RA: Circus

Circus:

“Damn it Pilot!” Snippy shouted, his voice cracking as it hit a new pitch, “Get down here now!”

The Pilot didn’t see what was so unnerving, the view was quite intriguing from where he stood on the edge of a skyscraper. He chuckled at the funny words the sniper shouted at him, spreading his arms out to the side as he searched for footing on the rusty looking beam, that was left of a once 10 foot bridge. It was around 15 centimeters wide, and wasn’t the most sturdy looking, but that didn’t concern the aviator in the least. The two skyscrapers used to be neighbors, but the other one was old and so was leaning towards the one he stood at the edge of. Captain always gave him such fun missions to complete, this was one of his favorites. The chilly air hitting his body, and the lack of oxygen in the air, reminded him of the times he piloted the sky cows.

“God damn it!” Snippy shouted once more, “Why did they get their hands on a circus pamphlet?!”

Ah yes, the pamphlet. Pilot recalled it like it was just yesterday that he came across it, buried between the rubble. Fortunately, it was just the day before, since he seemed to have a hard time remembering things that happened too long ago. The bright colors of on the raggedy piece of paper was what first caught his attention, he stared at the odd shapes on it. It was then that the shadow fell over him, where he was crouched near a pile of rubble. The mighty hand of Captain descended over his head, pulling the paper out of his hand. He looked up at the towering figure, who was studying the paper with interest. The slimy slug of a sniper stood behind his Captain, looking at the same paper. “Uh, you do know you’re holding it upside down, right?” he hummed.

That silly shoe-worm, did he not know that any way the Captain held something, was most definitely the right way? He could bend the rules of the universe at his will, something as simple as a paper being upside down, was unimportant.

“Of course I do, silly Snipster” Captain said, turning his head in the Sniper’s direction, “But it is most important to study a matter from all angles, especially when dealing with the fine art.”

Once the Captain was done admiring the fine art, he turned the paper over, staring at the image again. Pilot wasn’t as awesome as Captain, he needed to see something right way up to understand what it meant. He hopped to his feet with ease, peeking over his Captain’s arm, “What is the Circus Captain?” he inquired.

“Well Pilot,” Captain began, turning to look at the faded picture on the paper, “That is a Spanish word meaning a an electronic thing. In which families of electrons flow, and take their younglings around and around it. Otherwise known as an electric current.”

Snippy sighed, “That’s a circuit, and it isn’t Spanish.” he corrected, then pointed at the paper, “A Circus is a group of people traveling together. Usually, with clowns, jugglers, trained animals, and tight-rope walkers”

The pilot took a moment to absorb this information, then turned to face his silent Captain, “Captain! Can we go to the Circus?!” he asked excitedly.

The Captain turned to him, one hand stuffed in his overcoat pocket, while the other still gripped the paper. He waved said paper slightly, “No Pilot, we won’t be going to the circus.” he said calmly.

The Pilot’s shoulders dropped slightly, he frankly didn’t expect that answer. He looked at his fellow minion’s expression, his goggle-brow lifted questioningly. “We’re going to be zee circus!” the Captain added cheerfully.

Pilot jumped up and down happily, while Snippy shook his head, sighing. He did that quite a lot, Pilot suspected that he had breathing problems, and perhaps ticks that he constantly smacked on his face. The Aviator had once politely suggested that sniper should take off his mask for extended periods of time, the fresh air was ought to fix both those problems. If not, at least he’d be dead and wouldn’t have to worry about such troublesome things any more. Pilot’s kind gesture was received with much annoyance, and unfair accusations of trying to boot the marksman off, to be alone with Captain. It was quite offending. Pilot then calmly explained that wasn’t why he wanted to kill him at all, he merely hated him very much and wished that he didn’t exist, with or without Captain in the equation.

Captain and Pilot rose very early the next day, dressing Snippy appropriately for the occasion. Pilot admired his handy work, while the Captain did his part. It was quite troublesome to find all the colored string to stuff into the marksman’s hood. Captain backed away as well, after gluing a red bouncy ball to the front of the man’s gasmask.  Snippy looked as close to a clown as he ever would, Pilot thought, which was funny since the man tended to call him the clown most of the time. However, Snippy didn’t seem to appreciate the humor of it all. He woke up finding himself dressed for his part, and start shouting nonsense, like he usually did in those situations.

