There were so many people at this rave. Soooo mannnyy…

  Gems emitting light were floating around the air, sending sparkling particles all over the place. A lot of neon glowing details painted the walls. Some people were standing on what looked like flying carpets, chatting each other up or dancing in the midst of all the crazy spazzing lights.

  Almost everyone was dressed up in eccentric costumes, much like we’d stepped right in on a crazy Halloween party. I think the more impressive ones were people who had things like cat ears and tails, because they looked so realistic.

  My systems were getting super overwhelmed trying to pick up on all the action, so I calibrated them to deal with this very populated area. Indena waited with me for a few minutes while I got myself in gear.

  “See those weirdos with the animal features?” Indena pointed out a few. “Those aren’t costumes. Those are half-breeds.”

  “Half-breeds?”

  “Yeah. Like the one bird kid demi-human you and Yamin helped, but they’re more human like than animal. They usually hide their features because them and humans don’t get along too well. In a place like this though, nobody cares what you look like.”

  I see… They did call me a half-breed during the meeting, since I had angel wings. Well, I didn’t always have them spawned out, but still.

  -High Population Calibration Complete-

  Now that my systems were calibrated, we started walking around and explored for any evidence that would point us to whoever stole Yamin’s grimoire.

  The music proved itself to be pretty fun as its crazy beat and exciting rhythm picked up. The light show was no pushover either and quickly exploded with beams of harmless energy all across the flood tunnel. It was nuts!

  Dance parties are pretty cool!

  Following the rhythm, I let myself sway about, dancing like I had a clue what I was doing. Ballet and martial arts didn’t really train me well for this kind of dancing, but it didn’t seem like anyone else knew how to do much more than throw their arms around anyways, so I was in good company.

  Even though it seemed like the music was a major distraction, I used my silly motions to keep pace with Indena. As an extra layer of insurance, I held tightly to her hand so we wouldn’t get separated.

  “Quit squirming like that!” she ordered. “I’ll teach you to dance when this is over.”

  “Really?” I asked.

  “Yeah. I’m pretty good at it, you know?” she said with a proud smirk. The way she fought sometimes, I definitely could see that she had dance training too.

  “Where did you learn to dance, anyways?” I asked.

  “I told you before I’m a miko. We learn a lot of rituals and stuff. But my teacher always made sure we knew how to dance in other ways too, since it loosens up our bodies.”

  “You’re teacher being that Arch Priestess Sovereignty, right?” I asked.

  “Yeah. Maybe you’ll get to meet her some day…” Indena cracked up. “...officially…”

  “Officially?” My head tilted, not sure what that meant, but she didn’t clarify.

  We were at the very front of the rave, passing by the DJ, who was really hard at work mixing away those records like a boss. The base was so strong and booming this close that it was like a rhythmic earthquake.

  I was pretty mesmerized by his focus, so much that I stopped to watch for a second. Something about his bright green eyes interested me, but what was it?

  -Congratulations! You may now use wind magic!-

  What the…? How did that happen?

  “That’s random!” I said out loud.

  “What’s random?” Indena asked.

  I checked my data logs. Apparently my copycat ability activated and scanned some sort of wind magic when I looked at the DJ. Does that mean he was using wind magic? Maybe the cool green crystal gem he wore around his chest was part of it.

  The DJ’s glowing green eyes turned to me, but his expression was as neutral as when he was focused on his work.

  His hand lifted from the Discs he’d been spinning and he flicked a card my way.

  I caught the card. It said his name was Uriel Turntable, and he was a fulltime DJ. His contact info was on here too. No idea why he threw it at me, but hey, I’ll take it.

  “What’d that weirdo give you?”

  “A card,” I showed her, then waved at the DJ. “Thanks Mr. Uriel!”

  He winked and shot me a finger gun. A green gust of sparkling wind passed over the audience when he flicked his finger. Everyone got all excited and cheered. Some of them began floating around the air, making swimming motions to move forward.

  “Dude really knows how to get a party going,” Indena said.

  He made being a DJ look easy.

  There were a lot of voices in the crowd, so it was hard to understand anyone, especially with all the music. But one conversation in particular caught my attention.

  “Yes? Do you need something?” shouted a girl.

  “Hey cutie…” A guy said. “I’ve been watching you all night.”

