Is murder legal if it's your alarm being killed? ‘Cause the daggers I’m staring at the stupid thing have almost done the job. Well… my very first time going out as an official supervillain is supposed to happen in about an hour or so. I should probably listen to the thing… sad.

I don’t do much beyond a bowl of sugar cereal, and an energy drink for breakfast. And the global news has already moved on past Iron Magnum’s son and my burglary. So I got to say the day is going to go well.

That’s a jinx but I'm gonna say it.

The last few minutes before I head back over to the Doc’s place is spent packing my pocket and putting on my new costume… And debating which mask I’m gonna wear.

Yeah, all of them are coming with me, the two I don’t wear are gonna stay in the pocket, but… My babies, I can’t choose. Then my phone goes off, it’s Reed.

“Hello.” A soft feminine voice comes from the other side, never mind.

“Sable… Why do you have Reed’s phone?”

“For safety reasons.”

“Ah.” I guess he’s already riled up. “I’ll be over in a few seconds, I'm just… having trouble putting myself together…”

“Oh,” Sable responds, clear discomfort in her voice. “It’s okay to be uncomfortable with this kind of mission… Can you at least manage your tiger form?”

“Yeah,” I say a bit too quickly, best to not be on this kind of topic anyways. “That’s a good fallback anyways.”

Welp, I guess my problem has been solved. I stuff the other two masks into the pocket and transform into the tiger, then run.

I used the run over to the Doc’s place as my warm-up for the day, forcing myself to jump off of trees and flip about. I didn’t want to be caught off guard when we teleported over to NYC. It was my first time doing this kind of thing, so I had no idea how quickly the action was going to start.

That and the feeling of the wind rushing past is never something I’m not going to love.

“I’m here!” I announce myself for the first time in a long time. Usually, I’m trying to scare the Doc, so the look I get from him is really funny.

“Come on!” Reed… No Firework said with a child-like whine. “We need to get going!”

I laugh a bit as I take in the basement, it’s definitely odd. For once it's empty-ish. All of the unneeded equipment and stuff is pushed to the walls of the room, leaving the true purpose of the place uncovered.

Cast into the concrete floor is a giant alchemy circle thing. It’s set up so that the Doc can finish whatever monster is needed. Then just send it out into the greater world in one cast. It’s honestly a testament to his power, the whole reason everyone lets his… quirks, I guess, slide.

In the center of the whole thing is a chamber filled with a green opaque liquid, the shadows of something swimming within. All anybody else besides the Doc knows is that it will be whatever we are to protect, and I don’t want to know any more details. There are reasons this organization is considered a villainous one, even by our standards.

To the back of the room, now that it's cleared out, is a set of human-safe teleportation chambers. Fourteen of them to be exact. They're meant to be our way to and from the mission, as well as a safe way to get out should things go wrong. Nine of them are labeled with various code names corresponding to the various members of The Theater. In the center there’s Firework’s, to the left there’s Requiem’s, and one more there’s Actresses'…

“Taylor, what are you doing here? You joining us too?” I say when I see the unexpected villain. Well, the blond was out of costume, so why she was here was confusing me.

Taylor in turn gave me a ‘no duh’ kind of look before lifting a familiar camera. “No... Lucy wanted me to get a picture of THE Carnival in costume. So I ‘ported in to get it.”

“Why didn’t she come in to get it herself?” Requiem walked up behind me, voicing the obvious.

“She’s still undercover in Shanghai…” Taylor then trailed off for a moment. “That and I at least wanted to make the nameplate for Carnival since I couldn’t make his costume. Which needs work, I can see seams coming undone from here. Did you just let your shifting magic do all the work?”

“Maybe… I didn’t have that much time.”

“Well, that’s not an excuse.” Taylor began to draw a circle in the air, a pair of sewing needles floating up behind her.

I then spent the next few moments complaining about being in a rush, (we had at least another half hour till we were leaving.) and playing up the needlessness of every correction she made to the suit. She insisted on straightening out lines that were good enough and even going as far as to add to and reposition all of the buttons on my shirt. She even added one of her trackers, disguising it as a belt buckle even though I wasn’t wearing a belt.

I did however allow myself to pose for a few photos, excited for whatever Lucy was going to do with them.

From there, Taylor forced me to pick out which teleportation chamber was going to be mine. I took a moment to walk up and down the row, reading the names already attached to the others…

Then I got to the one all the way down at the end of the left. It was crumpled beyond repair, in hopes that the previous owner would have stayed dead. The Theater wasn’t that lucky.

