Chapter Text
Nobody thought it was possible, but Caine was running out of ideas. Every adventure was getting closer to resembling pre-existing games and media more than ever. And for some reason... Caine also really liked reusing the evil counterparts. Their appearances became so reoccurring, that Pomni became acquainted with some.
Her own doppelgänger was indifferent towards her, ignoring her completely. Bazooble was friendly, but aloof and incapable of forming coherent thoughts. Evil Ragatha was cruel for the sake of being cruel, Coach Dictatorer was bossy and competitive. And Evil Orbsman, Evil Orbsman didn’t go out of his way to hurt people, but would quickly lose his temper at just about anything.
There was no chance that any of these characters would, or could, befriend Pomni. So that left Evil Jax, who was unbelievably sweet and so very timid.
Like the other members of the circus, it wasn’t in Pomni’s interest to get close to any of the Evils. Especially after what happened with Gumigoo. She didn’t want to go through that pain again.
But Evil Jax was inexplicably drawn to her. Time and time again, she found herself standing next to him. Similarly, Normal Jax also approached Evil Pomni, and they would get up to schemes together. Though there were moments where Jax seemed incredibly interested in whatever the other two were doing. And moments where he would try to brutally murder Evil Jax for reasons that he refused to explain.
Chapter 1: Don’t Touch Her!
Today’s adventure was very simple: Hide and Seek.
Everyone starts in the meeting area of the circus. One member of would be the seeker, while the others would hide. Caine realized how short the game would be if there were only five people hiding. So naturally, he got the Evil Characters involved. With a snap of his fingers, all six of them came back into existence.
“The F$&@ do you want, man? I was sleeping,” Evil Pomni drawls, glaring at Caine. Bazooble was too busy staring at nothing. In fact, the only other Evil to say anything was Jax. His small square eyes darted to Pomni, who looked back at him. Fidgeting with his hands, he walked up to her and the scowling purple rabbit that stood adjacent.
“H-Hey, Nice Pomni..!”
“Hello,” She replied with a calm smile, “Nice Jax.”
His face turned a darker shade. “You think I’m nice..?”
“I think I’m gonna kill you now,” Jax deadpanned. He uncrossed his arms and rolled up his imaginary sleeves. Evil Jax grew visibly alarmed as the original trudged towards him, and he faltered back. Right when Jax was about to go for the kill, two gloved hands appeared and pushed the twins apart.
“Hey, play nice now!” Caine warned them, shaking a finger at Jax disapprovingly.
“Nice? I’ll show you nice…”
Zooble heh’d, nudged Gangle, and mumbled something about how angry he’d been lately. Jax flinched. At the same time, Evil Pomni threw herself onto the couch right next to Kinger, who screamed. And that prompted everyone to turn their heads in pure silence, just for him to say, “Oh, it was just you, Ragatha.”
The ragdoll in question raised an eyebrow. She was sitting on the complete opposite side of the couch.
Everyone went back to conversing. Evil Orbsman and Dictatorer were loudly chattering complete nonsense. Bazooble joined them. Evil Jax looked back at Pomni, raised his finger in inquiry, only to be interrupted.
“EVERYONE STOP!”
It was Caine. He yelled at the top of his ‘lungs’ to get their attention. And it worked, because not a single word was uttered after. The room was quiet enough to hear Evil Pomni snoring. Speaking of, Normal Pomni stole a glance at Jax. He was still, eyes fixed on his counterpart. Then noticed her and tore his gaze away.
“Because we’re playing the popular children’s game ‘hide and seek,’ one of you needs to be...
The Seeker.”
He said that last bit way too ominously. As if never asleep in the first place, Evil Pomni sprung up onto her feet.
“F$&@ YEAH! PICK ME! ME! ME ME ME ME!” She performed an excited dance that consisted of jumping repeatedly. Evil Orbsman made some noises and stomping.
“NO, OUT OF ANYONE IT MUST BE ME!!” Dictatorer yelled in his shrill voice.
“FOOLS, I, EVIL RRRAGATHA, WILL BE THE SEEKER! HA-HAHAHAHA!!”
Pomni now understood why Caine was so serious about this decision. She, Evil Jax, and Ragatha collectively shrunk. “I feel like this is a bad idea..” Ragatha told her. There was a huge commotion around them. The Evils became increasingly desperate and noisy.
But Jax. Jax put his hands together, holding them to his face. He practically grew wings and a halo, the ambience surrounding him was heavenly and pure. Caine dropped his cane and Bubble whistled.
“Oh Caine, I would be SOO happy if you made me the seeker! It would make me REALLY appreciate you.”
Sparkles shone in Caine’s big eyes. “Really? It would make you happy? Appreciate me?! N-Nobody’s ever said that before!”
“Oh yes, yes it would!” Jax reassured. Zooble very audibly scoffed. But Caine was unaware, did a twirl, and the cane on the floor ascended back into his hand. Truly, almost everyone in this room had gone mad.
