Half-Bloods R • 2 : Growing Shadows

C • 16 : Beauty of Sunrise, Brilliance of Sunset

Christopher was pulled into a cacophony of boosted bass slamming against his ears and flashing neon lights striking at his good eye, his mechanical eye did its best to dim the madness to no avail. He had to admit he would never come here on his own, but with Elizabeth by his side, this was the place for him. Along the two side walls were several large u-shaped booths, and at the far wall was a large stage with an open floor beneath it, a giant crowd shifting and dancing. Elizabeth dragged him to an open booth, she sat in the seat nearest the wall, and he took one of the side seats.

He looked across the room, taking note of various customers chatting with waiters and waitresses, smoking small glowing pipes that gave off tinges of magical aura. He began taking note of their faces, but before he could start studying the second customer, their waitress walked up, wearing a crop top, with her eyes glowing bright green in the lights. Elizabeth placed an order for tea and nachos, while Christopher didn't order anything.

"So whatcha think? This making your robo-ass feel better?" Elizabeth shouted over the music.

"There's gotta be a better term than robo-ass," Christopher laughed, "And yes, this is actually kinda cool."

"Nah, robo-ass is fun to say."

He rolled his eyes and went back to studying the customers, and leaned toward Elizabeth who was watching the dance floor, "They're smoking magimist."

She looked at him, then at the customers, then smiled gently at him. "Chris, we're not here to act like police, let them do their thing."

For a moment, he considered arguing with her, but he gave up and shook his head, accepting the fact that they were there to have fun. He took his eyes off the customers and looked back at the dance floor as the waitress walked back with a large plate of nachos and placed the plate on the table. Elizabeth cheered and struck at Christopher's shoulder.

"Hey Chris, once I'm done with these nachos, you wanna go dance?" Elizabeth stuffed a fistful of chips into her mouth.

"Sure, my gears could use a stretch."

She laughed for a moment, then began quickly devouring the pile of cheese, bean, and pepper covered chips. Her eyes began to glow bright lavender as she ate, and within minutes, the plate was empty. She scooted toward the booth edge and stepped away, "Come on!"

She pulled him out to the crowded dance floor, which wasn't as crowded as when they entered, but still crowded nonetheless. On the stage, at the DJ's table, the DJ had been switched out for a new guy wearing a cyber mask with two curling black horns giving off neon green letters. Christopher looked around and noticed that the club's staff all wore something that gave off neon-green glows, he even noticed two men standing stiffly at the door with neon wristbands and holstered guns.

Even the security wears green.

He began to dance slowly and clumsily near Elizabeth, who danced with quick and shockingly sensual movements that he didn't expect from the kerronasen. He smiled and quickened his steps, hoping that he wouldn't bump into anyone. For a moment the two came together and matched eachothers' footwork, before splitting off into their separate dancing styles.

Christopher began to bounce around with the crowd until he bumped into a woman. Heat flashed through him as he spun around to apologize, but it was too late, the lady he bumped into was already yelling.

"Hey man!" He flinched at her voice, and flinched again when she grabbed his face, a thought of the rough handling in the facilities striking his head, "If you wanted some you could've asked."

It took too long for him to understand what she had said, "I, what?"

She blew a whiff bluish smoke into his face. His eyes and nostrils burned as a wave of cold ran over him. He coughed and stepped back, trying to wave the smoke away from him, and bumped into another customer. The scent of flame radiated off the man as spun around and shouted something that Christopher really couldn't hear this time, puffs of orange smoke left the man's mouth as he spoke and seemed to trail for his nose.