Carnival of DOOM! (open)

[Alice in wonderland]

"The carnival is here yay!"

Alice in wonderland was really hyped this day, there was a carnival in Metropolis and she wasn't alone, she also obtained the company of the amazing six million dollar man Fritz after using some really powerful and brilliant strategies, namely literally kidnap him, and such cunning stratagem was fixit approved, the old man didn't mind her taking away the march hare as long she didn't break him XD

It was a really sunny day and lots of people were happily walking around the carnival area, playing games, talking and simply having fun, she really felt at home in that place, the carnival folks did things her family also often did like having strongmen showing their strength, the token beared woman and many clowns performing amazing acrobatic feats. And the candies, oh dear the candies! There it was, a cotton sugar machine creating the delicious and pink fluff of sweetness, and the vendor was looking right at her magical girl, noticing her desire for the sweet candy.

"Hey hey march mare, do you want cotton candy? Mister Fixit gave me some money money to buy cute cute and sweet sweet things!"

If he knew what was good for his health he better accepted the cotton candy, or else he would suffer sweetlicious consequences XD

[Fritz Stahl]

Sense. Sense - the all thing we share in common, the thing that does not allow our world to collapse into a chaotic ocean of stupidity, and other nasty things. That very voice in your head that tells you setting yourself on fire is generally a bad idea. The one that guides you away from obviously awkward, dangerous, or otherwise unpleasant situations, that thing all people are in possession off, besides having an ass...

This situation right here had NONE OF IT. Or at least, that was Fritz's thought as he was dragged through that huge conglomerate of freaks, weirdies, clowns and whatever normal people invented a word for to call it "Carnival". People, people everywhere, in weird costumes, masks whatever, strange contraptions, lots of excited screams and laughter, weird food, even weirder contest booths... All this was so very foreign... And so very familiar...

- Why you insisted so much on bringing me here? - he asked curiously. "Insisted" was a huge understatement. She warped him here along with herself, and he spent 10 minutes figuring out where is his left hand, and where is right. He did not get used to such trips still - electronics were too confused about it. Fortunately, nobody got suspicious about the cyborg guy - everyone thought it to be a "Wicked costume man! How did you make it?", and him pretending he was not listening...

Fritz was at such places when he was, what, 6 years old? Yeah, that was about right. He did not remember much about it though. Aside from two things - that his favorite attraction were shoot a balloon and whack a mole, and that he punched a clown in the face... That's it. So ... this place was pretty much new to him. Almost 30 years passed since ... many things changed. But he had little time to muse on it, because his thoughts were rudely interrupted by cotton candy in his face - Alice was being impatient. He sighed and took a bit of that mass. Tasted like ... cotton.

- Thank you. But eating that much candy would make you stout, dear. Mayhaps you'd like something more ... sporting. Hmm... Yo like toys, don't you? - he asked as he set his eyes upon a shooting stand somewhere far off. His healthy eye sparkled a bit. This he used to like...

[Alice in wonderland]

"Happy things makes people happy, the carnival is a happy place and you need to smile MORE, now eat your candy!"

March hare hardly ever smiled and his almost perpetual emotionless face was a bit scary, so he had to learn again how to smile and the carnival was the perfect opportunity to bring out the smile out of march hare's sad and lonely heart.

The super duper awesome girl finally made the bitter cyborg feel the taste of sweetness and looked at his face with a huge smile painted on her own. Alas, the march hare was as cold as ever and not even a single hint of change in his expression appeared. The plan to get him a smile through cotton candy failed, but there was still some hope! He showed some interest for one of the stands in the carnival as shown by his non-shiny eye, and that actually made the epic girl wonder if maybe it wasn't as nice to have a shiny in the eye after all, because the shiny eye never showed emotion while the non shiny one sometimes showed some interest in things and demonstrated march hare was still human.

"I never get stout, I always ate a lot of cake but never got fatty like a cow, and I like toys! You non shiny eye tells me you like toys too!"

She tried to follow where the non shiny eye was looking at and eventually found at the distance a shooting stand, it had those things that shoots smaller things that makes people cry red tears from holes in their bodies ... although those thingamajigs were as shiny as the ones march hare used when he was hunting batman.

"Hey hey, they look like those things that go BANG BANG! you use! I bet you can like totally win a prize !!"

The Half-toy man was very good with those things that makes people fall asleep, so surely he was going to win a prize, and maybe even give it to her because they were the BEST FRIENDS EVAR!

[Fritz Stahl]

- Yes, something like that...

Toys? Heh, yeah right, like he was in for it for the toys. It was the process that actually brought some degree of satisfaction - shoot stuff, get something for it, without actually killing anybody. Sounded all right by him. And about that toy offer ... well, yes, he was being his gentlemanly self again, even if the girl who he acted like this towards was a complete nutcase who would probably not appreciate anyway. Dragging Alice away from the vending machine before she lost all her money to it, they approached the shooting stand...

