Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

"The Amazing Digital Circus: The 13th Abstraction"

Chapter 1: Pilot

It started off with a landscape scene, depicted in a Nintendo 64-like style as elegant music plays in the background. The "Glitch" logo faded in. "THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS" logo appears shortly after, but not without "THE 13TH ABSTRACTION" glitching in beneath the logo, briefly causing the music and the background to distort and glitch into a dark background with numerous, colorful abstracted eyes before they returned to normal and the camera zoomed in towards, and eventually entered, a large red and yellow circus tent in the background as the graphics of the scene increased in quality. As the camera entered the circus tent, a drum roll was heard. The scene transitioned to a dark room with curtains as the back wall, which was soon lit up by a moving spotlight; Caine, a humanoid in a ringmaster outfit and top hat with a pair of jaws encapsulating two eyeballs for a head, swirled onto the screen and introduced himself as the stage lights brightened.

"Welcome... to The Amazing Digital Circus! My name is Caine! I'm your ringmaster, and I'm here to show you the most jaw-dropping, heart-stopping, mind-bending paraphernalia you've ever laid your eyes upon!", Caine introduced as his jaw briefly dropped, a heart came flying at him only for Caine to halt it, and a brain emerged just above Caine, who twisted it for a moment before lifting it away as the curtains parted, revealing the full layout of the circus while heading towards the actual curtains on stage, all while Caine pulled Bubble from his hat. "Isn't that right, Bubble?"

"That's right, Caine! I can't wait to see what you've got cooking up for today!", Bubble smiled, winking at the camera.

"Well, let's not waste any time! Let's get right into the show!", Caine introduced as he and Bubble moved away from the show curtain as it opened.

The Amazing Digital Circus theme song played as the main cast of characters were revealed. Gangle, an anthropomorphic humanoid made of ribbons with a comedy mask for a face gleefully waved at the audience. Zooble, an anthropomorphic humanoid made of mix-and-match toy parts stood there with their arms crossed, seemingly unappeased. May, a voluptuous, blue turtle woman in tomboyish clothes stands there, her arms also crossed, giving a slight nod. Kinger, an anthropomorphic white king chess piece, peeked out of his pillow fortress, before quickly ducking back into it, covering it up as he did so.

Gangle, and Zooble, and May, and there's Kinger, too!

Ragatha, an anthropomorphic humanoid ragdoll girl, waved cheerfully toward the audience. Equinator, a green troll wearing business clothes, did a finger-point with both hands with a grin. Jax and Jaz, purple anthropomorphic rabbit twins, the latter of which had long, dark violet hair and is wearing a salmon-colored sweater with boots, greeted the audience as only Jax lied on his side and, as Jax slyly winked at the audience, Jaz winked as well. It ended on a cardboard cutout of an anthropomorphic clown, Kaufmo, which fell over as text appeared that said: "*Disclaimer: Kaufmo the Clown did not show up today." Afterwards, a choir of Bubbles showed up, three on each side, and bobbed to the music.

Ragatha, Equinator, Jax and Jaz, and Kaufmo, woo-hoo!

The video looped multiple times as six objects floated in a circular motion. The six objects consisted of: A dark blue teapot, a phonograph, a blue flower in a pot, an eyeball with a green iris, an eyeball with no pupil or iris, and a dark green pyramid. Additionally, multiple bubbles were seen popping up, with small stars accompanying them. Then, it switched to a shot of a cloudy, blue sky as Caine twirled upwards into view, alongside Bubble. The Moon swung onto the scene and Caine pointed towards it, with the Sun appearing as well shortly afterwards. Caine twirled around and pointed to the Sun and the camera zoomed out and shifted downward to reveal the circus tent, quickly cutting to a shot of Caine and Bubble rising up toward the camera.

Day after day after— day after— day after day we fly

Past the moon and the sun, and we don't know why!

The Newcomers

As all this happened, a red and blue jester humanoid, as well as a humanoid tree frog in a black-suit with spiraling blue stripes, both suddenly popped into existence as the six objects from earlier flew through the air.

"What the heck?!", the frog exclaimed.

"W-W-Whe— Wh— Where am I?", the jester asked.

They both gazed up at the floating objects in confusion, attempting to walk around, only to be nearly hit by a flying eyeball with a green iris that not only crashed into the frog, taking him along for the ride, but also caused the jester to stumble backward, spotting an exit as she did so. She quickly ran towards it, but it dissolved right as she's about to open it. A top hat zoomed past, knocking her over in the process. A big blue flower pot quickly followed, nearly falling on her as it glitched into the ground GMod-style, which frightened her. She attempted to inch away from the glitching flower pot but accidentally knocked over Jax, Jaz, and May, causing Kinger and Gangle to fall over too, landing on Equinator and breaking Gangle's comedy mask—which revealed a tragedy mask that takes its place—while the theme song slowed down and stopped, as did the floating objects.

"All right. Can someone tell me what just happened?", Equinator asked.

"Don't look at me! Jax screwed it up!", May shouted.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Don't try to pin this on me. Someone or something hit me!", Jax responded.

"Oh, really? Who was that someone? Or something?", Equinator said in disbelief.

"Maybe try looking over there?", Jaz asked, pointing to the frog holding onto the floating eyeball.

"Finally! That crazy merry-go-round stopped…!", the frog sighed as he let go and landed surprisingly nimbly on the ground near the jester, who backed away as May, Kinger, and Jax got up (though Jaz helped him up) and notice the frog and the jester, while Gangle remained on the floor, sulking over her broken comedy mask.

Ragatha and Zooble showed up, peering at the frog and the jester.

"Are you okay, sis?", the frog asked.

The jester stared at the frog blankly for a moment before realizing something.

"Wait… Is that really you?"

"Well, I do distinctly remember telling you that if you went in there, then so would I. So I could drag you back out of whatever this place is and bring you home safely so nothing bad happens. I AM your big brother, after all.", the frog responded.

"Are these two actually siblings like us?", Jaz asked.

"You know, sis? I… don't really know.", Jax responded before turning to Caine. "Caine, are these 2 your NPCs, or are they a couple of new suckers?"

The frog widened his eyes from hearing this and grew agitated.

"HEY! Who are you callin' sucker, you no-good, sassafrassin' rabbit?!"

Jax looked quite surprise that the frog would use an apparent reference anyone from the human world could recognize.

"Well, new characters, it is. Looks like we're gonna have to redo this whole theme song!", Jax said, pointing toward the frog and the jester as he looked up at Caine, bothered by the possibility of redoing their theme song.

"I'm not doing that again.", Zooble said.

Jax looked at Zooble in a disdainful way.

May looked at Jax just as disdainfully.

"Well, that makes 2 of us, Zooble."

"My, my! It appears 2 new humans have entered this realm!", Caine said fascinatedly as he wiggled his cane at the frog and the jester, before stretching and pointing toward the air as he said this.

"All right, let's get out of here before things get any weirder…", the frog suggested.

But when the frog tried to pull out something out, his eyes blanched upon realizing that nothing was pulled out as Jaz looked at him and the jester in worry.

"What the…? What's going on?!", the frog shouted.

"How do I... take this... headset off?!", the jester grunted in effort as she, too, struggled to take the headset off, clawing at her face as she did so while scribbles occupied her pupils.

"Just keep grabbing at it. That worked for all of us.", Jax said.

"Shut up, Jax! They don't need your help!", May snapped.

Frankly, both the frog and jester yanked at their eyes and mouth in an attempt to remove the headsets. After they failed, they flew back into position, briefly making their heads wobble.

"Well, that didn't work…", the frog sighed.

"W-What's going on? W-w-we put on some weird headsets, and now we're... here.", the jester said as her eyes widened nervously before asking the others as her legs were bent inwards as she frantically looked around, waving her arms in confusion. "Who are you people? Why can't we take them off? Where are we?!"

"Easy, there, sis. Calm down. I'll handle this.", the frog assured as he straightened up, and walked closer to the group, clearing his throat, only to ask the same questions in an accusatory tone like a hard-boiled detective. "All right, you! You'd better give us some answers, see?! Who are you people! Why can't we take our headsets off?! And where are we?!"

"Whoa, there… That's kinda intense, don't you think?", Jaz asked.

"Don't dodge the question, rabbit! This is a hold-up! A stick-up! An interrogation!", the frog snapped.

"I like this guy already.", Jax smirked.

"Don't get any ideas, Jax…!", May glared.

Ragatha suddenly interrupted the frog from speaking any further before he could.

"Let's just try to calm down.", Ragatha spoke as she walked over to the frog and the shivering jester.

"Everything's gonna be okay, new stuff. We've all been through this. You two just need to get your heads to—"

Ragatha's pupils minimized as she was suddenly interrupted by the jester.

"WHAT THE IS GOING ON?! ...Wha—"

Both the frog and the jester peered at the latter's mouth, questioning what has just transpired. The swear she said was censored by a cartoonish sound effect, as a black bar temporarily covered her mouth.

Caine then floated over to the newcomers to explain that swearing was prohibited in The Amazing Digital Circus.

"Now, now, now, my dear! We can't have any of that foul language around here. The Amazing Digital Circus is a place to be enjoyed by all ages. You, my friend, stumbled into an incredible world of wonders, where anything can happen!", Caine explained as his eyes looked around the place, before he elaborated. "E-Except for swearing."

"All right. How about I try?", the frog said before clearing his throat and immediately tried every swear word he can think of to check if Caine's bluffing.

", , , , , , , , , . Bh."

The frog stood speechless as what Caine said appeared to be true.

"Oh, my God.", the jester said, equally stunned.

"I know, right? It gets pretty annoying to deal with after a while. So, I just stopped saying stuff like that altogether.", May admitted.

"That's not true.", Equinator sneered.

"Yeah, it is.", May argued.

"Is it? Is it really?", Equinator asked, raising an eyebrow teasingly. "Is it? Is it, really?"

May hesitated. Then, she groaned.

"Fine... I still say that stuff. But not too often, at least."

"Now, Zooble's the only one who says those words often. Even when they're censored. In any case, let's get right to the introductions, you two. I'm Equinator. And this feisty, little alligator snapping turtle, here, is May.", Equinator introduced.

May greeted the jester and frog with a wave.

"Hi."

"Uh… Hi?", the frog greeted with a wave, puzzled as he is.

"Ah, don't worry. She doesn't bite. If anything, if there is one person she bites, it's definitely not gonna be you.", Equinator assured.

"Uh… Who does she bite?", the jester asked nervously.

"Geez, get a grip, ya clown!", Jax smirked.

Furious, May lunged at Jax, pinning him to the ground.

"SHUT THE UP, JAX! Haven't you done enough damage already?!", May shouted.

