few girls that were there multiplied, the main group’s attention caught by the altercation. Soon the doorway leading into the main gym was bursting with clones, all staring the woman down, and Nachi was starting to get a bit weirded out.
And then the bubble burst. “Get her!” One of the clones commanded and the entire army began to scream. A wave of little knights flooded into the gym, making The Trainer jump up from her seat. She leaped back as the horde approached her, trying to get some distance.
“So you want a fight then?!” she accepted their challenge, pulling out and rapidly assembling her polearm. The woman then dashed for the button that turned the gym into an arena. But the mechanisms were a bit slow for what she needed.
The racks of practice weapons stayed on the wall when the room was transformed, but that was quickly pillaged, and the remaining stragglers went and grabbed whatever they could get their hands on. Some clones grabbed miscellaneous gym equipment like tension bands, and towels, and even the sanitizing spray.
But the issue came when some of the little monsters got their hands on free weights before they could fully disappear out of grasp. And even though they were far weaker than the original Jaid given their size, they were all still Fiends, and the amount they could lift was still astronomical and exceedingly dangerous when waved around like a weapon.
Nachi swatted away the first clones that approached her, swinging her polearm like a bat. They flew quite the distance too, but it caught her off-guard how quickly they were replaced with a new batch of Jaids. She jumped over the pile of them, using some of their heads as a springboard while the tinies tantrumed underneath her.
The goal was to not let them corner her on any edge of the arena. Yet she quickly realized there was no escape no matter where she went. “Wait, this could actually be bad,” a bit of panic slipped from The Trainer’s lips after fending off a few more successive waves of childish roughhousing that had gone a bit too far. It didn’t help her composure that the clones kept popping out of nowhere before she noticed.
When Nachi fought any other enemy, she would match their rhythm and use that to her advantage. But fighting against the gremlin mob, there wasn’t a hint of it to be found. Every attack made no logical sense, using random amounts of strength and indescribable tactics. Each clone was just swiping based on feeling in the moment, rather than training and years of habit. It was impossible to keep up with.
Still, she had to try, and desperately grabbed at her phone to try and get a song playing, something she could use to drive her focus and drown out the screaming of toddlers. But she had her phone in her hand one moment, and it was snatched away the very next. The clone that had grabbed it was dashing away, asking loudly, “Do you have any games on here?”
With that last hope gone, Nachi was all but sunk, especially because the little mawhgers kept popping up from nowhere. Before she knew it, two had gotten onto her head. One was pulling her hair while the other bashed the butt of a practice mace’s hilt into her skull repeatedly. While she tried to fight against the nuisances, her legs were kicked out from under her and she tripped to the floor.
It was all over then. Her entire body became swarmed by the mini clones, every inch of her body being stepped on, punched, bitten, bashed, cut, and tickled. No one hit was particularly damaging, and the woman had certainly been hurt by worse when fighting against Fiends every day. But despite her durable body, she was starting to wonder if they might actually go too far and end her life. Regardless of the outcome, a call to Ahvra was inevitable in the near future.
There was a surprising saving grace, though. Through the endless beating, she felt a moment of rummaging in her pocket. A second later, one of the zjiklings yelled, “I got her card!” which was followed by all the rest stopping their senseless act of violence to cheer along with the group.
“Let’s get treats!” another one shouted.
“““““““““““““““““““““““““““““““Treats!””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””” echoed the rest of the horde. And just like that, the hit-squad scampered out of the gym, off to reward themself for taking down the big evil trainer.