Finally have some proper free time, so hopefully I'll be able to invest it in pumping out more chapters for this story. In any case, I still need to also continue on with the HSR story, I'm way too behind right now.
xXx
"S-Someone help...me...!"
March's distressed voice cried out as she seemed to be hit up and down due to... cat pillars? As ridiculous as it sounded, March was literally being juggled into the air by numerous cat-shaped blocks.
The stranger thing was that she was no longer her usual self, instead a pink-coloured version of the Astral Express's own conductor Pom Pom himself. More specifically, she looked like Pom Pom if he wore a pink rabbit outfit.
She wasn't an exception either.
In fact, all four of them were transformed into their own variations of Pom Pom!
Well, except for Sparkle.
Both Nico and Caelus wore a dark purple cat and grey raccoon-coloured outfits, respectively, over their Pom Pom-like selves. As for Sparkle, she was transformed into a bipedal chibi red-and-white fox-like character.
"H-Hold on, March! I'm coming to help!"
"Say that when...you're at least in... a better position... than me!" March responded as best she could to Caelus, who too was being pummelled up and down by the shifting cat-like blocks. "Stop watching and help us!"
Who was she referring to?
Nico and Sparkle, of course!
Both of the chaos makers were watching with smiles on their faces at the end of the obstacle course, if you could even call it that. Their heads tilted up and down in response to the bounces that Caelus and March went through.
As the two continued to watch their helpless companions, Sparkle began audibly mischievously giggling to herself, while Nico didn't hold back in the slightest and broke into unrestrained boisterous laughter.
Pointing and laughing with no reservations.
"Come on, it's not that difficult! Hahaha~!"
(>▽<)
"Real funny... isn't it?!" March felt a tick mark appear on her head as she heard the two laugh. "How did they even get through this so easily?! This is cra- C-Caelus, watch out!"
"Don't worry, I'm almost there!" Caelus shouted in response as he slowly but surely bounced, unwillingly or not, towards where March was also suffering from the same fate. "We can use our combined weight to control ourselves!"
"N-No, look out behind you...!"
"Huh...?"
Caelus, in confusion, flipped over and looked behind himself, and when he did, he immediately deadpanned as a singular horizontal cat-like block was headed straight for him. Quite literally, amongst the countless vertical cat blocks, this was the one singular horizontal one.
"Oh wo-gahugh~!"
When the cat block slammed into him, Caelus was sent flying back, and perfectly towards March, who was soon dragged into the chaos as she collided with Caelus, the two now both flying through the air in a spinning ball.
Seeing the spinning ball headed straight for them, Sparkle and Nico stared blankly before glancing at each other silently, then back at the ball, then back at each other, then back at the ball... "Oh shit-!"
==(ノ 〇Д〇)ノ!!! ==(ノ 〇Д〇)ノ!!!
They both immediately kicked themselves into a jump and turned around and began running at full speed, but it seemed to be to no avail, as by some big screw you to physics, they only ran at full speed on the spot while making no distance.
"Wait, why am I running?!" Nico suddenly stopped before turning around with a look of confidence on his face. Hearing this, Sparkle also stopped and looked at him curiously. "Don't worry, Sparks. I'll deflect them with my martial arts!"
"Oh~? You know martial arts?"
"Totally, I've watched Kung Fu Panda multiple times!"
Like flowing water, Nico began slowly moving his arms with incredible fluidity as his eyes were locked onto the incoming ball that was March and Caelus. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Nico soon snapped open his eyes.
"I am... THE DRAGON WARRI-!"
≡≡≡Σ( )) - ਊ- ) ... (ﾟωﾟ;)
Before long, Nico and Sparkle joined the spinning ball of doom as the now ballified group of four were now shooting through the entire Interplanar Jump space as a single unified sphere of death. Some Sonic-type shit, heck, they even collected coins along the way.
Their trip through this ridiculous space was no different from a game of pin ball as they bounced off various different surfaces, all of which somehow just made their traveling speed increase after each collision.
xXx
Duomension City.
No doubt the most bustling city in all of Planarcadia, and quite possibly the most elated city in the entire universe. With how lively, vibrant, and utterly ridiculous the city was compared to literally anywhere else in the cosmos, this wasn't surprising.
As usual, the streets were as loud and crowded as usual, all kinds of residents whether human, imagenae, or otherwise were going about their own business. Of course, there will always be something fun going on around this world.
