Jasper circled the big tent. No sign of the others. Still nothing on comms. She ducked inside to see if they’d wound up staying in the show longer than they were supposed to, but they were nowhere to be seen.
She walked back out and climbed onto the motorcycle. Ringmaster had to have a base—a real one—that he could monitor the park from. And with the race starting soon, it seemed the most likely place for him to be.
Jasper sped through the carnival, scanning structures with her X-ray vision. The crowd slowed her progress. The warp in the sky kept her on edge. She was running out of time.
She passed the entrance to a funhouse and hit the brakes. “Silver Hands Fright House,” the sign out front read. There were several metal panels in the front of the building covered with what appeared to be intentional graffiti, mostly words that were vaguely horror or carnival related. There were a few random names as well, and one in particular caught her eye.
“Interesting,” Jasper muttered. The building fit in with the rest of the carnival on the surface, but she could see rooms extending below ground, and a figure moving in them. She hopped off the motorcycle, left her helmet on the handlebars, and ran in.
She made it a few feet before smacking into one of the mirrors lining the walls. A mirror maze was certainly a great place to hide a secret room. She checked her heat vision and found the figure again. The entrance to the lower rooms seemed to be somewhere on the other side of the maze. Maybe the doorway was hidden behind a mirror?
Jasper elbowed her way through groups of visitors. A man dressed as a clown jumped out from behind a corner and screamed. Jasper screamed back, louder, and walked past with her chin held high, only to collide with another mirror.
She reached an intersection. Screams came from somewhere nearby, followed by laughter. Jasper went the other way, moving into a quieter part of the funhouse.
Chainsaw noises came from her right. Jasper strolled by a girl in a creepy mask. “Sorry to disappoint,” she said. “But I’m not here to get scared. I’m looking for someone.”
“Me too.”
Jasper spun around in time to get smacked in the face by the fake chainsaw. She stumbled into a mirror. Blood trickled from her nose. She wiped her face with the back of her hand and ducked as the girl swung again.
“You can’t beat all of us, Van Terra.” The girl tossed aside the chainsaw and drew a dagger. A real dagger. The blade glinted in the low light as the girl lunged.
The weapon sliced Jasper’s arm, sending blood splattering across several mirrors. Jasper hissed. She grabbed the girl’s wrist and threw her as far as she could before running in the other direction.
A man appeared, reflected dozens of times in the mirrors around her. She stopped and spun in a circle, trying to identify which was the real one. Before she could figure it out, he landed a blow to her back.
Jasper hit the floor face first. As she pushed herself up, the man kicked her again. She rolled and drew the first knife from her coat that her hand found.
The man laughed and moved to stand over her. “You gonna kill me with that tiny thing?”
“It’s not about size, it’s about how you use it.” Jasper sent the knife spinning into his neck.
She staggered to her feet as the man collapsed. Without giving him so much as a second glance, she sprinted down the hall. She hadn’t been running for long when a flash of red light caught her eye. She paused and scanned the direction it had come from, wondering if she’d imagined it.
It flashed again. The blinking light helped her locate the tiny box in a corner where two mirrors met. There was a pad—a fingerprint scanner. Jasper studied the mirror hiding the basement entrance. She had no way of forcing the fingerprint scanner to let her in.
So, she checked her coat pockets, assessing what other weapons she had on her. A blaster would be best, but she’d neglected to grab one. She went with her largest dagger and jammed the hilt into the mirror.
Cracks fractured her reflection. With a roar of exasperation, she swung again. The mirror spiderwebbed into countless tiny shards. One final blow sent them raining to the ground.
“Oh, cool,” Jasper muttered when she saw the opening behind the mirror. “A secret tunnel to hell.” The staircase on the other side was narrow, illuminated only by a faint red glow at the bottom. The light came from under a door.
The door’s handle was unlocked.
Jasper stepped through and entered a small room. Screens filled the walls from floor to ceiling, showing live security footage from around the carnival. One was an exception: it showed an aerial view of the moon’s glittering surface. Instead of the word “Camera” followed by a number, the bottom right corner of the screen read “Satellite A.”
Above the moon’s horizon, at the center of the screen, was the spacetime warp. Jasper swallowed and pulled her eyes from the warp to scan the rest of the monitors. Villains were arriving for the race, riling up crowds of civilians. Her gaze flickered to the bottom rightmost monitor. Her heart skipped a beat.
A golden cage held the team.
Jasper leaned in, scanning their surroundings, trying to identify their location. She could see the top of the big tent in the background, and part of the Ferris wheel to the right—
Ringmaster announced his presence by sending a golden knife flying into Jasper’s shoulder. She cried out and grabbed her arm.
“Believe it or not, I don’t want to kill you. Yet.” A golden ring of energy materialized in the air above Ringmaster’s palm and turned in slow circles.
Jasper straightened up as she turned to face him. “Silver Hands Fright House, eh?” She rested a hand on the desk behind her to steady herself. “Named after anyone? I noticed the name Nolan in the graffiti…”
Ringmaster’s eyes narrowed. “Why are you trying to fight me?”
“Nothing personal, dude,” Jasper said. “My real enemy is Starr. But you seem to be his biggest asset right now, so you have to go.” She glanced back at the screens. “What does Starr want with the spacetime warps? I’m guessing that machine we saw in Prime’s data is for channeling energy, but I have a hard time believing you missed all the documents describing how dangerous the warps are.”
“If you’re trying to get me monologuing about Starr’s plans, you’re going to be disappointed.” Ringmaster flicked his wrist, and the ring above his hand twisted itself and solidified into a long dagger. “You’re clearly invested in this warp thing. I suppose I’ll have to deal with you and your friends after I’ve handled that.”
Grimacing, Jasper held up the dagger she’d used to break into the room. “You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
“I have a few ideas.” Ringmaster lunged. He slowed with every passing second. The sound of Jasper’s heart slowed. Distant voices slowed. Her lungs filled and she dove forward, swinging the dagger.
She slashed across Ringmaster’s legs. Time resumed. He hissed in pain and whirled around.
Jasper kept running. Let him think she was a coward. The thought made her jaw clench, but she forced herself up the steps. She had to find her team.
She stumbled through the maze, spilling blood and leaving red stains on the mirrors she stumbled into. People inside didn’t pay her much attention, likely assuming she was a funhouse actor, but she did turn a few heads when she staggered out the entrance and to her motorcycle.
Helmet on. Engine on. Jasper looked over her shoulder and spotted the Ferris wheel and the big tent. She was on the wrong side of the carnival.
A car nearly collided with her as she turned the bike around. She slammed the brakes, and the flame-painted vehicle shot by with a roar, accompanied by the driver’s angry curses.
South Siren’s motorbike was right behind the vehicle, and she slowed as she passed to laugh at Jasper. “Wrong way, Van Terra!”
The race was about to start. Had Ringmaster given up on the thing entirely, now that he had the warp to deal with? Or—
“Racers, start your engines!”
The Apprentice—Aymes—stood on a silver platform, dressed in an outfit similar to Ringmaster’s. A silver masquerade-style mask covered the upper half of his face. He hovered over the starting line on the other side of a small concessions building. The race would begin in less than a minute.
Jasper headed the other way, toward her team.