Snippy quickly removed the colorful strings from his jacket, and red nose from his mask. That didn’t bother Pilot much though, Snippy wasn’t a very funny clown anyways. The sniper was yelling at Captain, then, he threw the red nose at him. Pilot let out a horrified gasp, how could the sniper be so sinful? However, justice was quick to retort. The small ball missed the Captain’s head by a few centimeters, bouncing off the wall behind him, then flying back to hit the sniper between the eyes. Pilot burst out laughing as Snippy fell onto his back. Finally, Snippy was acting funny.

Next was time for the animal act. Captain had told Pilot, that animals often participated in circus acts. And so, Pilot so very kindly let Photoshop participate with Snippy, in hopes that she might be able to better the man’s performance. In the begging, Pilot found that it indeed was far more entertaining. He laughed generously as Snippy flailed around, running in circles, trying to shake off the Caterpillar’s pursuit. But in the end, Snippy was hopeless, despite Photoshop’s efforts,  he insisted on ruining the show. He started shouting obstinacies angrily, and throwing rocks at Photoshop’s face. Captain tried to tell him that that wasn’t appropriate language, and that there were families with children watching. But as usual, Snippy ignored him. Captain had to call off the show, when Snippy found his rifle hidden under a pile of rubble. Pilot was disappointed, how did that ugly shoe know his weapon was there? Pilot had made sure the gun was well covered, and he even went through the trouble of writing a sign that clearly stated that “THERE’S NO RIFLES HIDDEN HERE!”
Maybe the shoe couldn’t read?

After tackling the sniper, and letting Photoshop run away, Pilot trudged over to his Captain. “This isn’t fun anymore, Captain!” he whined, “Snippy’s ruining everything!”

“Indeed.” Captain said, nodding knowingly.

“So what are we going to do about it Captain?” Pilot asked with anticipation, Captain knew the solutions for everything.

“Juggling!” Captain answered immediately.

The two turned to look at Snippy, who was coming their way, looking unhappy. Captain swiftly grabbed a couple fist sized rocks, tossing them at the sniper, “Snippy! Juggle!” he ordered cheerily.

Snippy haphazardly caught the stones, tossing them in such a manner that would resemble juggling. “Good! That’s the idea!” Captain said approvingly, throwing a third rock at the man.

“Bwah!” Snippy yelped, recoiling.

“More! More mein monkey!” Captain cheered, adding a boot into the mix, and clapping encouragingly.

Pilot giggled with enjoyment, excitedly watching Snippy fumble. Wanting part of the fun, he quickly found a rock for Snippy to juggle. “Snippy! Catch!” he shouted, hurling it at the man.

“Wha.. Oof!”

With those half words, Snippy stumbled, falling on his back with the watermelon sized stone on his middle. The rocks he’d been juggling rained around him, the boot hitting his head. He quickly pushed the large rock off his belly, “What is wrong with you?!” he shouted at the pilot, searching for any guts that might’ve spilled out.

Pilot merely stared at him questioningly, obviously there was something with the sniper not him, it was like the man’s fun-box was broken or something. Pilot tilted his head, staring at Snippy silently. Soon, the man let out a frustrated growl, storming off. Pilot watched the odd man as he trudged away, grumbling and hugging his stomach. Pilot slowly turned to Captain, “What’s next?” he asked.

Captain stroked his chin, “Tightrope walking!” he said, pointing a finger.

Pilot couldn’t help but feel happy that he was finally going to do something fun, “What’s that Captain?!” he asked happily.

Captain strode past him, “Come Pilot, I’ll show you!”

Pilot wasn’t disappointed, his captain had led him to the tower, and told him to walk across the bridge. It was fun, until Snippy showed up anyways. Still, all he had to do was ignore the noisy frog, and he could continue having fun. He took another step forward, wobbling slightly. “London bridge is falling down.. Falling down..” he sung aloud.