The two chambers directly next to it were still empty, the next was taken up by Fiesta. So I chose the empty one to his right. I knew for a fact that Michael was going to be ecstatic that I chose to honor him like that. I would have taken the one on the right of his but Rose had taken that one.

“Alright, everything’s good to go.” The Doc says from the other side of the room, “‘Port out in five. Break a leg!”

“Alright!” Firework yells out, “Carnival you’re gonna love this part.”

“I’ve seen it before.” I say with a facepalm, “I’ve helped Doc with this for the past year.”

“Initializing.” a voice rings out through Doc’s system.

“Get in the chambers.” Requiem half says to me, half commands to Firework. “Oh, and Carnival, change of plans for the location. So don’t fall.”

I couldn’t get out a ‘what’ before the graceful villainess was sealed into her own chamber… Why does Firework have a megaphone?

I shot Taylor a concerned look that she completely missed. And I know for a fact that Doc didn’t care at the moment. So all I could do was seal myself into the chamber and hope for the best.

FIVE

Welp.

FOUR

My heart is starting to really beat.

THREE

The big circle suddenly began to glow in full force, quickly followed by the rune work in my chamber.

Two

Let’s go

The world went white before I could hear the final number. And the wind was now whipping through my fur, and the sun poked through the cloudy sky

We were now in New York City, standing on top of one of the taller skyscrapers that still had those gargoyles hanging off the side. Besides Firework, Requiem, and I the place was seemingly deserted.

“Okay, here’s the plan.” Requiem had to shout over the wind as she hugged herself to try and stay warm. Her feathery unitard only did so much. “The kaiju has to incubate in the river for a bit, so we’re going to try and attract the attention of the heroes first, try to distract and tire them out if we can.”

Firework’s smile looked almost malicious, even with his almost hero-like suit. I guess he’s been looking forward to this for a while.

Requiem took a moment to toss an unseen look of apprehension at Firework before giving the final go-ahead. “Show’s on.”

I barely remembered what it meant, but when the area around us began to visibly brighten I quickly activated my Show magic.

I should explain what that is. Show magic, in essence, is a useless field of illusion magic. But, it's the hallmark of The Theater for a reason. The organization uses it heavily to obscure exactly what we can do and what our intentions are. The most important part, however, is that it is quite instrumental in hiding the fact that we use magic. So, despite the waste of mana, we are to have it active from start to finish.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Things are also different between individuals. Requiem’s Show magic manifests as gentle spotlights and subtle sparkles covering the battlefield. Whereas my version has always manifested as flames I use to obscure my transformations and movements.

As for Firework, I don’t know. I don’t think anyone really knows how it works for him. Nothing is visually affected.

Speaking of Firework, he starts things off by focusing a ball of light in his free hand. He then tosses it into the air where I’m then treated to a firework show from a few feet away. The sudden noise forces me to cover my ears.

The second the last explosion takes place, Firework takes his bullhorn and just shouts into the void.

“Hey, Puny Heroes! Let’s Have Some Fun!”

“Is this really the idea, ey?” I ask Requiem. She just shrugs and lets Firework keep setting off his namesake.

It takes about a half hour of the explosions and yelling getting bigger and louder for us to see the first signs that we were noticed. A news helicopter did a fly-by, and Firework promptly took a ‘potshot’ at it.

He didn’t really, but it had to look convincing to the people on board the whirlybird.

About ten or so minutes later a small squad of police were parked at the bottom of the building. Firework then started aiming at them, making it dangerous for them to get out of their cars.

Meanwhile, Requiem was keeping an eye on the chatter. There wasn't any live coverage of us on the news just yet, only a bulletin to civilians to warn them from the area.

Two minutes later there was (another) flash and someone else was on the roof with us. I had to do a double-take to recognize who it was. The electric speed hero BlueBlur.

He was now standing just behind Firework. Leaving Requiem and I to stare at his back.

“Alright kid, time to stop.” His voice was faster and higher pitched, yet gruff.

“He hehe.” Firework finally stopped assaulting the ground below to turn and face the hero. Who in turn finally realized who he just confronted and paled. “I thought they would at least send someone strong first. I got this on LOCK!”

I sighed, Firework has been wanting to do this kind of combo ever since he learned I got a good grip on space magic. So, with what I'm thinking is his predetermined signal I focused a bit of mana through my hand, focusing on the space around the hero’s feet.