“Well, that settles it! You’re the seeker, Jax! And you need to find everyone before the timer runs out.”
Pomni wasn’t fooled. In her eyes, she could spot the devil tail wagging behind him, and the hint of slyness in his grin. His ambience was actually crimson red with fire and brimstone.
“Oh, but they get a twenty-second-head-start, of course,” he added, before snapping his fingers. Just like that, a large timer displayed airborne, counting down. Jax giggled. His head slowly turned in Pomni’s direction. Until his uncannily huge pupils landed on Evil Jax. Oh. Oh no.
“L-Let’s go, Pomni!” Evil Jax squeaked, grabbing her wrist without warning. She grunted in surprise but didn’t stop him. The last thing she saw was Jax’s grin spreading wider and wider as they went further and further away. Everyone else had already separated.
Then Evil Jax turned around a corner, out of sight.
“Uh, wh-where do we hide? I don’t know this place very well..”
Her wrist was free, and she stretched her hand. Then she scanned their surroundings. Squinting. Where was this? She doesn’t recognize this particular area but it was similar enough to the rest of the circus. Some crates, many, many multicolored doors... No, she is not bothering with the doors. She learned her lesson on that one. Oh, a staircase.
“This way, hurry!” She had a hushed voice, running to and up the stairs. They were tall and winding, and she could feel the clock ticking. Evil Jax tailed her, taking multiple steps at a time with his longer legs.
That was, until a chime rang out. Time was up!
“Sh$!.” Shit. What now? From that height, Jax could simply run over and see them. He knew that they came in this direction. So they had to stay out of sight.
“Get down!” She whispered, yanking Evil Jax by the ear, and he yelped. She was sitting on the staircase, and he ducked down in such a way that put them in close proximity. His arms boxed around her and trapped her in between them. But at least they were both hidden behind the safety wall.
“Ah!! S-S-S-Sorry!” He cried, and Pomni shushed him. There was a strained smile on his face that he appeared to be fighting with. She never saw him look so conflicted before, it was different.
“Ohhh, Nice Pomniiii! Nice Jaaax,” Jax sing-songed relatively nearby. “I just want to talk, I promise!”
She glanced in the direction of the voice.
“Where are you?”
Quiet, nothing but quiet. And then sounds of rummaging. Could it be the crates? A few doors creaked open. Some were quickly slammed shut, others left alone. Followed by Jax muttering. She strained to hear anything else. But there was quiet once more.
Too quiet.
Pomni took courtesy to peer over the railing. Just to see him about a fourth of the way up the stairs. She turned to Evil Jax, who was still just staring at her. She looked at him with full seriousness. “We need to run.”
“…”
He was completely unresponsive, seemingly zoning out. What is he doing? She thought.
“Hey, uh, are you there?” Her hand waved in front of his face, and he finally snapped out of it, blinking.
“What? W-We need to what?” He stammered.
She could hear footsteps getting closer. Panicked, she repeated, “I said, we need to ru-“
“Found you.”
Jax. With an unnaturally wide smile on his face, though his eyes were anything but calm. He tilted his head. Before Evil Jax could even catch a glimpse of his captor, he was being gripped by the neck and pulled away from Pomni. Jax had him in a vice.
“What are you doing?” Pomni asked him, not exactly wishing to see harm done to the pink rabbit. He had the same choked expression as whenever Zooble strangled Jax.
“Being the bad guy.” Jax wringed his evil version even tighter, for just a second, before lugging him over the edge and letting go.
They both heard his scream, followed by a cartoony splat. And a pained, “I’m okay..!” From the bottom. Pomni was dumbfounded. It took her some extra seconds to process what she just witnessed. And she hadn’t even realized how heavy Jax was breathing until then. He was so incredibly angry. But his anger soon calmed, his breathing slowed, and he was left tired.
“Man, that made me feel so much better. Well, looks like I’m done here!”
“Wait!” Pomni called out.
He stopped.
“Why did you do that?”
“You know why, Pomni. It’s because I hate him.” To say that Jax loathed him was an accurate statement. But it still didn’t feel like the whole truth.
“Yeah, but… Why go so far?” She pressed, doubting that he would ever give her an answer.
As she predicted, he shrugged and turned away from her. Heading down the stairs by himself, only for Pomni to follow behind him. He seemed okay with her doing that. At the bottom of the stairs, Evil Jax was glued to the floor, flat as a pancake.
“HAHA! Pomni, look!”
It was difficult to hold back her chuckle. The two had a good laugh, and Pomni considered helping him up. It was a pitiful sight, and the fall probably hurt.
Jax frowned as soon as she took a step towards him. “He’ll be fine, he’s an NPC. C’mon, let’s go.”
“..Right.”
Right, he’s just an NPC. What was she doing? She shouldn’t start worrying about them like this. Pomni walked back with Jax to the main area, where they split up and found the rest of the hiders. Except for Zooble. They remained seated when the round started, and went to their room once Jax found them.
In the end, all was well, and the NPCs were fine.