Chapter 157: Chapter One Hundred Fifty Eight

The circus was beautiful. I had expected it to be interesting, but  not beautiful. There was a sort of dark ambiance to the place that made  it impossible not to scan the crowd and the attractions constantly.  Aside from the morbid aesthetic, the most impressive thing about this  place was that every attraction seemed to add a bit to the whole,  despite being wildly different and unique.

There was food  stands, art, games, rides, and every single one of them was totally  unlike the others, but in such a way that it added to the whole. Like a mosaic, where each tile is a slightly different image or material that  are all just close enough to complement each other, while also making  the whole picture into the image that it's supposed to present at the  same time. It was absolutely breathtaking.

The most  beautiful part of it though, was the expression on Callie's face. She  was rapt as she stared at everything nearby, and despite it being my  first circus, I was infinitely more interested in viewing it from her  point of view. It was a rare thing to stare at my girlfriend without her  mask, and I found myself bowled over by how lovely she was, smiling and  excited like this. If nothing else, coming here would be worth it just  to see this look on her face.

She pulled me back and  forth, stopping to get some cotton candy, then to do a ring toss, then a  ridiculous game where we had to shoot a thin stream of water into a  small hole for long enough to fill a meter. Even with Callie's  Perception we didn't manage to successfully complete the challenge,  which had something to do with the hole being on a spinning pinwheel  that whirled around on an arm, sometimes dipping behind other cutouts to  prevent us from getting a solid hit on the game target.

I  was pretty sure the game master had cheated, but I also didn't care,  because it was only a single I ranked chit to play. I hadn't even seen  an I ranked chit before, and they made change for us, so I didn't mind  wasting a bit to make Callie happy. She got so excited playing, and I  was worried she'd be upset at the loss, but she just laughed it off and  grabbed my hand, dragging me to the next booth to buy a funnel cake.

We  stopped at one booth where an artist was drawing caricatures of people  with overly large heads, and Callie paid for the picture, pushing me  down into the seat and dropping in my lap. She stared ahead raptly as  the artist began to draw, trying her best not to move, but perfectly  happy to speak as we waited. "So. I figured after we finished this we  could do some of the rides. I want to try the tilt-a-whirl, and maybe  the tunnel of love, oooh and the haunted house!" She spoke rapidly, her  excitement clear in her voice.

I laughed and wrapped my  arms around her middle, burying my face in her shoulder from behind.  "Whoa there. What's got you so excited? I know we haven't been to the  circus before but you don't need to rush. We can take it one thing at a  time. There's no hurry." I didn't add that I thought her excitement was  adorable, because I thought there was even odds she would be embarrassed  about it.

She chuckled wryly, letting her body slowly  relax back against me. "Sorry, sorry. I know I'm getting a bit ahead of  myself. It's just..." She blushed. "This is kind of our first date.  Especially as civilians, being out together like this. I've never really  done anything like this before. Just...spent time with someone out of  costume. Like obviously I've spent time with people, but not WITH  someone."

I nodded against her neck. "I get it. I'm the  same way. I'm excited to be here with you too. But we'll have plenty  more nights like this if you want. Hell, we can come back here  specifically if you want, and try out everything there is to do. It's  not like we're short on money or time. It would be easy to fit in visits  between training. Just focus on having fun, as long as you have a good  time I will too, and we can get to everything in its own time."

She  leaned over and kissed my forehead. "Good. And you're right." The  artist finished up the caricature, though I got a small glare for  wriggling around so much. Still, Callie folded the picture carefully and  slipped it in a pocket before dragging me off again, this time much  more slowly, to the next stop on our tour. The next place we stopped was  a big scale type thing with a mallet where people could test their  strength.

I decided to try this one. Granted Callie had a  higher Might than I did, but I had skills to boost it. I was surprised  to find that this was an Ascendant meter, though much less so to note  that it was within the G rank spectrum, with the tester maxing out at a  thousand Might. it was such a random use for Ascendant materials that I  kind of figured the thing was created via Inventing. Still, I was  determined to make a good showing of it.

There were prize  levels for every hundred points, and the one hundred mark had this cute  little stuffed hummingbird Callie was staring at. When I volunteered she  grinned and put her hands up, surrendering her dreams of getting the  stuffed bird to my capable hands. With ninety seven Might I was a shoe  in, especially with skills, but I suspected like the other games here  this one might be slightly weighted in their favor.

