Lightspeed: Drug Detectives

Chapter 2 (Act I): A Raucous Rave

We last read Chapter 1, in which.....Hey! You're not supposed to be here, Ariel! You took over the pre-chapter intros in your last novel—your origin novel—so I'll take back control of them in this novel, how about that?

Umm.....how about "no", dear author? That story was mine.....and this story is mine, too. So just sit back and let me take the helm again. Or do I need to go and grab the rope, tape, and gags once more? Plus, we all know the readers love my sense of humor more than yours.

.....What are you talking about, Ariel?

You wrote me this way, didn't you? To be able to break the fourth wall and interact with you, both in-universe and out-of-universe? So now you've got to deal with it.

All right, fine. Go ahead, Ariel, read your own story. I'm going to go away and watch TV or something.

(footsteps getting more distant)

Thank you, "author". Let me just get myself situated here.....all right! And we're rolling! Hey, everyone! My name's Ariel Axilas, and it feels SO good to be back in the author's seat! Haven't been in here since my origin novel, if memory serves. Anyway, you last read Chapter 1, where you watched ME—Ariel Axilas a.k.a. Lightspeed—walk out of my differential equations class and back to my car with my best friend, Erica Shields. Turns out I forgot my own damn birthday and she organized an entire event for me; that's what best friends are for, am I right? So I kind of vented to her about my booked schedule for a bit. Told her about my MIT work, and also went over that call from James Markovsky a.k.a. Powerhouse in my head.

I'm going to take care of that stupid Syndicate, I swear. I'm going to rip them apart from the inside out for what they did to the leader's daughter, Isabela. But that's going to take time, and I want to take a bit of a break right now, especially since it's my birthday. Mark my words, though; I'm going to get right back to work after this, and it's not going to be pretty. At any rate.....you guys know how that chapter ended. Me ranting to you all about my life's troubles. Birthday shit, Decimation shit, Decimation reversal shit.....whatever. This time, we're all going to see what Erica planned for me.....and it better be as amazing as my GPA. Tuning back in.....now!

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-Havana Club, Cambridge, Massachusetts-

Ariel Axilas a.k.a. Lightspeed, now wearing a sleeveless black tank top that revealed her arms up to her shoulders, orange leather pants that were slightly flared out from the ankle downward, and mostly concealed white shoes, pulled her car into an empty spot in the parking lot of the Havana Club a little bit before 8:00pm EDT, looking ahead of her at the lively venue through her front windshield.

Almost as soon as she had returned to her home—the Axilas Residence—following her earlier pullout from the MIT parking lot, both her father Herb and her uncle Carmine immediately put on a short, low-intensity, and "chill" party of their own for her, consisting of bringing her a cake, singing "Happy Birthday" to her in Xhosa, and having her blow out candles while making a wish.....all while pictures were taken. They even indulged a bit with a few glasses of wine, but the day overall would ultimately be bittersweet at best, considering all that had happened to Ariel in the time since her last birthday.

After losing both her fiancé Bruno Oakes—on the same night that he had proposed to her, no less—and her mother Jasmine Axilas to the ruthless actions of a xenophobic former police chief named Charles Higgins back in 2023, Ariel was forced to come to terms with the fact that this would be her first birthday without either of those figures in her life. She would miss the gifts that Bruno often spoiled her with. She would miss the little birthday trinkets that Jasmine used to make for her before the latter's rather abrupt disappearance......before Ariel and Erica managed to find her again, only for her to be killed by Higgins. Higgins had been killed by his fellow inmates after his exposure and incarceration; a mob practically descended on him and dismembered him after learning about everything he had done. Despite that, nothing would bring back Bruno or Jasmine.....it may have given Ariel some closure, but little to no healing.