They say some things never change. That would be one of the more truthful quotes, for despite technology passing forward, shooting stand will always remain a shooting stand - same old-fashioned pneumatic guns, same old wooden stand, same prizes... Hell, even the old guy with a beard and in an old military hat was the same. The latter though, stopped sleeping in his chair as the duo approached, his eyes perked at both. A trace of surprise and fear was across his face when he looked upon Fritz, but a smile soon replaced it upon gazing at ever-smiling Alice, her optimism was able to get to just about everybody.

- My, my, what marvelous costumes you two have! - he exclaimed in fascination. - Best ones I had seen in a while, and believe me, I've seen them all. Would you and your beautiful daughter like to have a shot at a grand prize? A real-life talking parrot! There are other prizes though, so don't worry! No one leaves without some prize! And only 50 cents for 10 shots!

- Daughter? - Fritz raised an eyebrow. Was he really looking THAT OLD? Nah, probably she looked just too young. Or maybe both. He was not interested in grand prize much, he just came around to shoot, so ... yeah, that was what he was about to do. Digging in his pocket, he found a buck, and gave it to the old man.

- 20 shots. Oh, and bring another pistol, will you? - he asked the old man, and, while he went to fetch the requested stuff, turned to Alice, and asked:

- You wanna have a try?

[Alice in wonderland]

"Tee hee, I knew it!"

March hare really loves to use those toys, she remembered how his expression got a bit more merry when he was helping people to sleep with his magical bullets, like he grinned when he hit but got a bit sad when he failed, he was so nice, so many people had problems sleeping ....

Anyway, she was like totally going to buy more and more cotton candy, but march hare really wanted to play with those toys and dragged her along, she made a face as she looked at the cotton candy stand. Farewell, cotton candy stand, they shared so many precious memories ....

"OMG OMG, a talking parrot, I want one!"

She immediately got like super happy again after departing from her dearest cotton candy stand as her short attention span kicked in and suddenly got interested in the shooting stand. What's more, her eyes like totally shone when she heard that the prize was a talking parrot, they were the coolest birds ever, she once had a friend who was a talking parrot, he was really funny and told each other many jokes, she got real sad when he left along her parents to become a superhero, in his case becoming the token and obligatory pet

"March hare isn't my daddy, he's my best friend EVAR, and I want to try, I bet I can make people go sleepy good nights with it like march hare always does!"

She really wanted to try her luck with those thingamajig, then she could shot at the people around the carnival and make them fall asleep like march hare always does, and they would have some funny tomato sauce flowing from their new holes while they have a nice nap.

[Fritz Stahl]

Fritz flinched a bit when the girl mentioned making holes in people and make them "sleepy good nights". He also thanked the heavens that she did know how to talk straight, so nobody except him understood what she was meaning. But given enough time, it could easily blow his cover. Luckily the old man did not understand a thing from that gibberish, only gave him a questioning glare. Fritz returned it with his own, making the guy keep quiet.

- You don't put people to sleep with it, you aim at the targets to earn a prize... - he said and pointed at the little circles drawn on the wall with red paint. The biggest one was the size of an apple, smallest - size of a coin. To win a grand prize you had to hit all 10 targets, lesser hits - smaller prize. Fritz decided he should demonstrate, and took a gun, aiming at the smallest target possible less than a second.

*PFFT!* the pneumatic gun sounded much quieter than the hand-cannon Fritz used, but hey, it was not made to make holes through armored glass. The "toy" as he characterized this kind of pistols, worked nice enough regardless - it sent the tiny bullet straight through the center of the tiny target, pinpointing it. The old man dropped his cigarette upon seeing such a sudden, and yet accurate shot. The guy didn't even aim!

- WTF?!

- Now you try... - Fritz said mildly, and charged her pistol with tiny bullets, before passing it to the girl, and ignored the old man's gasp...

[Alice in wonderland]

"Ahh ... so you were only practicing for this event "

March hare made people go to sleep only as a practice, his real goal all the time was to get so awesome with the gun-thingy so he could win a prize in the carnival! It made a lot of sense because when he went to make people sleep, it was sometimes bothersome while here in the carnival it was all fun!

"Woooow ... that was so fantaaaastic!"

The cyborg had super duper accuracy, he did it, and with a single shot! Alice in wonderland wondered if he ate a cheesecake this morning, because she heard rumors about cheesecake increasing the accuracy of whoever eats it. Anyway, now it was her turn and she gladly picked the gun, ready to make even the greatest gunslingers cower in fear for she was the invincible lady gunner!

"Bang bang bang says the bullet!"

The results were what one would expect, she flawlessly landed with pinpoint accuracy all the shoots .... anywhere BUT in the target, one of the bullets even hit the back of the stand, bounced and hit Alice in wonderland in the forehead!

"Owies .... That bullet was possessed by the devil!"

She rubbed her head with one of her hands to ease the pain and looked at the march hare, surely he would agree that the gun was overflowing with the powers of hell itself and the devil wanted her to fail.