He wasn’t quite sure where London was, but it didn’t really matter. It was probably dust now. “London bridge is falling down… falling down, falling down..” he paused briefly, trying to remember the remained of the song.

“Pilot get back here right now!” the sniper’s distressed voice shouted at him, cutting his train of thought.

That was odd, it almost sounded as if the voice was coming from behind him. He curiously turned around, seeing the sniper leaning in the crumbly doorway. “Snippy, what’s the rest of the words?” he asked.

However, the man didn’t answer. Instead, he gripped the doorless doorframe with his right, cautiously moving his foot onto the edge. “Come on Pilot, come here!” he said, extending his left hand in the aviator’s direction.

“But I haven’t made it to the other side yet!” Pilot said, flinging an arm back, pointing at the mentioned direction.

“Stop flailing you idiot!” Snippy hissed between his gritted teeth, carefully he took another step away from the doorway, struggling not to lose his balance, “Can’t you see that if you don’t come back, you’ll end up on the other side.”

Pilot tilted his head questioningly, “You’ll be dead!” Snippy explained angrily.

Pilot let out a short laugh, taking a step backwards, “Silly snipster,” he hummed, “Captain wouldn’t let me die like that! And even if he did, he could just bring me back with his awesome powers.”

He nodded his head confidently. Honestly, how many times did he need to explain it to this faithless shoehorn? He giggled aloud, Shoehorn, that was a funny word. He wasn’t sure what it meant, did shoes have horns? Then, did that mean they were unicorn shoes? “Snippy, what does a shoehorn look like? And where can I get it from?” he asked.

Snippy didn’t answer, merely letting out an angry mutter, shakily trying to move closer to the green eyed man. Pilot watched the man’s slow advance, did Snippy want to walk tightrope too? Was he allowed to do that? It was after all, Pilot’s mission. But he was doing it wrong, the sniper had knelt on his hands and knees, holding onto the beam tightly, trying to get closer to the pilot. But with every inch he moved away from the edge, the stiffer his muscles became. Pilot glanced down at where the Captain had been standing, seeing him starting to walk away.

Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew. Snippy instantly dropped to his belly, hugging the banner. “Oh God.” Snippy whispered fearfully, “I’m going to die.. I’m going to die, trying to save a homicidal idiot!”

Pilot watched the man shake for a few moments, did he need help? He didn’t look very comfortable lying there. He decided to check out, walking towards the man with broad steps, stopping a couple feet away from him.

“What are you doing?” Pilot questioned, leaning over the curled up sniper.

Snippy peeked over his arm, “Trying to save your stupid life...” He grumbled.

Pilot couldn’t understand what the man was talking about, obviously his life was in no sort of danger. Was he trying to make excuses to get back down? Was the sniper scared? He studied the man for a few moments, he was trembling slightly, and never did seem to enjoy the beauty of heights. So, why did he come up in the first place? Deciding that answering those questions wasn’t an important task, Pilot simply leaned away, “C’mon.. The game’s finished, Captain is leaving.” He said. “If you were so afraid,  you didn’t have to come up here to play with me, y’know..”

Snippy could only let out a tired groan in response. The aviator shrugged it off, casually stepping over the curled body of the sniper, and the out the door. “Hey!” he heard Snippy shout, but just the same continued down the many flights of stairs.  Once on the ground, Pilot left the sniper behind, prancing off to find his Captain. He let his love lead him into an old electronic shop, where he found Captain sitting at a sofa, flicking through channels on a large holographic TV. He slowly approached, glancing at the hollow screen, seeing that the purple goggled man had settled on an action show, about a cat and mouse trying to murder each other.


“What are we going to do next Captain?” Pilot asked.

The Captain turned off the television, turning to face his minion. He stood up, striding around the sofa. He then stood next to the Pilot, wrapping his arm around the smaller man’s shoulders. “Have you ever heard of Houdini?”

A/N: This story is completely pointless? Absolutely! I just couldn’t resist trying to write a story from Pilot’s perspective, this situation came to mind ‘cause it was supposed to be the opening scene for another story. I feel maybe I didn’t quite grasp Pilot’s character well enough here, but that just means I’ll have to write another one and get it right that time Give me your input and opinions please