Thunder

Chapter Seven - 2

Z9's senses were flooded instantly. She hadn't been into a nightclub in a good many years, and never one as packed as this. Moving slowly, she tried to take in everything around her.

Off to her right was a large circular bar, edged with the club's signature purple neon. A good crowd were there, propping it up or ordering, most clad in black leather and a good many very scantily clad. One figure that attracted Z9's immediate interest was a woman, or rather her torso, sat atop the bar with her arms behind her, hands splayed, for support. Her legs were hanging from a rack behind her. Wires and cables dangled from her mid-section and the tops of her legs, and eyes scanned the club. Her bubblegum-pink hair shifted colours from its natural state to a bright green, to Celestria-Blue, to what Z9 had quickly decided to coin 'Chorus-purple', and back to the pink again. Several young men were attempting to attract her attention, and by their calls and whistles of 'Chorus', Z9 assumed that she was the owner.

Off to the left was a large area of seats and small tables where bodies almost spilled over them rather than sat on them. It was such a mass of people that there were no seats spare certainly, and almost no floor space either.

It was directly in front of the door, as the room opened up, that the nightclub was in its element however.

With two sets of stairs leading up to a balcony like walkway that ringed the dance-floor, hundreds if not thousands of people leapt and pushed, shoved and moved in time to the sounds and pulses of the music. At the far end of the room was a large sign that said CHORUS, itself pulsating in time to the beat of the music.

In the centre of this almighty arena was a raised circular platform. A band played on a ledge about two meters deep that ringed a second, central section that was raised even higher. Atop this central section were five women circling large poles that stretched up to the rafters, their limbs entangling them like a lover. Lasers jabbed into the dark; lights pulsed and flickered, and as the musical number swelled to its crescendo, pillars of flame, alternating between Celestrian-Blue, Chorus Purple and the regular orange, leapt up from both rings of the central pillar, as well as a few blasts firing down to the dancing crowd from the balcony.

The woman moved to the right towards the bar, and Z9 followed her like a shadow. Shifting their way through dozens of bodies, all slick with sweat (as well as a thousand other liquids Z9 didn't wish to think about) the woman was heading towards the woman of two halves, Chorus herself. Chorus spotted her heading to the bar and motioned to a young man behind the bar. He exchanged a few words with her, before reaching up and pulling down her legs. He moved around the bar and, clearing a space before the owner, proceeded to attach her legs. She dropped down and thanked the man, who returned back around the bar and began to serve once again.

'Chorus,' the woman said to the recently reconnected owner.

'Xerou Evangra,' Chorus said, her voice feminine but not girly. 'How long has it been since you last set foot in my club?'

'Two years, by my last count,' the woman (Z9 mentally switched her nametag to Xerou) replied. The two women embraced each other. Chorus' eyes flicked over to Z9, eyes roaming her figure, as if trying to tell if she had seen her before.

'You seem a little too-well dressed for my humble club,' Chorus said, 'though I'm never averse to seeing a little class walk in through my door every now and then.'

'I'm afraid I'm here strictly on business, which you seem to be thriving in,' Z9 commented. Chorus curtseyed, her eyes never leaving Z9's.

'We need to see him,' Xerou told Chorus. 'Things are going to hell and it's about to get worse.' Chorus looked at Xerou, and there seemed to be a silent interchange between them taking place on a level higher than speech. It was if there was a conversation played out in projections on their eyes that only they could see. Z9 flicked her gaze between the two of them and set herself on a higher alert.

'Come with me,' Chorus said, eyes once again turning to Z9. Her eyes were a deep purple and inside her iris was what looked to be a lens of some kind of technology. It unsettled Z9. Then she led them through the crowd.

They ascended the stairs on the left hand side, the band beginning another song with a strong steady beat, a pulse that thumped into Z9's ribcage and pounded her heart in a heavy blasting rhythm. Chorus went left, striding along the balcony, her hand trailing along the purple rail and a ring on her hand glittering under the pulsing of the lights. Though she put her on edge, she was an incredibly elegant woman.

They reached the walkway ring and Chorus swiped her hand over a Halo-Core by a door behind the CHORUS sign. The door unlocked and Chorus pushed it open.

'Drop in some time for a drink,' Chorus said, 'on me.'

'Will do,' Xerou said. Chorus nodded and Xerou walked through the door, Z9 following after.