"AAHHHH~!"
From a pipe exactly like the one they entered through, the group of four shot out, thankfully no longer tangled up into a ball. Unfortunately though, they were all now flailing around in the air helplessly as they shot up countless into the sky.
"W-Woah, this is Planarcadia?!" March couldn't help but marvel despite the current situation as she and the others looked around at their new destination. "Wait, we're gonna fall straight to the concrete...! What do we do?!"
"Unleash your inner bird!" Nico yelled as he began using his arms like wings. "Flap like your life depends on it!"
"Our lives are depending on it though!" Caelus also screamed in terror as the ground was only now getting closer after they began descending. If he did have any means of preventing his fall, he was too scared to remember right now. "We're gonna crash!"
"Sparkle, surely you have something!" March turned to the Masked Fool for salvation, which in itself was probably not the best idea. At the very least, perhaps asking the former was better than asking Nico. That was saying something. "Otherwise, we're all dead!"
"Darling March, I'm so happy to hear that you believe in me so much!" Sparkle smiled her usual mischievous smile, though she soon shrugged helplessly as her twin tails fluttered violently upwards due to the wind. "However, I'm afraid I have nothing."
"Fantastic..." Caelus deadpanned and chimed in sarcastically. "At this point, we should probably be used to this kind of thing."
"I'd rather not..." March groaned before looking to the side, to which she spewed out a mouthful of spit at what she saw. "Pfft-! Nico, what are you doing?! We're in the middle of a death drop, and you're here drinking a cocktail?!"
True to March's words, Nico seemed to have accepted their fate and was now calmly looking as if he was lying face up in a sun lounge with a pina colada in his hand and a pair of shades over his eyes. Hearing March, Nico looked over.
"Kind of too late to do anything, so we might as well enjoy ourselves until our eventual death to the ground below." Nico responded nonchalantly before taking a sip from his drink. He then held up a tray from out of nowhere, one which had three other cocktails on it. "Want one?"
"I'll take one~!"
"Same here!"
"You two-!" March felt another headache strike her as both Sparkle and Caelus accepted Nico's offer respectively. Looking at the two who were now in the same position as Nico, minus the shades, she felt utterly speechless. "...wait, the ground!"
Snapping her head down, March saw the ground no more than ten or so meters away.
"AAH-!"
（ΩДΩ) ( u _ u ) ( ▀¯▀ ) (・ε・)
*CRASH*
Before March could even give a proper scream, the four of them collided against the ground, causing a massive tremor to occur along with a cloud of dust. As the dust cloud slowly dispersed, four people shaped holes were now present.
The people who were nearby could only stare with widened eyes at the scene, a very few brave enough to step forward closer to get a better look, and even then, they remained a good two or three meters away for safety.
From one of the holes, Nico's head popped up as he rested chin against the edge of the hole with his arms propped up to make sure he didn't fall back down the hole he made. Somehow, he miraculously saved his cocktail that he now took a sip from as he looked around.
"Oh, hey! Guys, we're alive!"
"Y-You sure...?" Caelus also climbed up, though his eyes had swirls due to still being dazed by the recent fall. Looking around, Caelus soon noticed something in the distance. "Are we really alive? Why do I see ghosts in the distance?"
"No worries, Gray Hair. They're just another kind of imagenae here in Planarcadia." Sparkle explained as she and March had also climbed up onto the edge of their own respective holes in the ground. "We aren't dead yet. Let us celebrate!"
"I'll celebrate once my heart isn't threatening to burst out of my chest..." March sighed heavily as they all began climbing out from their respective holes. "I felt like I was about to go to Heaven. Let's never do anything like that again... please!"
"This place..." Caelus, after getting out from the ground, looked around with curious wonder and sheer amazement at what he was seeing. "It really is full of weird stuff, huh...? I-Is that a poster of me over there?!"
"Woah!" March widened her eyes when a massive billboard with Caelus's image was on the side of one of the nearby buildings. "The art style is pretty unique, but that's definitely you on there!"
"This... This is a violation of my publicity rights!" Caelus puffed out his cheeks in an outrage. "I know I'm the incredibly famous Galactic Baseballer, but they can't go spreading my image without my consent! Where's my payment for copyright?!"
Hearing this, March gave Caelus a look of disapproval. "If it were me up there, I wouldn't be saying such negative stuff..."
