“No, you can’t go back out.”

“Mroow”

“I know it was fun, but you already know the plan. Carnival made sure of that.”

“Mrow…”

“Can you please just get it off of me? I would like to breathe again.”

I huffed in annoyance. The three of us had made it out into the many halls of the SKYSHAKER, only for the chimera to latch onto a doorway and trip me up. Now I was on my back with a two hundred-plus pound child sitting on my chest, angrily stomping every time it didn’t get its way.

Bouquet thought the whole thing was hilarious, and whatever it was saying sounded like it was nothing more than a five-year-old by her responses. Record had his phone out to watch the live stream, but I could tell by the way his synthetic eye was moving that he was recording this whole interaction.

I finally had enough and just rolled over, causing the monster to lose balance and flop over on its side, then with a pushup I was standing again. “So is all that we are waiting for is a few more songs from the heroes?”

“Yup.” Record nodded, “Then Emcee will have all ten of us cast one big spell to end it all.”

I grimaced at the reminder, Bouquet just laughed at my plight. Her part of the spell was all for show, but Record and I had to prepare the monster for its last journey. The two of us were ready, but neither of us was all that excited.

What? Looking like you were happily causing the last bit of chaos was going to be very hard when you’re focusing on fuzing two schools of magic. I knew I was personally gonna have a hard time not looking constipated or something during the big moment. My big slip-up during the opening was a fluke, but the possibility of it repeating was very high.

“Mroow…” The monster had finally got its footing, it then jumped up and placed its front two paws on my chest. The creature leveled the most heartbroken look that it could muster right at my face.

“It doesn’t matter what you want, this has been the plan the whole time.” Bouquet said as she rubbed her hand on its back in an attempt to soothe its feelings. “After the show is over you’ll get more chances to perform again… and even more.”

The monster dropped back down to all fours and looked at the ground, casting guilty glances at the villainess.

I still don’t know where any of this is coming from by the way. None of this behavior was in its programming whatsoever. It had developed these emotions all on its own…

I’m honestly kind of scared that this success with the intelligence formula went a bit too far.

I thought we were gonna give The Saints a free pet at the end of the show. Now I’m worried we’ll be handing them a real child…

“Hey… um…” I cast my own guilty look towards Bouquet, “Do you guys really think we should give the monster to the heroes? It’s just…”

“The monster is displaying levels of intelligence none of us were prepared for. We’ve already had this conversation.” Record said with a groan, I tilted my head in confusion and he quickly caught on. “The rest of us… in the arena. You’re not the only one to notice this… but we still want to give it away.”

“Huh? Oh, okay. Oops.” Bouquet said with a confused smile, “I guess I wasn’t paying attention.”

I nodded with a sigh, ignoring the sorrowful looks the monster was now giving everyone. “How much time do we have until we’re back on?”

“SoundScape and Gold Bella are going to do their own final songs, then Ice King will close out.” Record turned his phone around, showing Ice King handing the mic to SoundScape. “We have more than enough time to get into position.”

“Then Photographer will ‘port us in and we all go under Emcee's spell.” I continue the thought, the final part of the plan having been hammered into my head for a while now.

The conversation drifted off from there, everyone just silently jamming out to the music as we made our way to the top of the arena. The chimera still made its many complaints known throughout the trip, and it even tried to make a break for it. By the time we stopped that little fiasco, we found ourselves overlooking the SKYSHAKER from the top of the grandstand.

I could see a lot, from up here, too much probably. Gold Bella was going at her big hit about an ex she put in jail, the crowd going wild because it’s a popular song, and even Speed Queen popping in and leaving to keep an eye on Ice King. Who in turn, was obviously charging up his power to an insane degree… probably to set up their finale.

There was also the beastman I saw earlier, who was sitting only a few feet from the entrance we used. She was staring at us, or more likely at me. I elbowed the others and tilted my head towards the lady, who was standing up and starting to walk over to us like she meant business.

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“What do you freaks think you're doing?” Her voice was gravelly, and now that she was closer I could tell she was some kind of alligator or crocodile.

The three villains here were caught off guard for a moment, then Bouquet chimed in with a ton of sarcasm. “Thanks for coming to the show, I hope you like it.”

“Shut up.” The beastman snapped, “I don’t need you idiots tossing magic about in MY city. We already have enough trouble with all of the fey crap. Isn’t the whole thing with magic that it’s supposed to be secret anyway?”

“Well guess what? We do what we want.” I said with a shrug while patting the chimera’s head. I only barely recovered from the shock of someone saying the ‘M’ word out loud. “And no one can stop us.”

