by I'm Not Mister Mxypltk and T5
It was a rainy day in Mandelovia. Mick Harrison, Shirley Francis, and Sam "Shift" Dawson, with Li'l Jo, were in a car going to the circus where Mick once lived with his friends for awhile. They knew his friends were not there, but they wanted to ask the circus people if they knew how they got kidnapped.
Mick could remember waking up in the middle of the night surrounded by high-tech soldiers. One of them knocked him out, and he woke up in the hospital with his memories of the last two months gone.
As soon as they pulled over near the circus, Mick opened the door and ran away. Li'l Jo followed him.
"Mick!" Shirley yelled. "Where are you going?! Mick!"
But he didn't listen. He was almost inside the circus.
"What happened?" Sam asked. "He just looked at the circus and ran away."
"I don't know. How odd..." Shirley said.
As they got closer to the circus, they noticed something strange. At first they did not think it was unusual that no people can be seen. After all, it was raining, but now they noticed the destroyed trailers, the incredible mess, and the bullet holes all over the main tent.
They decided to go into the main tent where Mick ran. Inside, they saw Mick on his knees next to a clown's corpse and a big, completely black man that Shirley recognized as one of Mick's friends standing behind him with a hand on Mick's shoulder.
Shirley decided to get closer, but Sam stayed near the entrance, freaked out.
"Wh-what? Who?" she asked, looking at the clown's dead body.
"Bosco," Mick said in a low voice, without raising his head.
"Who did this?" Shirley asked.
"We can't be sure," Naecken said.
"Where are the others?" Mick asked as he got back on his feet.
"I don't know. It's really confusing. I was kept captive in some kind of high-tech complex. Then I was rescued by someone and sent here. I didn't see the others while I was there, but I guess they are still there," Naecken said.
They all remained silent for a moment, not knowing what to say.
"Uh... I'm Shirley Francis... and that over there is Sam Dawson."
"Hi! Call me Shift!" Sam said from the entrance, with a short wave. Seeing another metahuman -- at least he thought it was a metahuman -- impressed him, but the impression of death all over the place was bigger, so he didn't move from the entrance.
"Hello," Naecken said.
"We should go now," Mick said. "There's nothing else to see here."
When they got back to the car, Li'l Jo, who was somewhere else when the others were in the tent, appeared from nowhere and jumped into the car.
"You can stay at my house, Mr. Naecken," Shirley said as she starts the car. "But we're gonna have to move out soon. American citizens aren't allowed here anymore. When we find your friends, that could be a problem. There's not enough places for all of you at my apartment in America."
"Well," Sam said, "I could help with that! If your metahuman friends need a place to stay outside Mandelovia, I have a place big enough for anything!"
"That is so nice!" Shirley said. "Right, Mick? Mick?"
Mick had his eyes closed and did not answer. He seemed to be in deep concentration.
"He's talking to M'xy," Naecken said. "I've seen him do that before."
"Oh," Shirley said, wondering what he meant, not knowing that Mick and M'xy were not the same person.
"Do you know where they are, M'xy?"
Nope. I'm as lost as you on this one, buddy!
"Hmmm... I was hoping that guys from the circus could help me, but... uh... that didn't go well."
Li'l Jo doesn't know anything either.
"The cat?"
Yeah, I talked to him the other day... nice guy.
"Uh... okay."
Naecken put the last of the things they had rescued from the vans into another, undamaged van, then headed back to Mick and Sam.
Mick and M'xy had been in conversation the whole time, and the decision to stay and wait hidden in the trees on the far side of the circus had been made, just in case the team was transported back here to the same location.
Naecken pushed the van behind the trees, and they all sat inside waiting.