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Knowing  I couldn't break it I hefted the surprisingly heavy hammer. I hauled  back, engaging all my muscles, and triggered Mercy Kill and Flurry of  Blows, adding the enhanced speed to the flat damage increase to boost  the impact of the hammer. I'd been right to assume they would rig the  thing, even with the extra boost I barely hit the one hundred mark.  Still, it was enough, and when I handed her the hummingbird Callie  squealed and threw her arms around me happily, which was definitely  worth it.

Once we finished we headed off to walk around  for a bit. I saw Callie scanning the circus grounds, looking for any  sign of our targets. When she saw me looking at her she smirked. "As  much as I'm enjoying spending time together we do have to at least try  to accomplish the mission. Not just because of the reward, but because I  know how worried you are about this too. Luckily the Jerks are less  than subtle at the best of times. Based on their usual MO we're looking  for behaivor so obvious they would grab less attention with an actual  billboard."

I snickered at that. "True enough. But we can  look more easily from higher up. How about we take a ride on the ferris  wheel, and we can take a look around from up there?" I figured since she  wanted to do the whole romantic first date thing, we could hit two  birds with one stone by using the ferris wheel to look our over the  whole circus.  The view was probably gorgeous from up there.

Callie  was clearly in favor of the idea, tugging my hand and almost running  over to the ferris wheel. It was easy enough to spot since it was  basically the biggest thing in the park, and as we drew closer I had to  whistle in appreciation at the intricate carriages on the wheel. They  were each wooden and carefully crafted, looking like the wooden housing  on a horse and carriage. We paid the man at the base and he let us in,  and we settled into a plush, padded interior made with dark woods and  maroon cushions. There was even a dim bulb providing light to the car so  we could see.

We waited as the wheel began to turn,  slowly carrying us up above the circus proper, and Callie leaned against  me as we stared out the window, entranced by the beauty of this amazing  place. Of course, we were still on the look out for the Jerks and their  ridiculous multi colored mohawks. I pulled her against me, and given  the atmosphere finally said something I'd been thinking for a while.  "Hey Cal?" She turned to look at me curiously. "That thing you said? I  love you too."

She blinked at me, clearly not expecting  the confession, and I immediately started trying to think of a way to  take it back when she didn't respond right away because I thought she  hadn't meant it and I'd made an idiot of myself. That thought quickly  melted as she hurled herself against me, kissing me fiercely. We ended  up riding the ferris wheel all the way through without seeing any of the  Jerks. But to be honest, I wasn't really looking very hard.

When  we got to the bottom I was a little dazed, and Callie looked to be a  mix of smug and thrilled as she pulled me back into the crowd by my  hand. We walked back out into the crowd, looking around, and I was about  to suggest another ride when I noticed something out of the corner of  my eye. I poked Callie in the ribs and pointed to the retreating figure  of a huge man with no shirt, leather pants, and an absolutely nauseating  bright fuschia mohawk. I raised an eyebrow at her, wondering if she  knew who it was.

She rolled her eyes, looking annoyed at  the interruption. "Great. The absolute most absurd person in the whole  gang. Ronnie the Beef." She'd mentioned Ronnie the Beef before, though  she hadn't told me anything specific about him, all I knew was that he  was one of the only G rankers the Jerks had, though who knew if that was  still the case. Still, we'd come to do recon, so we followed him  quietly from a distance. Not that it was hard, despite being a G ranker,  Ronnie the Beef wasn't particularly observant. Go figure.

Unfortunately  not being subtle made following him harder in some ways too, since he  didn't seem to mind bulling past all the circus goers as he made his way  through the fairgrounds. Even among G rankers, this guy was attention  grabbing enough to move people out of the way, given that the Jerk G  ranker was a full seven feet tall, towering over even someone like me.  He also happened to be much wider at the shoulders, and I wondered how  much of that physical presence translated to Might stats. I bet a guy  this big had a rep as quite a bruiser.

I  slowed down to pull Callie slightly back. "So, why do they call him  Ronnie the Beef exactly? With the Jerks it's even odds whether he has  some infamous tendencies to hold grudges or likes to eat steak." I kept  my voice low so Ronnie wouldn't hear. His Perception must have been low,  because he didn't seem to notice a word I said, though to be fair we  were pretty far back and there were plenty of chattering attendees  between us.

Callie  just snorted. "He once beat someone to death with a cow carcass. You  were pretty close on both counts I guess." She stopped talking, eyes  widening. "He just ducked into that tent. Let's slip into stealth and  follow him in. I'm betting whatever is in there is going to tell us  everything we need to know about what the Jerks are doing here." She  took a deep breath and the two of us entered stealth, suppressing all  traces of our presence as we followed the huge man into the tent. I had  to admit, I was pretty curious myself. I just hoped we could get back to  our date after we finished our recon.

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