The hero, now wanting to end this very quickly, lashed out at Firework. Only to find that the bottom half of his body was stuck to the floor, throwing him off. I then pulled the locked space back a bit, making the blue man fall forwards. Firework then took his knee to the falling man’s chin and he was out for the count. The explosive villain then spent the next few moments jumping up and down like an overly excited child.

“Broadcast is live now,” Requiem said once Firework had reignited his assault on the ground. I was in the middle of making sure BlueBlur was properly tied up.

I couldn’t help but to look at what was on Requiem’s phone. It was like looking at a mirror at the wrong angle. I could see a ballerina and a fancy beastman standing over the unconscious form of one of America’s most mid heroes. Then there was the light show himself tossing a new explosion into any spot of unoccupied airspace.

Honestly, his endurance is amazing.

Meanwhile, the broadcast was playing up BlueBlur’s defeat as the most tragic thing to happen this year.

“Hey.” I said inquisitively, “Should I take a page out of Firework’s book and take a potshot?”

The villainess just shrugged, so I came up with a plan.

I focused a bit of my Show magic into my hand, making it look like I was holding a fireball even though nothing was there. “Tell me if they zoom in on me,” I say as I lean over the sleeping hero.

I hold my hand up close to the BlueBlur as if I’m gonna do something. A few seconds later Requiem chimes up. “They’re on you.”

I then slowly looked up at the helicopter with a big smile and an evil laugh, then I started to walk to the edge of the building. With a few spins, I tried to throw the ‘fireball’ at the helicopter. The thing winked out a few feet away from the thing. But it was enough of a scare that they decided to fly away.

Requiem started to laugh, a quiet one, but still a laugh. It then abruptly stopped as she shouted over the wind and explosion. “Ten minutes till the next cue. And we got reports of big guns.”

Firework finally let up on the explosions and nodded to confirm he heard. He then pointed us to take up positions at the edge of the roof and wait.

A few moments later a hero was flying down.

“And the metal man is finally here! Took ya long enough!” Firework exclaimed.

“Ah.” Iron Magnum's voice was deep and strong, a perfect pairing to his black and white super suit. “The annoying blip, I don’t have time for your antics today.”

“Aww.” Firework feigned disappointment. “I even brought my friends along to watch.”

Iron Magnum, while still floating somehow, turned to look at Requiem and then to me. I gave him a big toothy smile and the look on his face was interesting, to say the least. A mix of surprise, concern, and hate.

“I don’t know what the lot of you are up to, but you Idiots will stop this instant and leave.” The hero took one look at BlueBlur then turned back to Firework.

“Ha! No.” A weak beam fired from Firework’s eyes, and it slowly grew in intensity from there. Iron Magnum just stood there and blocked it.

It kind of went on like that for a bit, Firework tossing attack after attack and Iron Magnum directly blocking all of it. It was boring, to be honest, but you could almost see the gears in the hero’s head turning. I think he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. He was actively aware of Requiem, as she just stood on the corner of the building. And he had an eye on me, an unknown villain who was just leaning against the railing.

From there he was probably expecting something else altogether to happen. As The Theater is known to show up when big problematic events happen. Problem is, multiple Theater members, Firework included, are known for pulling this kind of stuff. Just drawing a strong opponent out for a fight and nothing else.

“Firework!” I shouted out. “I thought this was supposed to be exciting.”

“Carnival has a point,” Requiem added making both Firework and Iron Magnum frown. “You’ve been hyping up this fight for the past week.”

That’s when the hero made his move, suddenly flying up on Firework and grabbing his arms. Firework yelped and stopped his onslaught.

“Now the fun be-” Firework was about to say when the world began to shake.

“Times up,” Requiem announced while taking a few steps forwards, her own wicked smile broadcasted to the world. “Let the show begin!”

Even though we could barely see the river from where we were, the kaiju made itself very obvious as it emerged. The thing was longer than it was tall. Honestly, it looked like someone (the Doc) took a millipede, made it the size of at least twenty buses, and gave it the head and floaty movement of a Chinese dragon.

The beauty began to bounce from building to building towards our direction. Then without warning, a few dozen heroes made themselves known as they scurried out of their hiding places like ants. I even heard Iron Magnum mutter a ‘I knew it’.

If I remember correctly, its true destination is a pretty stupid one. Some random skyscraper in the middle of the city.

Okay, when I say random I mean I didn’t bother to memorize its actual destination.

“CARNIVAL!” I snapped back to reality and realized that that was my cue. You see when Firework was just starting his earlier onslaught, Requiem had filled me in that I was to try and distract the small fry once they actually arrived, not her. And here they are, now all I can do is hope I don't screw up.