Both the frog and the Jester looked speechless and Jaz grew worried.

"O…kay?", the jester spoke.

"Anyway, these guys, here, are Gangle, Zooble, and Kinger, too.", Equinator spoke, gesturing to said 3 people in question before moving on to the next 3 characters. "You've already met Ragatha, Jax, and Jaz."

Jaz smiled warmly.

"Hi."

The frog looked speechless, if not infatuated.

"Uh… Hi, there, fluffy bunny…", the frog spoke before gasping upon realizing what he just said.

"What?", Jaz puzzled.

"U-Uh, well, h-how do we... you know, leave?", the jester asked as she looked up at Caine, looking for an answer.

"Uh—", Caine began, only to pause.

"W-Well, don't freak out about it or anything, but, uh, we don't exactly...", Ragatha began.

Unfortunately, Jax interrupted Ragatha, not afraid to speak his mind as he moved in front of the jester and the frog.

"You can't."

"What?", the jester asked as her pupils minimized while looking at Jax in worried confusion.

"What do you mean we can't leave?!", the frog exclaimed as his eyes widened as he looked in shock.

"Shut up, Jax. But, yeah, he's right. Welcome to your new home. And your new bodies.", Zooble said as their claw pointed at the frog and jesters' respective feet.

The frog and jester glanced down at them.

"'N-N-New home'? What do you mean?", the jester asked as her eyes darted around.

"Guys, don't be mean.", Ragatha scolded.

"We've been stuck here for years. Old Kinger over there's supposedly been here the longest.", Jax explained.

Kinger peeked out of his pillow fort that he had made.

"Huh? Did someone say something about an insect collection?", Kinger asked, his eyes widened in excitement.

"That's why he's craaazy!", Jax chuckled while doing a cuckoo finger twirl. "Eh..."

"Hey, Kinger's own brand of crazy? At least it's the kind of crazy we can put up with. However weird it may be. It's the other kind of crazy that really bothers us. Heck, it bothers everyone!", Equinator stated defensively.

"Wait. There's the other kind?", the frog asked.

"Yeah. You, of all people, should know better than to push people that far, Jax!", May responded, glaring at Jax.

The screen darkened as the jester started hyperventilating, raising her arms toward her face, as she did so while the pupils of her eyes turned into scribbles. May grew very angry towards Jax.

"See?! She and her brother just got here and she's already about to abstract because of you! AND YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY?!", May shouted.

"Wait, abstract? What do you mean abstract?!", the frog asked worriedly.

But contrary to what May thought, the jester calmed down. After she calmed down, the screen returned to normal.

"Ohhhh, okay! Now I get it!", the jester said, laughing. "This is a dream, and I should just play along until I wake up, right?"

It then went to the confused frog and the other characters saying nothing while standing still for a moment.

"Whaaa…?", the frog spoke in confusion.

"Uh, yeah. Let's go with that.", Equinator responded.

"Whatever you say, kid.", Jax spoke.

"Hey, just because she's short doesn't mean she's a kid. Some adults are as short as her. Take Peter Dinklage, for example.", Equinator retorted.

"And your point is?", Jax asked.

"We need to have a talk.", Equinator spoke sternly as his eyes went half-lidded.

Then, it went to Gangle, crying because her comedy mask was broken earlier.

"They broke my comedy mask...", Gangle sobbed.

"So, Caine... We having a new adventure today for the newbies, or what?", Jax asked as he walked over one of the halves of Gangle's broken mask, breaking it more, to the frog's shock.

Gangle sobbed even more in response to her broken comedy mask while both the frog and May grow angrier at Jax for his lack of compassion. But before the former could respond...

"Why, you little…!"

Immediately, May rushed Jax and viciously attacked him with the fight already blocked by a dust cloud that appeared as May and Jax fought, the former appearing to be more dominant as both the frog and the jester looked puzzled.

"If I were Caine? I'd go with or what.", Equinator responded.

"Does that happen all the time?", the jester asked.

"Ever since Gangle first showed up and Jax started bullying her? A lot.", Equinator replied.

"Huh.", the jester said.

"Hey, stop pulling on my ears!", Jax yelped in pain, his head peeping out from the fight cloud.

"Would you rather I go for your neck?!", May snapped as her head peeped out from the fight cloud as well, all while the frog chuckled at the fight a moment after.

"All right, you two. Break it up.", Equinator spoke.

He then effortlessly grabbed both Jax and May, moving them away from each other with May trilling like a cat and giving the sort of cute look a kitten would give. Gangle took one look at May's face and was cheered up, somewhat.

"Aw...!", Gangle mewed.

Meanwhile, Caine looked relieved at the fact that the uncomfortable fight between May and Jax was put to rest.

"Whoa. That is a lot of tension. Thank you for breaking it up, Equinator. Anyhoo, I'd like to give our brand-new members a tour of the circus grounds.", Caine spoke.

"Wait, what?", the frog puzzled.

"Uh—", the jester began.

"Off we go!"

A Tour of the Circus

Caine, the frog, and the jester warped to the outside of The Tent.

"Here we have... The Tent! This is where your living quarters are, as well as all sorts of other activities! These activities may include—", Caine began before his eyes glitched out, and took on the texture of a Windows XP/Vista/7 BSoD screen, from which a dial up sound started playing.

"What is he, a fax machine?", the frog puzzled before the glitching stopped.

"—Ball pits, mini-golf, and more!", Caine finished.

The three then warped to the rest of the island. In fact, it moved so that all the island- where everything mostly takes place- was visible.

"And here, we have... The Grounds! Drown yourself in the Digital Lake, or engage in ridery at the Digital Carnival! Night, day, it's all okay! The choice is yours! A cosmic buffet!", Caine beamed.

"Uh, is... that all there is?", the jester asked.

"Of course not!"

The three then warped further, going to a endless plane of white squares with varying sizes.

"This is The Void!", Caine introduced.

As that was said, it moved further back, making Caine's voice softer, before it then went back to normal.

"We don't venture out into the void. Not even I know what's out there.", Caine spoke in a soft, spooky voice before intense silence overcame.

"That's, uh—", the jester began.

But before either the jester or the frog could say anything, the three went back to the grounds.

"We stay right here, where I can keep my... hundreds of all-seeing eyes on you.", Caine said, finishing in a dramatic voice.

During another short-span intense silence, the eyeballs- presumably the ones Caine mentioned- appeared behind the three.

"Wait a minute… Hundreds of all-seeing eyes?", the frog asked nervously.

"Hello, Caine. I love you.", the moon spoke lovingly, shocking Caine.

"Eaugh! Let's get outta here before the Moon gets frisky!", Caine urged, pushing the jester away as he said this.

It then went to a red exit door seen in the grounds and the frog and the jester stared at it.

"What the…?!", Frogger began.

"Wait, what's that—", the jester began.

Then, Caine warped himself, the frog, and the jester back inside of The Tent. Both the frog and the jester vomited black liquid on the floor. Ragatha, Equinator, Jax, Zooble, and even May cringed at them vomiting in the background.

"Woah, clean up on aisle you's!", Caine joked before Bubble appeared from Caine's hat.

"I'm on it, boss!", Bubble assured before the abomination proceeded to continuously lick the vomit while even Caine seemed disturbed.

"...Why are you like this?"

"Okay, I'll admit. That kinda happened to me, too. That was NOT pleasant.", May assured.

"Not even in our past lives.", Equinator concurred.

Both the frog and the jester returned to their consciousnesses.

"Still the same problem here, huh?", the frog asked.

"Wait, wait! W-Was that an exit door we saw out there? Is that a way to leave?", Pomni asked.

"What exit?", Jax asked, taking Zooble's arm off and using it as a back-scratcher. "If there was a way to leave, I'm pretty sure we'd have all left by now."

Zooble, though, controlled the arm and choked Jax while talking. Jax then fell to the floor, earning a chuckling smirk from May.

"Yeah, what are you talking about?", Zooble asked.

It then went to Caine still watching Bubble lick up the vomit, albeit halfway done.

"U-Uh, I—", Caine began before clearing his throat. "I assure you, there is no 'magical exit door.' You're probably just experiencing... DIGITAL HALLUCINATIONS! From your mind's transition to the digital plane."

"Wait a minute. If it was a Digital Hallucination, then why did I see the same thing my sis saw?", the frog asked.

"DIGITAL HALLUCINATIONS!", Caine shouted quickly, as well as stressfully.

Both the frog and the jester looked suspiciously at Caine while he doesn't look at either of them. He then flew up as Bubble licked up the last of the vomit, cleaning the floor up.

"How about we talk about something else? Like your names!", Caine spoke.

"My name? My name is, uh... U-U-Uh?! Oh, God! Why can't I remember my name?!", the jester panicked.

"What do you mean? Your name is, uh… Wh-what the…?! Why can't I remember your name?! More importantly, why can't I remember my name?!", the frog exclaimed.

"Nobody can remember their name once they enter the Digital Circus! One of the few things I don't have control over are your minds. So, all I can help you two with is coming up with a couple of new ones.", Caine spoke.

The jesters' eyes went abstract, again, to the frog's concern.

"Ugh... What's my name...?", the jester groaned before Caine patted the jester's head.

"Don't you worry your little head. Your new name can be anything! Hereby acknowledging that your chosen name and/or names may not breach the Digital Circus user license agreement stating that your name may not include objectionable content. Objectionable content includes but is not limited to sexually explicit material, obscene, defamatory, libelous, slanderous, violent, and/or unlawful content or profanity.", Caine spoke very quickly, as if it were a commercial warning.

"Wait, were you just talking like you're in a…?", the frog asked.

Before he could finish, Caine interrupted the frog and spoke normally.

"What are you thinkin'?", Caine asked.

"Huh? I don't care. Just pick anything.", the jester responded.

"As long as they don't sound stupid.", the frog added.

"Let's see!", Caine spoke before

The first slot machine of letters fell down and rolled.

"What do you think of... 'XDDCC'?", Caine asked, using some sort of Phonetic stammering.

"What…?", the frog puzzled.

"I don't—", the jester began.

"You're right, terrible. Let's try that again!", Caine said before the first slot machine of letters rolled again.

"What do you think of 'POMNI'?", Caine asked.

"Huh? Uh, s-sure. I think I just-", Pomni began.

"Splendid.", Caine grinned before turning to the frog. "And what about you?"

Caine then set up another slot machine, which rolled before yielding a fitting name.

"What say you about 'FROGGER'?"

About to respond, Frogger stopped himself for a moment.

"Huh. That actually makes sense."

"Excellent!", Caine beamed.

Ragatha, Jaz, and May walked up to Pomni and Frogger with Equinator, Zooble, and even Gangle, who sadly carried her broken Comedy Mask as she joined the others.