"What do you mean you can't?!" Nico's voice captured their attention as the three others all turned to see him on his phone, seemingly on a call. "Just threaten them to put me a billboard up there! You a big ass thunder monster, blackmail them that you'll spread their private phone calls!"
"...What are you doing?"
"Making business deals." Nico answered simply before talking back to the phone. "Yes... okay... perfect! Make sure that it captures my identity perfectly, elegant and refined! I'll leave it up to you, TC."
Instead of interrupting him, the three just watched him in confusion as Nico seemed to have some kind of exchange with an unknown caller on his phone. The fellow express members were more confused though, they'd given Nico a phone not too long ago.
How did he already have contacts?
Some random person online?
Knowing Nico, it could be.
"Who were you talking to?" Caelus couldn't help but ask curiously once Nico hung up the call with whoever it was. "Was it Himeko or Mr. Yang?"
"Nah. It was my boy TC."
"TC?" March blinked in confusion. "Who's that?"
"Who else? That big ass dude over there on the signal tower." Nico replied with a blank look as he pointed a finger over their heads. Hearing this, they all turned around to see what it was. "Kind of hard to miss him, no?"
"Miss hi-what the?!"
March and Caelus's eyes almost bulged out of their heads while Sparkle seemed rather indifferent, the cause was the massive, electrified dragon-like creature that seemed to be perched on top of a massive signal tower.
Although it was hard to tell, the group seemed to feel its gaze directed at them from however meany meters away they were. Though aside from that, the creature did have a pair of cool headphones around its neck, so that was dope.
"WHAT IS THAT?!"
"That big fella is called a thundercoil. Don't worry, to him, we're just tiny ants on the ground, not even enough to get stuck between his teeth." Sparkle explained nonchalantly, completely used to the sight. "He won't bother harming us."
"Then what about Nico?" Caelus wondered as he looked at the one in question. "They were literally on a call together..."
"Who knows?" Sparkle shrugged. "I wouldn't be surprised if he'd taken interest in someone as chaotic as him."
"Appreciate the compliment."
(￣个￣)
"Right... if Sparkle is calling you chaotic, it really means something." March gave Nico a blank look before shaking her head. "But with a name like that, you'd expect it to be flying around making thunder and rain. Why is he just wrapped around that pillar?"
"Times change, and the IPC issued a decree that required imagenae to integrate into civilised society. They legally have the same rights as humans, and naturally, they also have our expectations. Meaning... they have to work too!"
"No... way!" Nico's jaw dropped with horror as Sparkle's words fully registered in his mind. "Sparks, tell me it ain't so! You're telling me evolution gave them hopes and dreams... and we made them become a part of the backbone of the economy?! This ain't an arcadia, this is dystopia!"
Caelus also shared Nico's view. "How cruel...!"
"That's life under IPC management. No one would deny an imagenae their right to work." Sparkle shrugged her shoulders helplessly. "For example, the thundercoil, or TC as Nico named him, amplifies TV tower signal, ensuring users worldwide can watch the station's broadcasts without interruption. Be it boring livestreams, lame prank shows, and... just like that billboard."
Sparkle directed their attention once again back to the billboard that had Caelus's image posing gloriously on it.
"The IPC really is pulling out all the stops to hype you guys up. It's best to watch your back, you should know that for every penny the IPC spends on you, they'll be expecting a return in the hundreds or even thousands."
"Corporate type shit, huh?" Nico nodded in understanding. "Boring! Sparks, what's interesting to do around here?"
"Interesting? There's plenty of things to do!" Sparkle smiled brightly. "After all, this is Planarcadia. What else is there to do that isn't interesting?"
"What about that over there?" March's voice chimed in as they all turned to see that she seemed to be pointing at what looked to be a duo of mech-like imagenae in the distance. "Aren't those the mechs that Mr. Yang likes so much?"
"Mechs?!" Nico suddenly perked up as stars seemed to replace his eyes, catching the others off guard. "What are we waiting for? It's only natural for males like me to observe these incredible mechanical beings, after all, all men like robots!"
"Dan Heng never really showed much interest..." Caelus seemed to fall into thought for a moment before widening his eyes. "C-Could it be that this whole time... Dan Heng has been a girl?! What a plot twist!"
"What are you thinking?!" March facepalmed heavily. "Let's just go see... wait, you guys are leaving me behind again! Wait up...!"