I ran. And I jumped.

I let out a ‘WHOO’ on my way down, and charged one of my most powerful spells.

It starts with a circle like anything else, but then another, and another. They grew smaller and smaller. But the trick to this one is to place the circles in a third dimension as well, essentially making a dome.

I could feel myself starting to vibrate from channeling so much mana at once. And the force from manipulating the space around me was actually starting to stop me from falling.

Eventually, I was just there, stagnant in the air, ten stories up.

Taking the spell form I just made, I shifted the whole thing into my right hand and held myself up. To an onlooker, it would seem like I was somehow just doing a single-arm handstand in the middle of the air.

So I was very stuck, I don’t think I’ve ever done this spell at this scale. To make things worse the heroes were starting to take notice of me. Some of them had very concerned faces.

With what was probably a bit too much effort, I started a second circle in my left hand. It was small, but that was all I needed right now. The real issue with the spell is the image I have to draw in it, three perfect parallel lines.

I got about halfway through it in about two seconds before I noticed how I managed to mess up the angle of the first line somehow. And the second try looked like a bent fork.

I don’t know, it just looked like a bent fork.

Fortunately, the third time’s the charm, and the spell was ready, it only took me twenty or so seconds to set that one up… Hey, that’s fast… ish.

Now I had two spells primed and ready to go, now I just needed a good target.

There was a gaggle of about ten or so heroes about a hundred or so yards in front of me. I could absolutely devastate them.

Or I could aim at one of the two more famous heroes on sight.

Directly below me and to the right is the hero of great strength MuscleHead. One of the oldest heroes in New York, even inspired an entire generation of idiots heroes to wear their underwear on the outside. Trying to look like strongmen or something of the like…

Wait, I swear I heard that MuscleHead’s bald dome got killed during his last visit to space. Reed and Michel were gonna host a big party and everything until the Doc shut them down. But here I am, looking at the shiniest head on earth.

The other target I could go for is just as tempting though. It’s the arsenal hero Lazar. A hero known for the number of insane weapons she can just… make appear out of nowhere. She’s not the best shot in the world, but that doesn’t matter- Oh GODS SHE HAS A ROCKET AIMED AT THE KAIJU!

I decided to do something stupid and activate a third spell form.

Using my longer tail I swing it about to draw a simple line, like striking a match. Then to the view of the heroes, I set myself on fire. I hear multiple gasps come from the crowd as I use said fire to hide where I'm aiming.

Everything happens at once. My second space spell form activates and I go speeding at the general location of Lazar and her rocket launcher. I hear multiple of the heroes yell out warnings or something before a defining roar hits the world, and it shatters.

The road underneath is nothing but rubble now, the sidewalk and a few of the surrounding buildings show signs of cracking. Lazar, and a few other unlucky heroes, are on the ground, unconscious… Or maybe not. Lazar herself was on the ground, yes, but she wasn’t holding her rocket launcher anymore. Instead, she had a tower shield.

I didn’t get much time to consider if what I did was a success before I started to lose myself. I had used up so much mana that I was now having a hard time keeping the mask on my face.

To someone with savvy sight, they might have had a chance of noticing my very being starting to waver.

The world suddenly quieted down from my perspective, the light dimming until all there was a calm glow set in front of me. I lashed out and grabbed it. A few feathers of light seemed to float by on the wind as I stabilized.

Everything suddenly went back to normal as I reminded myself to never cast three spell forms again if I could. Especially if one of them is the most powerful version of a space-condensing spell that I could cast.

I brought my hand up into the air and snapped, “striking” another match. A circle of fire about fifteen feet wide manifested itself.

“Heh heh heh,” I let out a deep laugh, “That’s what you get for trying to attack the baby, ya’ know?”

“Yeah, baby my ass.” A hero shouted from just outside of the flaming ring, one I sorta recognized. He’s kinda on the young side, wearing some kind of high-tech gi, just with shoes, gloves, and a full-face helmet. All in a deep shade of purple of course. Think his name had something to do with shadows or something.

“Well, it is a baby regardless, wouldn’t hurt a fly given the chance,” I said while starting to walk towards Lazar, intent on knocking her out.

The kaiju meanwhile was now thoroughly wrapped around a large building, giving the world its best go at puppy dog eyes.

The hero let out a ‘hmph’ and suddenly he was standing in front of me, space shattering with an undertone of shifting sand, leaving the emotionless helmet staring me down.