"Well, uh…, nice to meet you, Pomni. Frogger.", Ragatha greeted.

"Uh…, thanks? I guess? So… tell me more about yourselves.", Frogger spoke.

As Equinator gestured to Kinger, or rather, the pillow fort he's hiding in, he gave his own response.

"Yeah, fun fact about Kinger. He may be eccentric. But it's in a good way, believe it or not."

"You don't say.", Frogger commented.

"And what about you?", Pomni asked.

"Actually, there's not much to say. I mean, you can already tell what I am by these clothes.", Equinator replied.

"A troll that does business?", Pomni asked.

"Ding-ding-ding! You got it!", Equinator grinned.

"And of course, there's Jaz. She's definitely better than Jax, despite him being her brother.", Ragatha stated.

"Wait. Really?", Frogger asked.

"Yep. I don't normally pull pranks unless it's called for. And it's on one person only.", Jaz responded.

"And I could only guess who that is at this point.", Frogger commented, looking towards Jax.

"And, of course, there's Zooble. There's… a lot to learn about them, I'm sure.", Ragatha assured.

"Uh-huh...", Frogger spoke in unconvinced disbelief.

"And of course, you already know Jax, the self-proclaimed 'funny one'.", May introduced sarcastically.

"Hey, it's not my fault if you can't take a joke.", Jax smirked.

"It IS your fault if your jokes are anything but!", May retorted.

Jax paid no mind to May's short-fuse temper and spoke to Caine.

"Again, I ask. We having a new adventure today for the newbies, or what?", Jax asked.

In-house Adventure for Pomni & Frogger

"Gadzooks, you're right, Jax! We should have a brand new adventure for our new members, Pomni and Frogger!", Caine shouted as he pointed to Pomni and Frogger.

"You! Do you like adventure? Activity? Wonder? Danger? Horror? Pain? Suffering? Agony? Death? Disease? Death? Angel food cake?", Caine asked as he kept talking faster while getting closer to Pomni and Frogger as the screen darkened until he mentioned the last thing.

Unfortunately, Bubble appeared and ate the angel food cake Caine had pulled out as he said that line. Caine looked at his hands and then at Bubble with slight anger and confusion.

"YOU PARASITE!", Caine shouted before popping Bubble.

"Uh, I don't really...", Pomni began.

"How exactly does that adventure of yours even work?", Frogger asked.

"Since you're new around here, we're gonna make it a simple, in-house adventure to warm you up to how things work around here.", Caine began.

"Wha— No, God! I don't want an in-house adventure.", Zooble exclaimed.

"Don't worry, Zooble. I'll make it something unobtrusive that you can still choose to not get involved with!", Caine assured before a title appeared as he mentioned said adventure. "Today's adventure is... Gather the Gloinks!"

Caine then laughed maniacally. He was then repeatedly cut off by Bubble as he started saying the next lines.

"That's right! The entire circus tent will be infested with Gloinks, and you gotta catch 'em all!", Caine spoke.

"But what are they?", Bubble asked.

"I'm glad you asked, Bubble. They're small—", Caine began.

"And what do they do?", Bubble interrupted.

"...They—"

"And how do they—"

Caine then popped Bubble again, so he doesn't interrupt him anymore.

"Gloinks are small mischievous critters that steal anything and everything they run into! Why do these humanoid hash-browns do this? How do you stop them? That's for you to find out. Now, good luck, and have fun, my little superstars!", Caine encouraged before disappearing.

"Are you kidding me right now? He didn't even show us what the gloinks look like.", Frogger spoke, peeved about the lack of instruction.

Meanwhile, Pomni stared in front of the stage as her left eye twitched. She then turned to the others.

"What did any of that mean?", Pomni asked.

"Oh, that's just one of Caine's little adventures. They're just something fun to do. To, you know... prevent us from going insane.", Ragatha responded with a nervous chuckle.

"Oh, yeah. I remember Equinator mentioning something like that.", Frogger realized.

"Yeah, that kind of thing is NOT pleasant for anyone.", Equinator confirmed.

Zooble sighed.

"Speak for yourself. If anyone needs me, then off." Zooble said while pulling the middle finger, which was also censored.

Even then, the Gloinks appeared and stole Zooble's body parts.

"Oh, God! Oh, JEEZ! NO!-", Zooble shouted as the Gloinks then took Zooble away, making their voice softer. "OH, GOD! SOMEBODY HELP!"

Gangle gasped in fear and Jax rolled his eyes, completely unbothered by Zooble's capture.

"Oh no, they killed Zooble. Anyway, you guys wanna go get something to eat?", Jax asked.

May was furious!

"ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW, JAX?! They literally just got carried off right in front of us, and your first thought is food?!", May shouted.

"Hey, look, turtle-power, Zooble's a mix-and-match toy. They'll survive being a puzzle piece for a bit. Relax.", Jax assured, only serving to anger the turtle-girl even more.

"As much as I hate to agree with the rabbit, May, he's kind of right about Zooble's anatomy. But we still need a plan.", Equinator said, May's rage subsiding to a level of dislike towards Jax, for now.

"Oh wait- we should go check on Kaufmo first, anyway! I'm pretty sure he'd like to meet Pomni and Frogger.", Ragatha grinned.

Suddenly, a swarm of Gloinks slid past and stole Kinger's "Impenetrable Fortress", completely dismantling his pillow fort.

"MY IMPENETRABLE FORTRESS!", Kinger exclaimed.

"Kinger, do you wanna come with us to check on Kaufmo?", Ragatha called out.

"No, not really. I think Kaufmo's gone insane! Last time I spoke with him, he was rambling endlessly about some 'exit.' Kind of like you, Pomni. You might be going insane, too.", Kinger warned in worry.

"But, wait! Wouldn't that more likely mean the exit actually does exist?", Pomni asked.

"Could also mean you just have a jump-start on losing your mind.", Jax warned.

"Hey! Back off my sister, whiskers.", Frogger glared.

"Wait... what about Zooble?", Gangle asked timidly, from the back.

"Gangle's right. We can't just leave them.", Jaz agreed.

"Alright, let's split up and handle both. I'll take charge of the Kaufmo welfare check. May, you're with me. Pomni, Frogger, Ragatha, and Jax-you're coming too.", Equinator strategized.

"Oh, great. The fun squad.", Jax smirked.

May glared at Jax.

"Keep talking, rabbit, and I'll use your ears as a blindfold."

Frogger looked over at Jaz.

"Wait, so who's going after Zooble?", Frogger asked.

"Jaz, I need you to stay back and head up the rescue party. You take Kinger and Gangle to go handle the Zooble situation.", Equinator said.

Ragatha laughed nervously, looking back at Kinger.

"Uh, Equinator? Do you think pairing Gangle and Kinger up together is a good idea?", Ragatha asked.

"Of course it is. They're the two most mentally stable and capable characters to be paired with my sister.", Jax assured as Kinger began to shake violently next to Gangle, worrying her.

Jaz sighed, punching Jax lightly in the arm.

"Shut up, Jax. Don't worry, Equinator, I've got them. Come on, Gangle. Let's go find Kinger's fortress pieces while we track those bugs.", Jax assured as she walked up to Gangle before a Gloink suddenly flew through the air and smacked Jax right in the face.

"Ow! Okay, I've already had enough of these things...", Jax said before wiping his face and sighing.

"Come on, let's go harass the clown.", Jax said.

Equinator and May led the way with Ragatha, Pomni, Frogger, and a somewhat grumpy Jax following close behind.

Gangle looked down.

"My comedy mask is broken again..."

Kinger violently shakes for a moment, completely delayed, before realizing Gangle is next to him.

"GAH! Oh! Gangle, you startled me.", Kinger said a bit bashfully.

Jaz patted Kinger's shoulder.

"This is going to be a long day...", Jax sighed.

Checking on Kaufmo

The group walked down the hallway. Equinator and May walked up front while Ragatha walked alongside Pomni and Frogger. Jax, meanwhile, trailed behind lazily.

"So, this is where we all live, or, well, where we all sleep at night. Even though we don't really need to sleep, it's sometimes nice to kind of take a break from everything and have a bit of routine, you know? I'm sure there'll be one for... Oh, look, you two already got doors!", Ragatha grinned.

While Pomni stared blankly at her door, her eyes were trembling as it was the same sad-eyed jester face on the doorframe, Frogger looked at his own door, the doorframe of which showed him then crossing his arms in half-lidded frustration.

"I still don't understand about the adventures. Why even go on them at all? W-W-Why not try to find a way to leave?", Pomni asked.

"Well, we usually do- when we first arrive. But, after a while, you start to realize that you really can't leave, and constantly chasing an unattainable goal will start driving you a bit crazy. And eventually, you get to asking what the point of anything is, and you completely lose sight of who you are and why you're even alive. And when you reach your breaking point, something really terrible can happen.", Ragatha explained as her eyes widened frantically for a split second before she pulled herself together with a sharp inhale.

"Ah, but that's not something we need to deal with today! Above anything else, the adventures give us something to do that keeps our minds healthy and stimulated.", Ragatha responded as he stepped up before ringing Kaufmo's doorbell.

"Good thing this is a dream, eh, Pomni?", Jax joked.

Unfortunately, Pomni has abstracted eyes, again.

"Seriously, Jax?!", May glared.

Luckily, Frogger noticed and snapped his fingers in front of her face.

"Hey, snap out of it, sis.", Frogger spoke before Pomni gasped, coming to.

"Why are we here again? What are we doing?", Pomni asked.

"We're checking on the clown. Move it, Jax, you're blocking the doorbell.", May responded as she shoved Jax away.

Ragatha rang it again. No response.

"Huh... Maybe he's not in his room? I hope he's alright.", Ragatha said in worry.

"Don't worry, dollface. I've got a key to his room.", Jax assured, revealing a key and spinning it on his index finger before catching it.

"Wha- Wait! You shouldn't have keys to anyone's room!", Ragatha exclaimed.

"Nah, I've got keys everywhere, and you've all been fine. By the way, Ragatha, I may have left something in your room today, so let me know if you find it. Uh, you're not afraid of centipedes, are you?", Jax asked.

"JAX! That's literally my only fear! WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?!", Ragatha shouted angrily.

"Whaaat? It could be a completely unrelated question. You'll never know until it's too late!", Jax responded.

"Nothing is EVER an unrelated question with you and you know it!", May snapped.

"Sheesh. You just blame me for everything, don't ya?", Jax spoke before unlocking and flinging the door open.

The room was covered in chaotic writing, dark scribbles, and distorted drawings. In the center stood a massive, shifting, glitching black beast covered in realistic, multi-colored abstracted eyes. It was Kaufmo.