“Ooooh. I don’t care.” She got up in my face, staring me down as I pretended to smile. “I don’t care about the plant girl here or the tin can. I especially don’t care about a fake like you. But, I do care when some idiot crashes a spaceship into my city and harasses MY king.”

With one last angry huff, the beastman walked past us and into the halls of the SKYSHAKER.

“Have a nice day! Go rot in a ditch!” Bouquet said with as much fake cheer as she could after the angry woman got some distance. She and I gave big waves when she looked back to stare daggers.

“Greenscale the Terrible.” Record said after a moment, holding his phone up to show her mugshot. “She’s a member of the Coalition.”

“That explains a lot,” I said as I took the closest seat I could. “Kinda concerning she said… you know…”

“Is she new? I’ve never heard of her before.” Bouquet asked.

“She’s not new, just not major or anything.” Record slowly said, trying to read and talk at the same time. “Looking at her power set you’d think she’s a member of the theater… her profile says she got her abilities from the fey-wild though.”

“Still need to be careful with her.” I stated, “We need to at least tell the Doc or the conductor about her.”

Record nodded in agreement, just as a voice crackled over the communicators.

“Alright, the heroes are disconnected and Ice King is about to start their final song.” Actress said with a bit too much excitement for my taste, “Everyone choose an entrance and get ready for Emcee to start the end.”

The three of us gave each other somewhat excited looks, Bouquet tapped her communicator. “Record, Carnival, and I will take the ones in the north.”

“Okay! I’ll take the one at the south then, we’ll have the monster jump out of the north one.” Emcee practically shouted, I could even hear a bit of an echo from whatever hall he was in.

Record pointed to two of the entrances that Boquete and I could take… Now that I look there happens to be ten of them. How convenient.

Eventually, I was alone again, we had left the monster with Record, and Boquete had gone in the other direction. So all I could do was stand in the shadow of the entry and watch as Ice King started whatever it was he was going to do.

I do have to admit it was pretty cool…

Pun very intended.

The song started out strong, and the second the first few drums started the crowd went even more wild. I’m kinda embarrassed to admit that it took me a hot second to recognize the song, but that’s beside the point. By the time he was done with the first part, the entire arena floor was covered with a thin layer of ice.

It looked like he wanted to move about sporadically, skating about to hype up the slower part of the rap. However, it was apparent that his bad leg was getting in the way of that, he had overestimated himself. The hero didn't let it stop him though, he pushed onto the fastest part and lifted his good arm into the air.

All of the ice quickly melted and the condensation floated into the air, quickly forming into a humanoid shape. Said shape then did a meme dance…

I never paid that much attention to whatever trends were going on with this kind of music, so the stupid dance that just consisted of bobbing the head and shaking hands next to it threw me off a bit. The audience loved it though.

Fortunately, I could close my eyes and focus on the song itself. It actually wasn’t too bad. I couldn’t understand a word of what it was about, and the beat grated on my ears… Actually, I will never understand Emcee or his taste in music.

Eventually, and to my growing anxiety, the song ended, and the cheers only grew louder as Ice King deftly made a dozen or so lifelike statues of The Saints. Each ice carving stood ten feet tall and smiled like they ruled the world.

I contemplated how I was going to destroy them when the metronome started back up over the communicator. Emcee’s magic immediately followed, its intrusive question asking itself over and over again, and with a sigh, I let it in.

The heroes on the arena floor took a few bows and let the crowd cheer for a bit. Then the looks of concern crossed their faces as they had no idea what was supposed to happen next, one of them even tried to say something through the communicators.

When they got no response, the tension among the heroes grew. Then the crowd picked up on the mood, slowly quieting off. Mummers began to spread as they noticed that everyone from the theater was missing.

PrincesShifter burst from one of the entrances to the arena floor. She was wearing her normal hero outfit. And she was urgently making her way to Ice King.

Something over the collective bond the theater currently shared didn’t care for what was happening, so the lights dimmed, stopping everyone in their tracks.

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!” Emcee shouted as he burst from his entrance in the south, a spotlight hitting him at the same moment. “Thank you for coming to my show! But, unfortunately, things have to come to an end.”

Emcee beamed as the crowd turned to him in shock, then they had to whip the other way as Record stepped into his spotlight. The chimera looped around him, and the monster’s eyes glowed with the rhythm of Emcee’s power.

“Ice King and his crew are good, but you see, we’re villains. And any villain worth their salt wouldn't leave without one last laugh.” Record’s voice didn’t even come from him but from the speakers around the arena. This left just enough confusion as to his position so that no one really missed as eight more lights flickered on, one after another. Suddenly, the entire theater had the arena surrounded.