[Fritz Stahl]

Fritz laughed a bit when the silly girl missed all of her bullets, and one even bounced back at her. Yes, laughed. The event was so hilarious it could make even a statue laugh. And Fritz was close enough to a statue. The devil ... yeah right, nice excuse, but Alice was just too cute in her insane naivete. The old guy also cracked into laughter upon witnessing such an epic fail at hitting just about anything. Of course there was no devil - only clumsy and unskillful hands. Fritz would show her how it is done.

- Don't worry, devil is a friend of mine. - Fritz sounded completely serious, as he took her gun and loaded it with his bullets. There were still 9 bullets, and 9 targets to hit. He blasted the smaller one effortlessly before, what would it take him to shoot the rest? Nothing, that's for sure, He did not even aim, the arm moved on reflex, lining up with the target. They weren't dodging superheroes, just static targets...

*BANG! BANG! BANG!* the shots were heard, and the small lead bullets hit their respective targets in a rapid succession, all exactly in center, of course. No pot-shots, strictly business. As the last bullet hit the designated target ... the old guy who was supposed to give out prizes had WTF written all over his face. He saw some accurate people, who won grand prizes, but nail all nine in less than 2 seconds? Hell, this was too fast. Suspicion appeared on his face.

- Where on earth you learned to shoot like that? - he asked incredulously.

- Creee... In the valley ... of shadow of death ... creee! - a raspy voice was heard from the back of the tent. It was not a person who said them, however, it was ... said parrot. A really BIG one too. It was black, and looked dead serious, its eyes not seen at all because of the black exterior. And it looked like it could kick ass of a hawk any time. The cage for it was rather big too - a big cage for a big bird. A smirk appeared on Fritz's face.

- He got that right. So ... did I win the prize?

- ... Yes... yes you did... The parrot even acknowledged you.

- Splendid. Does he have a name?

And when Fritz asked this, the parrot started batting his wings and swinging the cage, and screeched the phrase Alice said a few moments ago, or parts of it, and with different intonation too:

- Possessed by the devil! The Devil! craaa!

- Guess the name is The Devil then. Alright...

A few moments later Alice, Fritz and THE DEVIL!!1 Were already departing from the shooting stand and the bewildered keeper, who kept making crossing signs and swearing something. The cage was rather big, so Fritz was the one carrying it. The parrot acted surprisingly calm though. And the only question now was ... what to do now?

[Alice in wonderland]

"If the devil is your friend tell him that I don't like him!"

Maybe the reason he was so awesome with the gun was because the devil helped him by absorbing the awesome of other people to give it to him .. or at least he didn't bother the cyborg with those devil shenanigans the devil is known for. Anyway, even if march hare wasn't genuinely a friend of the devil, he surely had the devil's accuracy, he didn't even bother to aim and almost immediately hit consecutively the hard-to-hit core of the remaining targets.

"Yaaay, march hare won! Now we can have a TALKING parrot, the greatest mystery of the universe!"

Almost as if celebrating the victory with them, the extremely powerful parrot of darkness made his voice echo through the entire festival, revealing the truth about Fritz, he trained in the very depths of hell itself and returned as the greatest gunslinger in the world since since deadshoot. That parrot ... he surely knew all the secrets of the world!

The stand owner brought a jail where the wise bird-like creature of darkness was sealed, he spoke about the devil and possession just as Alice in wonderland said and the ever knowledgeable march hare deemed fitting to give it the name of devil, a fitting name for a bird of such incredible wisdom.

"The devil parrot will be my second best friend from now on! To celebrate this encounter ... let's go to the mirror house! I bet the devil parrot can solve the mysteries of those things that clones everybody that enters there, we could even find the devil parrot's evil twin, the angelical parrot!"

She looked at her partnered and wondered if he was going to accept to enter into the depths of a place so insane and twisted that it cloned everybody who went inside .. AND THEY REPLACED THE ORIGINAL ONES! Surely that place would put to test the mad skills of the devil parrot

[Starfire]

Glee filled Tamrad'r as she ran through the brightly lit festival with nothing but excitement and wonder. She had never seen such things in her life. Their games, their special feats of abilities, and the dish they called,"Cotton Candy". Everything was just splendid and she wasn't sure what to do with herself. Though her actions so far in this event had gained her a few stares.

For one thing, she had managed to out-lift the world's strongest man, eat two buckets of ice cream with great speed and without what people called the freezing of the brain, and she seemed to be able to consume 20 corn dogs with no problem. Perhaps it was due to her appearance? After all, she wasn't supposed to be herself when in public. She was Tammy Bridges, a normal human girl. But she couldn't help herself. There was just so much that was interesting to her.

"Slowing down might be a good idea. I do not wish to cause too much attention to fall upon me...."

Resting her hand behind her head, she looked around before squealing at the sight of a giant wheel that spun slowly in a circle. That alone was enough as she ran towards it.