"Oh, l've been looking for this! Thanks for keeping an eye on it, Kaufy. I'm gonna head out. See ya.", Jax spoke as he snatched a bowling ball from the desk and instantly sprinted down the hallway, leaving a dust cloud behind, much to May's chagrin.

"JAX, YOU FLIP-FLOPPING COWARD! GET YOUR FURRY TAIL BACK HERE!", May screamed down the hall.

Frogger stared in absolute horror.

"What in the name of... What IS that thing?!"

Equinator stepped back, his voice dropping into dread.

"That... is abstraction. It's what happens when someone finally snaps and loses their mind completely! It turns you into an unstable, glitching black hole of a monster!"

"H-huh?!", Pomni reacted in worry.

The abstracted Kaufmo then poked his head out the doorway into the hall.

"O-Okay, wait! M-Maybe there's still time to fix him if we get Caine!", Ragatha assured.

But the abstracted Kaufmo then let out a distorted, booming roar and charged forward, instantly crushing Ragatha against the doorframe. While Ragatha was stuck, Pomni tried to escape.

"Oh, WHOA! Kaufmo, listen– I know we didn't always get along, like when you called me out for fake-laughing at your jokes! I swear, I really did think they were funny! I was just having a bit of a bad day!", Ragatha shouted.

But Kinger's warning was right. The Abstracted Kaufmo grabbed and dragged Ragatha, interrupting her. Then, the Abstracted Kaufmo brutally slammed her against the walls, floor and ceiling multiple times in a flurry of glitchy motion, leaving her body twisted, pixelated, and deeply glitched on the floor.

"H-H-Hey, Pomni-i-i? Do you think... you could... perhaps help me out here? I understand... if you don't... want to, though."

"Pomni, wait!", Frogger shouted.

The moment the jester tried to help Ragatha, when her hand touched Ragatha, it ended up glitched, making her flinch her hand back.

Equinator then grabbed Pomni and Frogger by their shoulders and shoved them backwards.

"POMNI! FROGGER! RUN! NOW! MAY! YOU, TOO!"

"You don't need to tell me twice!", May agreed.

Pomni doesn't hesitate-spurred on by Equinator's urgent shout and pure panic, she turned and bolted down the hallway.

"Wait, what about-", Frogger began as he tried to look back, but his frog legs suddenly reacted to his panic.

He took one step and accidentally leapt 20 feet down the corridor, barely sticking the landing.

"Whoa! I can jump?! Okay, good to know! Sis, wait up!", Frogger called.

Equinator and May ran right alongside them as the Abstracted Kaufmo smashed out of the doorway, hot on their heels, and tore up the carpet. The four of them sprinted down the twisting hallway, ducking around corners as the Abstracted Kaufmo crashed into the walls behind them, just barely escaping his glitching claws as they dove past a doorway.

"Whew…! Close one…"

He, May, Pomni, and Frogger all peeped out from the fence and watched as the abstracted Kaufmo noticed a Gloink and went after it.

"I can't believe how high you jumped back there, man.", May said in surprise.

"Honestly? Neither can I."

"Well, it looks like it might be safe to check on Ragatha, now that Kaufmo isn't there to attack us right now."

Initially about to run away altogether, Pomni stopped upon hearing this, looks at her glitched hand, then groaned and exclaimed softly as she ran back down the hallway towards Ragatha.

Going Down the Gloink Hole

Meanwhile, in a quiet-side corridor, Jax was standing alone in front of a mirror, holding the bowling ball from Kaufmo's room. There, his mask of confidence completely cracked. Tears welled up in his eyes as he stared at his reflection.

"You're not looking too good.", Jax said to himself, sobbing. "You gonna cry? Looking like this?"

Jaz stepped out from around the corner, having detached from her group for a moment. She stopped, shocked to see her chaotic brother showing genuine vulnerability.

"Jax?", Jax asked softly.

Jax flinched, quickly wiping his eyes and trying to smirk, though his voice cracked.

"Jaz. Pfft. Didn't see you there. Just... testing the lighting. It's terrible in this hallway.", Jax commented.

Jaz walked over, placing a gentle hand on his arm.

"You don't have to put on a show for me. I know you're terrified. We all are. Kaufmo... he's really gone, isn't he?"

Jax looked away, his shoulders dropping

"He's a glitching nightmare, Jaz. It's... it's over for him, and... it was all because of me...! And seeing him like that...", Jax began.

"I know. But we're going to stick together. You, me, and the others. We're going to find a way out of here, okay? I won't let anything happen to you.", Jaz assured.

Jax took a shaky breath, then quickly snapped back into his usual defensive smirk, spinning the bowling ball.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever, sis. Don't get all sappy on me. Let's just go find the others before Kinger tries to eat a wall or something."

At the Gloink Hole, Zooble's muffled, angry screams echoed from deep inside the cavern.

"I don't know what I'm looking at here.", Kinger said.

"We saw a Gloink carry one of Zooble's pieces down there, remember?", Gangle asked.

"Oh, yeah. Thank you for the recap.", Kinger responded before Zooble screamed again, sounding highly annoyed.

"Boy, we're not very good at this, are we?", Kinger asked.

Then, Jax and Jaz ran over, coming to a stop right behind them. Jax leaned over, resting his hands on his knees, completely out of breath from sprinting away from the abstraction.

Jax panted.

"Ugh, 'sup... fellas?", Jax asked.

"JAX! JAZ! We found the Zooble hole!", Kinger grinned.

"Cool.", Jax spoke.

"How is Kaufmo doing? I hope he's not still mad at me for not laughing at his jokes.", Gangle spoke in worry.

Jax recovered his smug demeanor, though Jaz gave him a warning look.

"Oh, he's doing greeeaaat. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen him this happy before!"

"Well, it's good to know he hasn't completely lost his mind.", Kinger said.

But then, a deep, distorted Kaufmo growl that echoed faintly in the distance suggested otherwise, to both Jaz and Jax's worry as the latter quickly averted his gaze, sweating slightly, before looking back at Gangle and Kinger.

Jaz handled the tension by stepping forward.

"He actually asked me to give you this.", Jax spoke before throwing the bowling ball at Kinger. It knocked Kinger straight into the hole, and Gangle tripped and fell right after him.

Jaz gasped in disbelief.

"Jax! Did you seriously dump our teammates down that hole like bowling pins?!

Jax just grinned, jumping into the hole after them.

"Cannonball!"

"You're a lot to deal with! You know that?", Jaz groaned, leaping in after him.

From there, Kinger, Gangle, Jax, and Jaz sped down the tracks of a long, bright red slide, passing a neon Caine sign that flashes "RADICAL" while a canned crowd audio track said, "wow". At the bottom of the slide, Kinger and Gangle rolled tightly into a ball, acting as a literal bowling ball that struck a group of bowling-pin-shaped Gloinks while Jaz stuck a neat landing on her rabbit feet, while Jax slid on his back, knocking down the final remaining pin-shaped Gloink. Then, a cardboard "SPARE" sign pops up, which the frustrated Jax promptly broke in half. Kinger and Gangle rolled out across the floor, dizzy. Jaz helped Gangle up as they all looked up to see the massive, grotesque Gloink Queen rhythmically eating a digital table. She let out a massive burp, causing a fresh Gloink to pop right out of her secondary mouth.

"An insect collection?", Kinger asked.

"I think it's a nest.", Gangle guessed.

Jaz drew her fists up, defensively.

"Okay, that is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen in this digital hellscape.", Jaz glared.

Gangle and Kinger looked at each other in horror.

"...AAAGH!"

Going Back to Ragatha

Play TADC Visual Novel Music: "The Circus Home"

Back at the trashed hallway, Pomni, Frogger, Equinator, and May walked cautiously past the cracked walls, looking for Ragatha.

"Hello? R-R-Ragatha? That was your name, right?", Pomni asked.

They all rounded the corner and found a jittering, severely pixelated Ragatha lying against the wall, groaning in digital pain.

"O-O-Over here.", Ragatha groaned, stuttering in glitchy pain.

"Ragatha...! Are you doing okay...?", Equinator asked.

"More G-G-G-Glitchy, to tell you the tr-tr-tr-tr-truth...", Ragatha responded.

"H-Hey, look, I-I'm... I didn't mean to leave you behind like that. I-", Pomni began before sighing. "Just... look at my hand. I didn't know what to do."

"Yeah, we feel terrible. My legs just sort of exploded into a 20-foot jump and I panicked.", Frogger added.

"Actually, it was on me. I was the one who had them flee away from the abstraction. I didn't want them to end up like you did.", Equinator responded.

"I-I-It's okay-y. What you need to do right now is to find Caine. He'll be able to fix me up and take care of Kaufmo-o-o-o.", Ragatha assured, despite her current condition.

"Well, that's assuming the toothy ringmaster isn't off floating in the Void somewhere.", May responded.

"Where does he usually hang out?", Frogger asked.

"Uh, I don't really know. Just look around and call for him, I suppose.", Ragatha responded.

"All right, we need to cover some ground and fast before Kaufmo circled back. Pomni, Frogger, you two start checking the main corridor doors down in the first floor of the tent. May and I will check the communal lounges. Call out if you see even a hat on his head.

"Uh, okay, we'll get him. You just stay right there, Ragatha. Not that you can really move or anything. Uh, just hang in there. We'll be right back, I promise.", Pomni assured.

Pomni and Frogger started to run off, but paused as Ragatha glitched horribly, her voice cracking.

"Cool. Also, Pomni? Frogger? I'm sorry your first day here... had to be so... terrible?", Ragatha apologized.

"Hey, don't sweat it. We're going to get you sorted out.", Frogger responded.

"Uhhh, yeah, well, don't worry about it. We're just gonna go get Caine now.", Pomni assured, giving Ragatha a reassuring smile, before running off with Frogger down the sleeping quarters corridor as Equinator and May follow suit before Pomni called out in front of the sleeping quarters.

"Hello? Caine? We have a bit of an issue here!"

Unfortunately, there was no response. The hallway was completely dead and quiet. As they caught up, Equinator and May pointed toward the row of guest doors.

"Maybe you can try starting with one of these red doors down below. We'll sweep the other side of the lower deck!"

"If a boxing glove pops out, hit it back!", May advised before Equinator and May took off after they and the siblings headed down the opposite staircase, leaving them to explore.

So, Pomni and Frogger began checking the doors, in which the latter yanked open the first door, and a giant spring-loaded boxing glove flew out, hitting Pomni square in the face, knocking her flat on her back.

"Oh, geez! Sis, I am so sorry!", Frogger apologized.

"I hate this...", Pomni groaned, rubbing where her nose would be.

