Fizzarolli: Where It All Went Wrong

Fizzarolli: Where It All Went Wrong (Part Two)

Chapter 2: No pain, nothing gained?

Fizzarolli began to relay his story to Verosika. "Blitzo and I had known each other since we were very young. We were INCREDIBLY close. Best friends, even. Almost like... we were... (he choked up a bit on the last word) ...brothers." He went silent for a moment. Clearly, this was a very painful time in his life to recall. Still, he pressed on with continuing to tell it. Perhaps hearing it to its end would do Verosika some good. "Anyway, the last I had heard from him, he had gone off, doing shows all over the place, performing with his sister, Barbie Wire. I knew how much the two of them loved each other, so I knew my old pal would be in good hands... or so I thought. You see, what I didn't realize was how badly their father and manager, Cash Buckzo, was treating them. Fizzarolli sighed deeply. "I always just thought he wanted to inspire them to do their best, but what I came to realize was that the only thing that BUM was interested in doing was exploiting them for his own gain." Fizzarolli clenched his "fist" in anger. "He never really loved Blitzo as much as he loved Barbie, but that really wasn't saying much. I had no living relatives of my own to speak of. The circus took me in because they saw great potential in me at a very young age. As soon as I was old enough, I went out on my own to try and make it big. I did pretty well for myself. I was a little lonely, but happy. I never expected to see Blitzo again. I thought he would be living an idyllic life in the company of a sister who loved him, and one whom he loved very deeply himself. The LAST thing I expected to happen was for him to burst in the morning after one of my shows was over, with tears in his eyes..."

"All right, pal, the show's over. You'd better get out of here right now or-", he stopped mid-sentence. "Blitzo? Is that you?", Fizzarolli called out in surprise. "Fizz! It IS you!" Blitzo called back. "Blitzo!" "Fizz!" The two of them hugged. "Blitzo, I'm so happy to see you again! It's been so long since-" He stopped again when he saw the expression on Blitzo's face. It was one of utter sadness and remorse. He had never seen Blitzo like this. "Woah now! What's wrong, Blitzo?", the two of them sat down together. "What on earth has got you lookin' so glum?" "It's... my father." "Cash Buckzo?" "Yeah, him. He wanted Barbie to go solo because he thought that I was holding her back," he explained. Fizzarolli was shocked. "But... the two of you were inseparable- didn't he know how heartbroken you both would be if he split you up?" "Yeah, he knew. He just didn't care," Blitzo admitted. "Barbie wanted me to stay, but I didn't want to come between the two of them. I knew it would hurt us both to be apart, but I was willing to make a sacrifice to give her a better life. Maybe my father will treat her better if I'm not around," he cried. Fizz just stood there in shock, with a blank expression on his face. He didn't really know what to say to him, or how he could help. He wanted to tell Blitzo to go back to his sister, to fight to be able to be with the sibling he loved SO much... but then it occurred to him that maybe Blitzo was right, and that would only make things worse. How can I help him, then? Fizz wondered. Then a lightbulb lit up in his head. Maybe... maybe he can perform with ME! Yeah! I don't know if I can make Blitzo as happy as SHE could, but we can have a nice life together, and we can keep each other company, he thought to himself. "Blitzo!" "What, what is it?" Blitzo's snapped out of his melancholy. "Why don't you and I perform TOGETHER?" "Together... you and me?" "Yeah! You can follow your dreams of being a performer, and I can have a brother to call my very own! It'll be a DREAM COME TRUE! Doesn't that sound GREAT?", Fizz clasped his hands together excitedly and gave Blitzo a wide smile. "Well, gee, Fizz, I don't know about that..." "Come on, it'll be fun, just give it a try, you won't know how it feels until you do. Come on? PLEASE? You'll be happy here," Fizz winked. "Oh... okay. Just for a few shows. Just to see how it goes." "Yippee!" Fizz started doing cartwheels around the stage. "You won't regret this, Blitzo! We're gonna have SO MUCH FUN together!" "Yeah, I hope so, too, Fizz. I hope so, too," Blitzo shrugged. Fizzarolli was happy. Happier than he had ever been in his entire life. Unfortunately, this was the happiest that poor Fizz would ever be, up until the present day, when he was telling his story to Verosika Mayday. After this brief moment of bliss, when Fizzarolli was overwhelmed by the love he had in his heart for his dear, DEAR friend, that was when it would all come CRASHING down around him, as we shall soon see.

They tried to perform together, but at first the crowds seemed to greatly prefer Fizzarolli to Blitzo, whom they didn't really seem to care for. Blitzo, who was already pretty insecure, quickly took notice and brought it up to Fizz. "These people really don't like me, Fizz. I don't know if I can keep doing this, all this relentless criticism is starting to wear on me." Fizz, not wanting to lose his friend, had to think on his feet. "Well, hey now, old chum, this is probably just a fluke. Let me try something new, and I promise, the applause for you will be better." "Well, it better be, or I'm walking out of here."
"Don't worry, my friend," Fizzarolli put a hand on his shoulder. "It WILL be," Fizz assured him.

At their next show, Fizzarolli went out of his way to implement a carefully choreographed plan to make sure they applauded Blitzo as much as possible. He gave Blitzo all the funniest parts of the act to perform himself, he discreetly asked the audience to applaud Blitz whenever possible, he made himself the butt of all the jokes, etc. He was effectively able to divide all the applause that he had been receiving between Blitzo and himself. Blitz still wasn't receiving as much applause as Fizz had been receiving initially, but it seemed to do the trick. Blitz talked to Fizzarolli after the show, feeling exuberant. "I don't know what the FUCK you did, but whatever it was, it got the job DONE, and I have YOU to thank, Fizzarolli!" "Oh, well, it's no trouble at all, Blitzo, it's nothing, really," Fizz told him sheepishly. Fizz didn't mind getting less applause if it meant it would make his friend happy. It might have been a little dishonest, to let him think he earned applause that wasn't actually his, he thought to himself, but he didn't want his friend to feel inadequate.

Things went well, for a while, until, of course, THE DAY IT ALL WENT WRONG (well, MOSTLY).