+Nostalgia Gone Bad+

"Ugh, this place stinks like stale pizza and overpriced toys..." groused Pulse as she slowly surveyed the darkened room. Admittedly, this was her very first time stepping foot in a 'Bonkers the Clown' chain restaurant but she wasn't about to tell her would-be partner that. He had practically bounced himself through the ceiling when he heard that the restaurant was reopening in his town and had talked her ears off for weeks about how he'd loved it. Ironically, she found herself moreso amazed that he could somehow manage to tell her so much about himself and yet still nothing at all that hinted who he might be.

"But that's the best part!" Man-Flea exclaimed as loudly as he dared. The building had never been so quiet before, and he'd found it unnerving to say the least. The echo of their footsteps through the hallway, the rustle of drapes and paper streamers in the air conditioning... it was enough to give the more frightening rumors he'd heard over the years new life again.

Pulse rolled her eyes. Just when she started thinking that she could take him seriously as a super hero, he inevitably showed his immaturity and brought things back to square one. Talking to him about it was impossible, though -- for all of her insistence that he grow up, he would likewise insist that they should enjoy being young while they could. Man-Flea didn't mind their limitations, both as teenagers and as basic trainees in the meta program while Pulse saw them as stifling. Despite their differences, however, the pair had frequently found themselves crossing one another's paths while on patrol and eventually they were officially partnered up by their assigned meta mentor, Nightray.

This, however, had little to do with super-heroics. Officially, anyway.

Turning a corner, the young heroine managed a small gasp as she started. Standing on a darkened stage before them was a large figure that easily towered over them by at least a foot if not more, and it had taken Pulse by complete surprise to see it there among the gently wafting curtains and twinkling shapes. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light of the room, she realized it was none other than a statue of the restaurant's titular character, Bonkers the Clown. Immediately feeling foolish at having been startled by it, she pursed her lips and glared before looking away. The rest of the stage was devoid of Bonkers' usual entourage -- most likely they were in the back room.

"Hey, you found Bonkers!" Man-Flea whispered as he crept up beside her. With a small smile on his lips, he would step forward to appraise the animatronic almost wistfully. "He wasn't my favorite, but he was still pretty funny... it was years before I found out he was a robot. I always thought he was just a guy who ate too much pizza or something..."

"He's creepy," Pulse retorted. "And stupid looking. I can see why kids are scared of clowns!"

"Hey! Nobody was scared of Bonkers until Mr. Creepy came along!" Man-Flea shot back. "He doesn't want kids to have fun -- he just wants them to be afraid of everything!"

"For the last time, 'Mr. Creepy' isn't real!" Pulse lifted her hands in exasperation. She'd never even heard of such a thing until Man-Flea started blaming it for the restaurant's original closure. Nothing particularly bad had apparently ever happened, no fires or deaths... just a slew of strange things that eventually drove off the security guard and later the patrons. Lights flickering on and off at random times, strange voices... the animatronics being found in odd and sometimes threatening positions all around the property. The last straw had been when a replacement security guard had taken a wrench to several of the animatronics and done thousands worth the damage to them; the original owner couldn't afford to keep the business open after that and it had shut down.

Now that it was back open, it hadn't taken long for reports of strange things to start up again. Not wanting a part of his childhood to die a second time, Man-Flea had finally convinced himself (and her) to make a trip to the restaurant and see if they could stop the source before it closed the place for good.

"He's real." Man-Flea mumbled. "Everyone knows it." He nodded his head, as though confirming it for them both.

Pulse sighed. "And everyone 'knew' the Boogeyman was real until they found out he was just a shape-shifter who wanted attention! I told you before, all the weirdness is just bad lighting or the air conditioner sounding off or--"

A peal of child-like laughter broke through the otherwise silent building and stopped Pulse's rant dead in it's tracks. With a startled look between them, the two young heroes whirled around to seek out the source of the sound... never noticing the metal eye covers of the animatronic raising on their own.