They tried the next door. Inside was an impossible ocean of animated fish swimming around in mid-air, yet the water was perfectly sealed itself at the doorway, not spilling a single drop onto the checkerboard floor. The siblings stared, utterly puzzled, before shutting it.

Pomni then opened the third door, which revealed a pitch-black background with infinite, glowing carousels stacked all the way to the ceiling. The faint, creepy sound of children laughing echoed out, sending a shiver down their spines. Frogger slammed it shut immediately.

"Nope. Absolutely not. Next door.", Frogger spoke before he then opened the fourth door, which revealed a bizarre bathroom.

A wooden mannequin was relaxing inside a pixelated bathtub, but a floating, red tragedy mask suddenly turned and let out a loud jumpscare shriek while charging toward them! Pomni shrieked back and slammed the door shut.

At the fifth door, Pomni tentatively reached out, but another stray boxing glove punched her in the jaw.

"I'll remember this, ya stupid boxing glove!", Frogger shouted, shaking his fist.

As she's rubbing her face, a heavy, glitching thud echoed from the end of the hall and both siblings perked up.

End TADC Visual Novel Music: "The Circus Home"

"Caaaiiine...?", Pomni asked as she and Frogger peered around the edge, only to have their eyes widen in absolute shock.

It was the abstracted Kaufmo, roaming the circus floor as his towering black mass tore up the floorboards. Suddenly, one of his giant, realistic, distorted eyes spun around and locked onto Pomni and Frogger. Pomni makes a completely freaked-out, melting cartoon face as the glitched creature let out a roaring digital screech and charged directly at them.

"TIME TO RUN, POMNI! OR BETTER YET, JUMP!", Frogger shouted, grabbing Pomni's arm.

Hurriedly, Frogger jumped away with Pomni from the abstracted Kaufmo, who chased after them like a bull seeing red.

At the other side of the lower deck of the circus tent, the area was filled with oversized toy blocks, strange digital geometry, and flickering neon signs. Equinator and May were sweeping the rooms, throwing open doors to empty closets and prop rooms. May slammed a prop door shut with a heavy thud.

"He's not down here either. Caine probably warped himself to some digital golf course while the whole place goes to hell.", May groaned.

"Let's keep moving. He's bound to pop up sooner or later. His Al programming practically forces him to monologue if a room is quiet for too long.", Equinator stated.

But May stopped walking, in agitation.

"Equinator, look... Kaufmo didn't just snap out of nowhere today. I get this sickening feeling that Jax was somehow behind it. Just like what happened with…!", May began, only to stop herself from talking any further before frowning even more with a sad look on her face.

Of course, Equinator raised an eyebrow.

"Behind it? Look, May, Jax may be a menace and an absolute nightmare to share a digital plane with, but driving someone to a complete system-wide abstraction? That's heavy, even for him.", Equinator stated.

May narrowed her eyes as she clenched her fists.

"Think about it! Yesterday, Jax told Kaufmo how crazy he was with this whole exit door thing. That must've made him miserable! And now, Kaufmo lost his mind and abstracted! It's just like Shroom all over again!", May responded.

Equinator sighed, stepping closer and placing a calming, heavy hand on May's shoulder.

"May. Look at me. Breathe.", Equinator advised.

May let out a sharp, angry trill, but she stopped pacing. After a second or two, she took a heavy breath, her shoulders dropping slightly.

"Look, you might be right. Jax is a chaotic black hole who thrives on making everyone miserable. But thinking too much about it right now is just going to push your own stress levels into the red. And you know exactly what happens if you let this place get under your skin.", Equinator warned.

May quietly looked down at her clawed hands.

"Yeah... abstraction.", May sighed.

"Exactly. Any negative emotions lingering for too long will do that. And that's all the more reason we can't afford to lose you, too. If Jax did cause Kaufmo's abstraction, we'll think of a way to deal with it after we survive this adventure. Right now, I need you to keep a cool head. Can you do that for me?", Equinator asked.

May hesitated, but then, she gave a firm, determined nod.

"Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Cool head. I'm good. Thanks, Equinator.", May thanked.

Suddenly, a loud, distorted digital screech echoeed from nearby, followed by the sound of splintering wood and shattered glass. The floorboards near them shook violently.

May instantly reached into her tomboyish pants, her eyes widening.

"Sounds like the clown found the siblings.", May guessed.

Equinator sighed, straightening his business tie.

"Well, so much for a quiet sweep. Let's go give them some corporate backup.", Equinator smirked in determination.

Nest of the Gloink Queen

Meanwhile, at the slimy, glowing depths of the Nest, the massive Gloink Queen slithered forward, her multiple eyes locking onto the four characters with heavy disapproval.

"What form of non-Gloinkinian mass dares presume presence in the nest of the Gloink Queen?", the Gloink Queen asked while Jax remained completely unbothered, casually inspecting his nails in a sassy, dismissive manner.

"Oh, is that who you are? You know, you could have asked for my consent before forcing me to see something so completely and utterly disgusting.", Jax commented.

Needless to say, the Gloink Queen was rather offended, so she boomed with offended rage.

"How despicable! A rabbitoid that runs its mouth in the presence of my royal figure!"

Kinger and Gangle were still trembling on their knees, while Jaz stood protectively in front of them with her fists raised.

"Well, as a royal myself, I would like to kindly ask if— ...oh, look there's Zooble! Hi, Zooble!", Kinger cheerfully waved toward a passing chunk of Gloinks.

Among them, Zooble's detached head was currently being balanced on top of a tiny, scurrying critter like a football.

"UGH, HELP ME, YOU IDIOTS!", Zooble screamed in pure, unadulterated fury.

"Kinda rude, Zooble. Now I don't wanna help you!", Jax said, crossing his arms with a dramatic pout.

Jaz smacked Jax upside the head in response.

"Jax! Shut up and help them!", Jaz shouted.

"Come on, you too, sis?", Jax asked.

At the same time this happened, Kinger and Gangle looked at each other, realizing one of them had to run into the fray to retrieve Zooble's head. They instantly initiated a rapid-fire game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Gangle threw her ribbon hands out, but because they are flat ribbons, they can only ever represent paper. So, Kinger effortlessly threw scissors.

Gangle drooped instantly.

"Oh, I always lose..."

Kinger, though, pumped his fist, ecstatic.

"YES!", Kinger grinned.

"Wait, what?", Jaz asked, noticing what just happened with Kinger charging forward into the swarm. "Kinger, wait! If you try to grab them...!"

But Kinger then successfully snatched Zooble's head out of the air.

"Gotcha!"

Suddenly, Kinger froze. His eyes widened in blank confusion as it turned out that his hands weren't connected to his body, so both Zooble's head-and his own disembodied floating hands-were now moving away from his body, being taken straight toward a pile of Gloinks to hoist the head towards the Gloink Queen's massive maw.

"...your hands would get taken away as well...", Jaz finished sullenly.

"Oh.", Kinger spoke as he completely forgot that his hands are detached from his torso, meaning he didn't actually pull Zooble back to safety; his hands just floated away with the prize.

Zooble realized that they are being held up directly into the path of the monster's mouth.

"Hey?! KINGER, YOU MOTHER-!"

Before they could finish, the Gloink Queen grabbed Zooble's head with her massive tongue, and then swallow both Zooble's head and Kinger's floating hands whole in one loud gulp. Gangle whimpered anxiously, covering her tragedy mask in despair while Jax, on the other hand, shrugged apathetically. "Eh, they'll be fine."

Jaz was horrified as she turned to her brother.

"Jax, she just ate our teammate! How can you be so apathetic about this?!", Jaz shouted in horrified anger.

Suddenly, a loud, high-pitched digital static ripped through the cavern. Jax, Jaz, Kinger, and Gangle snapped their heads to the right and noticed a small, blue, star-shaped Gloink violently convulsing, its body aggressively glitching and flickering between its normal texture and bright, bleeding pixelated code. The surrounding Gloinks completely stopped what they were doing, turning to watch their own sibling suffer a digital seizure.

Jaz backed away, her voice dropping into a whisper.

"Jax... what is happening to that gloink?", Jaz asked.

Jax's smug smile completely vanished as he looked back and forth, sweating nervously.

"I... I don't think that's part of Caine's game."

The Exit Door

Back to the frantic chase, Pomni and Frogger were jumping away, mainly because Frogger was still holding onto Pomni, the thunderous, glitching crashes of Abstracted Kaufmo echoing right behind them.

"Gotta hide, gotta hide, gotta hide!...", Pomni whimpered.

"Isn't there anywhere decent to hide from that monster around here...?!", Frogger groaned.

Pomni and Frogger frantically glanced both ways for a hiding spot. She suddenly caught a glimpse of their reflections in a passing mirror, seeing both her bizarre jester body, and his own anthropomorphic frog body, for the first time. They both gasped and quickly flinched away as they overheard the abstracted Kaufmo's snarls from across the tent. Acting fast, Frogger discovered a large, yellow barrel and yanked it open, revealing a massive pile of vintage red plastic Barrel of Monkeys toys. In doing so, the plastic monkeys burst out from it. As Pomni and Kaufmo hid behind the barrel, the abstracted Kaufmo got momentarily distracted by the shifting physics, swiping at a stray monkey as it rattled across the floor only for it to be crushed into glitching pieces by the abstraction and erased, horrifying the newcomers, as the abstraction then walked away.

Pomni and Frogger took off once the coast was clear.

"God, where is Caine?!", Pomni spoke in worry.

Just then, they saw Equinator and May catching up.

"Are you two alright?! Where's the monster?", May asked.

"He's right behind us!", Pomni replied as she pointed down the hall, trembling with horror.

Just then, Pomni turned around and noticed a bright red door sitting perfectly against the wall. The bold white letters on it read: EXIT. Frogger noticed it as well, his eyes widening.

"No way. There's the exit door...! I KNEW it was here!", Frogger beamed.

"So… does this mean that… we could leave…?", May asked.

"Yeah! I... I guess so...", Frogger said, starting to consider the fact that the others might need to know about this, too.

But before they could get to a plan on what to do next, a heavy, distorted growl echoed from the hallway as the abstracted Kaufmo shook off the plastic toys, having yet to lock his multi-colored eyes back onto the group. Knowing what would happen immediately if he does lock eyes with them, May cracked her knuckles, her snapping-turtle tail swinging in the air.

"Looks like we don't have time to debate it. Equinator, can you take Pomni and Frogger inside with you and see if that door IS real while I distract the big guy?", May asked.

Equinator nodded sharply, his deadpan expression shifting to pure focus.

"Yeah, of course I can. Just be careful, okay?", Equinator asked.

"Heh. I'll try not to get hurt too bad, but I make no promises.", May assured.

Then, Frogger twisted the handle, opening the door to reveal a stark, white, corporate office-like hallway with yet another exit door at the end of it. Before Pomni followed Frogger and Equinator inside as they entered, she hesitated. Despite her desperate, consuming need to escape this nightmare, she looked back at May with deep concern for the glitching ragdoll left upstairs.

"May! Wait! If you make it past Kaufmo... please, go back for Ragatha!", Pomni pleaded in worry.

May gave Pomni a fierce, determined look over her shoulder.

"Sure. As long as you understand you guys would need to get back so you can get the others on board.", May responded.

Pomni paused for a tense moment, swallowing hard as she realized they can't just save themselves. She nodded.

"Fair enough.", Pomni agreed.

And so, Pomni finally went through the door, but the moment the door was slammed shut, let alone the very second the door clicked into place, the Abstracted Kaufmo finally locked eyes with May, spotting May standing alone in front of the exit door and baring her sharp, snapping-turtle teeth.

"Alright, clown. Let's see what you've got!"

In response, the abstracted Kaufmo let out a roaring digital screech and lunged forward like a freight train. Instead of dodging, May timed her move perfectly. She leapt high into the air, barely managing to land squarely on the abstracted monster's thrashing, glitching back! She grabbed onto a mass of shifting black code, holding on tightly with both hands as if she were riding a wild bronco at a rodeo. All the while, unbeknownst to her, the exit door disintegrated and a Gloink bounced towards it, befuddled. Seconds later, the Gloink was accidentally crushed by Abstracted Kaufmo as he bucked like a mule.

"YEE-HAW! Is this the best you can do?!", May yelled over the deafening static.

Kaufmo thrashed violently, smashing himself against the walls to try to shake her off, almost successfully. But suddenly, the checkered floor cracked beneath the abstracted monster, making it stop for a moment.

"Uh-oh…"

An Unlikely Rescue

Back to the Gloink Queen's nest, the giant worm-like creature continued to loom over Jax, Jaz, Kinger, and Gangle.

"You foolish assortment of colorful characters! Do you not realize everything must be Gloinks?! I am Gloinks. You will be Gloinks! God will be Gloinks!", Gloink Queen vowed.

"This is dumb and weird.", Jax commented as he rolled his eyes with a tone of pure disgust, looking over at Gangle.

"Well, B- uh-Y-Yet you're still watching it!", Gloink Queen shouted, embarrassed.

"I'm not here for the adventure or anything, I'm just here to hide from the-", Jax began.

Suddenly, before Jax can finish, a massive crash ripped through the ceiling! While the Abstracted Kaufmo fell directly onto the Gloink Queen with a thunderous thud, instantly flattening her as cartoonish punching and thrashing noises erupted from the dust cloud, the recoil from the earlier impact on the Gloink Queen finally flung May off Kaufmo and straight through the air like a cannonball, crashing directly into Jax and knocking him flat onto the cave floor. Before this, Jaz took a quick, nimble step back, narrowly dodging the collision. The impact caused Kinger to get slammed against the cavern wall by Zooble's detached head, which was spat out by the abstracted Kaufmo landing on the Gloink Queen the way he did, which instantly also spat out Kinger's floating hands.

"Oh, thank god you're okay! You didn't experience a game show in there, did you?", Kinger asked.

"Uh.. I- What are you talking about?", Zooble asked.

The Gloink Queen, though, was now being beaten up by Abstracted Kaufmo with cartoony noises.

Gangle clasped her ribbon hands to her face, trembling as she watched the monster.

"What's happening?!", Gangle asked.

Jax groaned slightly as he pushed May off him.

"It's just Kaufmo. Don't worry about it."

"Kaufmo ABSTRACTED?!", Gangle asked, horrified.

"Nah, he's fine.", Jax responded.

May scrambled to her feet, her eyes burning with pure fury as she towered over Jax and points a sharp, accusatory claw directly at Jax's chest.

"Are you -ing me right now?! He is NOT fine! And it's ALL YOUR FAULT, you narcissistic hack!", May snapped.

Jax froze up briefly before getting puzzled.

"What the…?! How is any of that my fault?"

"YOU KNOW VERY WELL HOW! He came to you for help! He found an exit, and you treated him like garbage and drove him straight over the edge! You caused this!", May shouted.

Jax sweated slightly but quickly recovered his smug grin.

"Pfft. Allegations. You've got no proof, turtle-power."

May breathed heavily with angry growls, clenching her fists.

"I GOT YOUR PROOF! RIGHT HERE!"

Violently, May pounced on Jax like a jaguar and attacked him like before, but twice as furiously, even akin to Kaufmo mercilessly attacking, and jumbling, the Gloink Queen. Jaz and the others watched in shock over this as, when the dust cloud settled, May was choking Jax by gripping his neck with her hands, alarming Jaz even more.

"It wasn't enough to push Ribbit to abstraction! You had to do it to Kaufmo, too!", May shouted as she stretched Jax's neck before letting go, sending him flying straight into the wall near the abstracted Kaufmo, who was still busy attacking the Gloink Queen at the moment. The moment Jax sat up and saw him, he widened his eyes in horror and looked back towards May, still filled with terror as May stomped towards him, seething with rage.

"Kaufmo deserved better than that! Ribbit deserved better!", May shouted before yelling out in anger as she threw a punch at Jax, who narrowly dodged the punch.

"What's wrong with you?!", Jax shouted, actually getting scared.

"You know very well what's wrong with me! Ribbit's abstraction! You bullying Gangle! Kaufmo's abstraction! ALL OF IT!", May roared as she tried to throw more punches on Jax only to miss before eventually managing to land one in the gut, making him wheeze in pain before May delivered an uppercut right to Jax's chin, sending him flying for a bit before landing on his back.

After a moment, May panted heavily as she walked up to Jax with a look that could kill.

Jax was in pain, as well as getting nervous. If anything..., scared like the coward he is.

"Geez…, did anyone ever tell you that you hit like a pro if she was a girl?"

But May wasn't in a mood for any smooth talk as she grabbed Jax by the overalls, lifted him up with a twist, and yelled really loud, aiming to finish him with a solid punch to the face.

"SHUT UP! Every word you speak to me makes me violently angry!"

Suddenly, May noticed Jaz, looking a bit worried as Jaz bore a concerned, tearful face. May reflected for a bit, remembering Equinator's words before taking a deep breath and tossing him back to the ground.

May spoke calmly with a tense tone.

"You're just lucky I don't have the time or the energy for this, Jax… Right now, we have to get out of here."

Suddenly, Kinger, while violently shaking and his eyes wide in sudden panic, shouted in agreement, making May yelp on surprise.

"YOU'RE RIGHT! HOW ARE WE GONNA GET OUT OF HERE?!"

"Guys... Over there.", Zooble spoke, their eyes pointing to a random, brightly lit escalator rising straight out of the Gloink Queen's nest.

"Huh.", Kinger spoke, instantly calming down.

The group quickly made their way toward the escalator in a somewhat orderly fashion. As they stepped onto the rising steps, Gangle anxiously moved away from Jax, pressing herself closer to Jaz and May. Both of them offered Gangle a comforting, protective nod, making the fragile ribbon humanoid feel visibly safer and more at ease.

"Ladies first.", Jax said, smirking at Gangle and then blinked in realization.

"No, wait, why would I say that?", Jax asked before shoving Gangle entirely out of the way to take the front spot.

May's shell practically vibrated with rage from seeing this.

"THAT'S IT! YOU'RE DEAD MEAT, JAX! DEAD!"

But before she can pounce on him again, Jaz stopped her.

"You can attack him if you want, but do you really want to risk getting Kaufmo's attention again?", Jaz asked, pointing to Kaufmo still wrecking the Gloink Queen with May turning back to notice it, sighing disappointedly.

"Fine, fair point… I guess. That Gloink Queen sure is resilient, though."

Then, May turned to Jaz.

"So… sorry to make you worry like that, Jaz. It's just… I hate it when bullies like him do bad things to good people like Ribbit and Kaufmo and get away with it. It's the worst! Especially when it comes to… abstraction. And now that Kaufmo's abstracted…? He really me off this time… I know he's your brother, Jaz, but… it's times like this I wish I'd make him suffer for what he's done and then just… put him out of his misery!", May vented.

Jaz appeared worried about what May wants to do to Jax for a brief moment before she thought of an idea and gave a calm, knowing smile.

"Well, I don't know about ending him… but I might know just the thing to make you smile."

"What do you mean?", May asked before realizing what Jaz had in mind with a gasp.

"Ohhhh. Are you talking about a prank on Jax?", May asked.

"To start off.", Jaz responded.

"Be quiet. I can't hear the escalator...", Jax said as he closed his eyes with a satisfied grin, leaning back to enjoy the rhythmic hum of the machinery.

As May watched, snickering at the thought, Jaz extended her leg in front of Jax's slyly and a second later, after approaching the end of the top part of the journey toward a floor between one part of the escalator and another, Jax wound up losing his balance and tripped before landing his face on a metal step of the 2nd escalator. Seeing this, as well as seeing Jaz's face being on the shape of a metal step that his face landed on, May let out a sharp, genuine laugh that instantly lightened her dark mood. As May shook her head, her anger dissipating, Jax looked displeased and shook his own head, changing it back to normal. Despite this, even Gangle started to lighten up despite her tragedy mask, thanks to Jaz's simple prank.

"Okay... that was actually pretty good. For a start, at least.", May grinned. "You know? Ragatha wasn't kidding when she said you're definitely better than Jax. Thanks."

"Thanks.", Gangle thanked.

Jaz simply winked.

"Anytime."

"Wait.. Pomni and Frogger aren't even here? Wasn't this whole thing for her and her brother?!", Zooble asked.

Hearing this question, May, as well as saying Ragatha's name not just a moment ago, snapped back to reality, her expression turning serious.

"Wait a minute. We need to hurry! Ragatha is still glitched out on the sleeping quarters!"

"She's what?!", Jaz exclaimed.

"Oh, yeah. Kaufy must have done this. That might explain what happened to that Gloink back there. But aren't you the least bit worried about Pomni and her brother?"

"That's just it. Pomni and Frogger went into some weird exit door with Equinator. Not that you'd care.", May responded.

Surprisingly, even if only a little bit, Jax widened his eyes a little in surprise.

"Wait... There was an exit door?", Jax asked.

"Maybe? Equinator went with Pomni and Frogger to make sure it IS real. But while they do that, we have to find Ragatha and help her before Kaufmo decides to head back up and finish what he started! That's what Pomni wants us to do.", May said.

Jax only responds in his usual tone.

"Really? Well, it's good to know she's not going completely nuts.", Jax said.

"Shut up, Jax.", Zooble scolded.

After using the escalator back up to the tent, they stepped off it and stormed back onto the main floor of the tent. May and Jaz took the lead, moving quickly down the hallway, with Zooble, Gangle, Kinger, and even Jax following behind. They eventually got to the sleeping quarters round the corner and find Ragatha exactly where Pomni and Frogger left her, still severely pixelated, jittering, and groaning in digital pain.

Gangle gasped, her tragedy mask drooping further.

"Oh, no! Ragatha!"

"Sheesh, May. You weren't kidding when you said she was glitching.", Jax said.

May knelt down beside her, her voice softening.

"Hey, Ragatha. Hang in there. The clown is downstairs throwing a tantrum, so you're safe for a second.", May assured.

"M-M-May? Jaz? Where are Pomni and Frogger?", Ragatha asked, glitching heavily as her eyes flickered.

"Pomni and Frogger actually found that exit door they mentioned. Pomni was terrified, but right before she went inside, she explicitly asked me to come back and make sure you were okay. Equinator went through with them to be absolutely sure the door is for real and not just some system glitch."

A faint, glitchy smile appeared on Ragatha's face.

"S-She... she asked about me? That's... r-really sweet..."

"It is. But you're freezing up from all this glitch code. We need to cover her up with something to stabilize her avatar before Caine gets back. Kinger, do you have any spare pillows from your fortress?", Jaz asked.

"Unfortunately, my fortress was consumed by the insect swarm! But not to worry! A good royal always has a backup plan!", Kinger assured.

And so, with a dramatic, theatrical flourish, Kinger gripped the lapels of his royal purple robe and flings it entirely off his torso to drape it over Ragatha. The moment the robe leaves his body, the entire group freezes in absolute, stunned silence. Beneath his robe, Kinger's avatar isn't just a hollow wooden chess piece stick. He possessed an impossibly chiseled, hyper-realistic, eight-pack set of abdominal muscles that look like they were sculpted out of pure marble, contrasting wildly with his cartoonish, bulging eyeballs.

Gangle's jaw dropped so low her ribbon hands can barely hold it up, her eyes wide in complete shock.

"K-Kinger?! Since when do you have... chiseled abs?!"

Kinger was completely oblivious, proudly flexing while looking up at the ceiling.

"A king must always maintain his core strength to defend the realm! Especially from digital moths.", Kinger responded.

Zooble stared blankly, rubbing their eyes.

"I have been here for literally almost a year and I think this is the most deeply unsettling thing I have ever witnessed."

Jaz snickered, trying to look away.

"Honestly? Good for him."

"Yeah. Now, THAT's crazy.", Jax agreed.

May shook her head, pulling Kinger's robe tightly around Ragatha's shivering shoulders.

"Focus, guys. The coat is helping, but she's still completely glitched out. We need to find Caine right now.", May urged.

"Okay, but I'm telling you it might be a waste of time.", Jax said.

Jaz was rather displeased with Jax's behavior.

"Jax, stop talking.", Jaz scolded.

"I'm just saying.", Jax responded.

Door after Door

Meanwhile, Pomni, Frogger, and Equinator were in a lone room together with chairs.

"Huh. So, THIS is the exit.", Frogger said.

Equinator looked around at the generic white walls with a deep scowl.

"I don't think so. This architecture... it's exactly like the office building I used to work in.", Equinator said.

"Oh, s, really?", Frogger asked.

"Yeah. And I guess at the same time, it's… not? Although, it might have something to do with that other EXIT door in front of us.", Equinator guessed.

"Wait.. There was another exit door in here?", Frogger asked.

"Well, there's… only one way to find out, right?", Pomni asked nervously.

So, Pomni proceeded toward the other find another exit door, only to end up in a small room with 2 chairs and a plant, as well as a table and a microwave, to Equinator's puzzlement and the 2 siblings' confusion and worry.

"Huh?!", Pomni puzzled, becoming confused and scared.

"What the…?", Frogger said in disbelief.

"You know, I certainly don't remember seeing a microwave in the same room as those chairs and that plant.", Equinator admitted.

Peeved, Frogger led the way as he, Pomni, and Equinator went through the other door and found a room similar to the last one, this time being a storage room filled with boxes, some of which were labeled fragile.

"And here we are in the storage room. I'm starting to think this is some kind of psychological loop.", Equinator said.

Pomni groaned and continued to pant.

"I really hope we find that exit soon… for her sake.", Frogger said in worry.

As Pomni, Frogger, and Equinator traversed the uncanny labyrinth, their footsteps echoed heavily against the linoleum floor. Door after door led to identical corporate corridors.

Pomni gasped and whimpered, clutching her head.

"It's just more doors... it's not ending! Why isn't it ending?!", Pomni panicked.

Frogger grabbed her arm to steady her.

"Easy, Pomni. Just keep moving forward. I'm right here with you. We're going to find the actual outside, sis.", Frogger assured.

Equinator looked around at the generic white walls with a deep scowl before turning back to Pomni.

"Pomni, look at me. Focus on my voice. Don't let the repetition get into your head. That's how the circus breaks you.", Equinator said.

But every door they went through made Pomni's mental state worse, until they burst through one door, leading not to another hallway, but instead, a massive, sprawling office in cubicle form.

"There we go! Finally! Some progress! One of these days, I'd like to know why this labyrinth was set up the way it was.", Equinator commented.

Sitting on one of the desks was a single, glowing computer monitor hooked up to 2 bulky, metallic VR headsets-the exact type that brought them here.

Pomni stared at the headsets, her pupils shrank into jagged, erratic scribbles.

"Hahaha... HAHAHA! They're right there! We're right there!", Pomni spoke, cackling wildly and clutching her head as she took a staggered step backward.

Dark, pixelated static began to faintly ripple across her skin. One thing was already clear: she was rapidly approaching her breaking point. Seeing what's happening, Frogger panicked, stepping between her and the desk.

"Pomni! Don't look at it! Look at me! It's just a digital asset!", Frogger shouted.

Equinator then grabbed Pomni's shoulders, his deadpan corporate voice cutting through her panic with sudden authority.

"He's right, Pomni! You've gotta keep a level head! If you give in to the panic now, May's distraction out there was for nothing. You promised her you'd get back to help the others. Hold on to that!", Equinator urged.

Hearing this, Pomni gasped, her wild laughter sharply cutting off as she looked at Equinator, then at Frogger. The dark static receded slightly, her pupils stabilizing back into pinwheels as she breathed heavily, nodding frantically.

"Right... right. Ragatha. May. We have to... find the end.", Pomni said.

Frogger sighed in relief, wiping digital sweat from his brow.

"Good job, sis. Come on. There's one more door at the end of this row.", Frogger spoke.

And so, the three of them went through towards a big corridor with a big "C & A" symbol on it. And just below it, a lone, bright red door with an EXIT sign on it.

"Yep. That's definitely a corridor you'd find yourself in when you enter the building. So, that means, beyond that, there's a hallway. And beyond that hallway, there's gotta be an a real exit out there.", Equinator said.

"Well, like you said, there's only one way to know for sure, right, Pomni?", Frogger spoke.

"Y-Yeah…", Pomni said.

Cautiously, they got through the penultimate door and then tried as best they can to make it across the hallway, which seemed to stretch farther away with the trio barely able to get to the door before pushing it open together, bracing themselves for the real world. Instead, they stepped out into absolute nothingness. The office disappeared. They were standing on an infinite, empty plane of white squares, surrounded by a vast, pitch-black abyss stretching forever into the distance. Flashing, unstable neon colors and broken wireframe grids pulsed violently in the distance. They have walked directly into The Void.

Frogger's eyes widened in absolute horror as his voice dropped to a whisper.

"No... no, no, no. This isn't the outside. This is nothing."

Equinator stepped back, his tie flickering with a red error code.

"Caine wasn't lying... there is no exit. It's an unfinished sandbox.", Equinator spoke in shock.

But that wasn't even the worst of it. Frogger and Equinator turn around to look at Pomni, but their voices caught in their throats. Pomni stood perfectly still, a completely tranced, hollow look on her face as she gazed into the infinite flashing colors of the abyss. Slowly, a thick, bubbling black sludge began to erupt from her hands. Realistic, hyper-colorful, distorted eyes started violently snapping open all over her jester outfit. The system-wide corruption was taking over. Right before her brother's eyes, Pomni had begun to abstract. The bubbling black sludge spread rapidly across Pomni's arms as jagged, colorful abstracted eyes violently snapped open across her jester suit. She was shivering, her breathing coming in glitched, robotic gasps.

"Pomni! No! Hold on!", Frogger panicked, lunging forward.

Frogger grabbed her right hand, but the moment his fingers made contact, a sharp zap of red static electricity shocked him, turning his own webbed hands temporarily blocky and pixelated.

Frogger groaned in pain.

"Ow! Sis, look at me! You've got to fight it!"

Equinator grabbed her other shoulder, using all his strength to pull her backward away from the abyss.

"Keep it together, Pomni! Fight the corruption! Come on, your brother is right here! Don't look at the abyss!", Equinator urged.

They tried their level best, pulling with everything they have, but their hands kept slipping as Pomni's body began to lose its solid form, melting into shifting, glitching black code. It's failing. The abstraction was pulling her under.

"Damn it, no! We're too late!", Equinator shouted in worry.

"No...! Pomni...!", Frogger whimpered, on the verge of losing his sister to Abstraction.

Caine to the Rescue!

Meanwhile, Caine, Bubble and several mannequins were in a restaurant, the former two laughing.

"Oh, Bubble, you always know how to make me say this exact sentence.", Caine grinned.

Suddenly, an incredibly loud alarm sound started blaring from Caine's wrist, upon which rested his WackyWatch, which Caine took notice of as an advertisement for the item showed up on screen.

"Gasp! An alert on my WackyWatch at this hour?", Caine puzzled.

The WackyWatch then showed a massive, flashing bright red warning screen popping up and reading: CODE RED - CRITICAL CORRUPTION DETECTED IN THE VOID.

Caine's jaw head completely twisted upside down, his eyeballs spinning in absolute wall-eyed terror.

"Oh, no! Pomni's on the verge of Abstraction! W-W-We can't lose her now! SHE JUST GOT HERE!", Caine panicked.

He didn't even wait for Bubble. He teleported out of the restaurant.

Back in the Void, while Equinator was growing worried and sad for Pomni, Frogger was practically crying, his voice cracking as he wrapped both arms around his sister's dissolving torso.

"Pomni, please! I promised I'd bring you home safely! You can't leave me here alone!", Frogger sobbed.

Just as the black sludge was about to consume her face entirely, Caine popped into existence right above them, grabbed Frogger, Equinator, and the abstracting Pomni, and, with a massive flash of light, Caine instantly warped Frogger, Equinator, and the heavily abstracting Pomni out of the Void, slamming them all hard onto the red-and-yellow carpeted floor of the main Circus Tent.

"There you go!", Caine spoke.

The moment they hit the floor, Frogger and Equinator scrambled right back to their feet, diving over Pomni, who was still violently twitching and glitching on the floor.

Equinator shouted as he pinned her shoulders down.

"See, Pomni?! Look! We're back in the tent! The dream is over! Look at the colors! Look at your brother!"

Frogger grabbed her hands, squeezing them tight.

"Pomni, it's me! It's Frogger! I'm right here! Breathe, sis! Just breathe!"

Pomni's eyes rolled back violently, the pinwheel scribbles in her pupils spinning at maximum speed.

She let out one final, sharp gasp. Slowly... against all odds, the heavy words of her brother and Equinator manage to barely pierce through the digital static. The bubbling black sludge began to recede. The multi-colored abstracted eyes violently popped out of existence one by one, and her skin returned to its smooth, bright red and blue fabric texture. The abstraction faded away completely just seconds before it could become permanent.

Equinator collapsed backward onto the floor, wiping his brow, letting out a massive sigh of relief.

"Holy ... she made it...! That was close! I thought she was done for.", Equinator said.

Frogger collapsed into tears of absolute relief, burying his face into her shoulder.

"Oh, thank God... thank God you're okay..."

Frogger pulled Pomni into a massive, incredibly tight, bone-crushing sibling hug. The very second he squeezed her hard enough, a loud, incredibly high-pitched squeak-exactly like a cheap dog squeak-toy-echoed loudly from Pomni's chest. *SQUEAK!* Frogger blinked, completely caught off guard by the sound, pulling back slightly to look at her in stunned confusion. Pomni, finally snapping completely out of her trance, blinked her perfectly normal eyes, looking down at her own chest with an equally puzzled expression.

"Did... did I just squeak?", Pomni croaked out, her voice shaky.

"I think you just did.", Frogger responded.

Caine floated down to the center of the main tent, landing gracefully on the red-and-yellow carpet as his eyes blinked in confusion.

"Now, what the heck happened around here?"

Just as Pomni, Frogger, and Equinator stepped forward, they noticed Kinger, Jaz, May, and Gangle rushing up, helping a severely pixelated Ragatha who is still wrapped tightly in Kinger's coat. Pomni sighed in massive relief upon seeing her, albeit more confused upon seeing a buff Kinger, just as much as Frogger and Equinator, the latter of whom is more surprised than shocked.

"...What?", Pomni puzzled.

"Where did he get that 6-pack...?", Frogger asked.

"How come nobody told me he was packing some muscle?!", Equinator exclaimed.

May cleared her throat, reminding them of the current situation.

"Oh...! Yeah.", Equinator said.

"I am in so much pain...!", Ragatha groaned, her voice glitching and stuttering.

"GOOD GOD, what happened to you, Ragatha?!", Caine shouted, snapping his fingers with a loud pop.

Then, a flash of light instantly washed over Ragatha and Pomni, completely reversing the pixelation on Ragatha's body and restoring Pomni's glitching hand to normal.

Ragatha stood up, stretching her arms, and looking directly at Pomni.

"Thank you, Pomni. Thank you for trying to make sure I'm okay.", Ragatha thanked as May unwrapped Kinger's robe from Ragatha and handed it back to Kinger, who put it back on.

"Oh. Thank you.", Kinger thanked to Ragatha.

Pomni gave her a warm, genuine grin.

"You're welcome. I'm just really glad we got back to you before Kaufmo did.", Pomni grinned.

Caine grew curious from hearing Kaufmo's name.

"Speaking of Kaufmo, where is he? And what happened to you guys?", Caine asked. "This doesn't seem like the thrilling conclusion to the adventure I made!"

"Well, that's what we needed to tell you…", May began.

Kinger, shaking violently, still holding Zooble's head and still worried, interrupted her and said what May was going to say to him.

"Kaufmo went through a sort of Kaufmosis and abstracted!"

Caine froze up in fright.

"K-K-K-Kaufmo… abstracted?!", Caine shouted, becoming very afraid. "Oh, no…!"

"Huh…?", Pomni and Frogger puzzled.

Caine's jaw twisted upside down in pure horror. To everyone's sudden concern, he began to stammer uncontrollably before convulsing, glitching like crazy in mid-air. As he exploded in an outburst of fright, massive, dangerous streaks of neon lightning shot wildly from his hands. One of his eyes glowed a blinding, demonic red, while the other flared a mechanical blue as Caine glitched wildly.

"K-K-KAUF- SYSTEM ERROR- ABSTRA-?!"

Suddenly, a loud, cheerful toaster-ding sound effect played. As it did, Caine snapped instantly back to normal, smoothing down his ringmaster suit. Of course, Caine's more incredulous about it.

"Why didn't anybody tell me?!"

Frogger stepped forward, his face turning a furious shade of green.

"Are you serious right now?! We've been trying to-"

Pomni stepped in front of her brother, completely cutting him off as she shouted at Caine at the top of her lungs.

"We've been calling for you all day! For this exact reason!"

The entire cast, including Caine, recoiled in pure shock. No one has ever yelled at the ringmaster like that. Caine shifted his eyes sheepishly, playing with his cane.

"Oh... M-My bad! Oopsie."

Nervous, the ringmaster fiddled with his fingers, almost as though he's hiding something.

"I have something to confess, dear friends. I have to apologize and take accountability like the responsible man that I am. The exit door you and Frogger saw was in fact, a real door. But it wasn't a real exit.", Caine explained.

"WHAT?", Pomni & Frogger shouted in unison.

"I knew how much all of you have been wanting there to be one, but, you know, I was having so much trouble figuring out what to put on the other side and ended... up... never... quite... finishing... it. And you know how I never like letting people see my unfinished work- especially if it leads you out into The Void.", Caine explained.

Pomni stood perfectly still, utterly stumped as her voice dropped into a hollow whisper.

"So... the door was real, but it wasn't an exit? But you lied to me and Frogger about the door never existing in the first place..."

"So, we got our hopes up, and there really isn't a way to leave the Digital Circus?", Frogger asked.

"Precisely!", Caine responded cheerfully.

Frogger looked around, noticing a couple of people missing.

"Wait a minute... Where're Jax and Zooble?", Frogger asked.

"Well, let's just say they got the Kaufmo situation under control.", May said.

But it was not under control. In fact, as if on cue, the Abstracted Kaufmo suddenly crashed into the room, snarling furiously as he chased after both Jax and Zooble, their body reassembled.

"JAX, YOU SON OF A ! I'M GONNA END YOU!", Zooble shouted.

"What?! It wasn't my fault, I swear!", Jax shouted.

"YES, IT IS, YOU ! IT WASN'T FUNNY!", Zooble only snapped.

But Jax's cackle only traveled across the hall. Whatever happened definitely wasn't funny.

"You gotta admit, it was kinda funny!", Jax shouted.

"NO, IT WASN'T!", Zooble snapped.

Before the nightmare could continue, Caine quickly snapped his fingers, opening a dark pit in the floor, lifting and abstracted Kaufmo as well and hovering him towards the hole.

"And into the cellar you go!", Caine spoke before Kaufmo was dropped down into the deep, dark water of The Cellar alongside the other abstracted prisoners, and the floor sealed shut.

Zooble walked over to Kinger.

"Man, I can't believe Kaufmo just gave up like that. I mean, no offense Kinger, but I always thought you would be next.", Zooble said sadly.

"Thank you!", Kinger grinned.

"Guess it just goes to show you can't rely on Kinger for anything. Anything but unpredictable, that is.", Jax smirked.

A Well-Deserved Feast

"Anyway, it looks like you defeated the Gloink Queen, so I guess the adventure's over. Your reward is a delicious digital feast cooked by our head Bubble Chef.", Caine grinned before Bubble showed up, donning a chef hat, spatula and knife, next to a long table with food on it.

"Made with all the love I'm legally allowed to give!", Bubble spoke, happy at first but trailing off.

"You know, I am pretty hungry.", Jax said.

"You didn't even do anything.", Gangle commented.

"So what? I can still be hungry.", Jax said.

"Well not really, 'cause we don't need to eat, drink, or sleep in this digital world. So the digital food here only gives off the virtual sensation of eating without any of the nutritional benefits.", Kinger spoke.

"Sheesh, lay off it. Since when are you an expert on the Digital World?", Jax asked.

"Expert on the what?", Kinger asked.

As the background chatter faded into a dull hum, Pomni sat frozen at the end of the table, staring down at her plastic-looking food. The crushing realization of their permanent imprisonment hit her all at once. Slowly, her eyes shrinked into erratic pinwheels. She cracked a massive, completely insane, and incredibly creepy-looking toothy smile, her mind rapidly fracturing as she began to abstract for the second time, black sludge bubbling at her collar. But before the corruption can spread, Frogger calmly reached across the table, placing a heavy, webbed frog hand firmly on her shoulder. He caught her gaze, giving her a quiet, reassuring nod.

"Hey. You're not alone, Pomni. I'm right here. We're all right here.", Frogger said softly.

Pomni blinked, looking at her brother, then at Ragatha, May, and Jaz, who were all watching her with quiet, supportive expressions. The dark static sharply receded once again. Her expression softened, her creepy smile dropping into a small, tired, but genuine look of gratitude. She wasn't alone anymore. For better or worse...

It then began to zoom away from the dinner table, rising rapidly up to the ceiling of The Tent, soaring past The Grounds, flying straight through the flashing, glitching wireframes of The Void, before violently pulling backward into the real world-revealing a dark, silent office cubicle containing a glowing computer monitor and two lone VR headsets left sitting on the desk, the same ones Pomni and Frogger went through. Then, it cut to black.

Nearly a second after, only the glowing abstracted eyes from the end of the frame opens one by one with an eerie glow as said eyes move frantically and erratically. 2 seconds after that, rather than fading in, the logo for "The Amazing Digital Circus" began to violently glitch in appearance with a tv-static-like flash before the glitching stops and the logo becomes solid. Then, nearly 2 seconds after, with a rush of glitching electricity, "The 13th Abstraction" follows suit, only the glitching is more violent for the case of "The 13th Abstraction" (with "13" appearing exactly as is with a briefly white color before lightning sparks entered inside the "13" and explodes with energy, turning it a dark turquoise color with a crimson red outline on the left of "13" and a teal outline on the right of "13" from the end of the frame) with the full logo for "The Amazing Digital Circus: The 13th Abstraction" present with faint traces of glitching surrounding the whole logo with electricity sounds present (especially with the "13" glowing in a crimson color for the left of the outline and in a cyan color for the right of the outline surrounding the "13".