  “Ha ha. Sure you have, creep,” a spacy sounding girl responded to him, seemingly flattered, not upset at all. “I bet you say that to everyone.”

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  “How can I say that to everyone when I’ve had my eyes on you all night, hot stuff?”

  Yuck. He had all the charisma and charm of a cartoon pickup artist. A cheesy voice to boot.

  “Why don’t you just ask me to dance already?” the woman replied, sounding like she was falling for his cheesiness.

  “I like to get to know someone before I ask them out,”

  (X) to Doubt…

  “Tell me, what’s your dad do for a living?” he asked her. “Bet he's got a nice job if you know about this place.”

  “He was a part of the Queen’s party,” the girl answered.

  “No kidding? Bet it’s pretty crap having a stiff for a dad.”

  She didn’t seem to respond right away.

  “...Tell me about it…”

  That was a weird thing to ask a girl you just met… I think…

  “Indena, is it normal to ask a girl you just met what her dad does for a living?”

  She shrugged. “Sounds like a total douchebag trying to get money. Why, someone say something?”

  They continued talking to each other.

  “Hey, interested in a job?” the man asked her. “You could make a lot of money of your own if you wanted and get away from that stiff.”

  “What sort of job?” The girl asked.

  “Entertainment. A pretty gal like you could make it big. My boss, Big Joe, would love to meet you.”

  Bingo… He’s probably talking about Bowler Hat Joe.

  “Yeah, that sounds great!” The girl replied. “I can finally get out of the house and live my own life.”

  Well, it sounded like it was the opposite of what Indena was thinking. He was trying to get her to make money, and she was falling for his scheme. Regardless, he probably could get us to wherever the mafia was held up down here.

  “He's scouting her…” Indena concluded. “Where is this freak?” she punched her palm. “I'll teach him a lesson!”

  The man continued talking. “I can take you to my boss right now, if you want. The sooner the better.”

  YES! We can follow them and confront Bowler Joe!

  “Totally!” the girl cheered unknowingly along with my imagination. “Just let me tell my friend I’m going.”

  “Don’t worry about him. The next time he sees you, you’ll have your name in lights!”

  “Really? Wow!”

  This girl didn’t sound very smart at all. The more she talked, the more she actually sounded a bit tipsy. Which seemed to be a recurring theme lately… It was almost dumb enough to seem like an act, like this was what she figured a ditsy person would do. But honestly, it felt like there were people out there actually silly enough to fall for schemes like this.

  Needless to say, we had to help this girl too before she got in trouble.

  I tried to pinpoint exactly where the conversation was taking place, but it was going to be tricky.

  -Activating Advanced Auditory sensors!-

  I closed my eyes and focused on only sounds. Those two were still talking but their voices were getting distant. Pretty soon I didn’t think I’d be able to track them in this mess.

  I just needed to tag them on the map. That was it. Then I could track them with ease.

  “Indena! Lift me up on your shoulders!”

  “On it!” Not a moment later she hoisted me up and gave me a good vantage point.

  “Rock on, little chick!” A drunk guy cheered for me, getting a few people nearby all excited, even though they had no idea why.

  I ignored the sound pollution as best I could. With my eyes shut and most of my focus on my ears, I was attempting echo location. Each sound sent vibrations through the air that translated to an image my brain could comprehend. I just needed to isolate which sound wave was coming from the two people.

  They were still talking, but their voices were so far away now. I was having a hard time tracking them.

  Wait, didn’t I just get wind magic? Nothing specific I guess… But seeing as the DJ used wind magic to enhance his music, could I enhance my sound sensors with it too?

  My heart and hair turned emerald green, then wind energy flooded my body. Swirling marks like clouds appeared over the rubber parts of my skin.

  Powering up this wind energy was easy, but focusing it on a specific organ was not. With a little luck, I got that energy around my ears…

  *BOOM!*

  The world suddenly became deafening. All sounds grew a hundred times more powerful and burst my eardrums like balloons.

  I screamed as I covered my ears, unable to hear the sounds coming from my own mouth.

  Indena pulled me back down from her back and checked out my ears. Blue blood was trickling out of them. I couldn’t hear anything and all I felt was pain in my head.

  Oh no, this isn’t good. I messed up bad! My ears are broken!

  Indena started mouthing something, but I couldn’t understand. I really really really messed up bad. Oh no oh no oh no!

  Even worse, I lost track of that girl and guy. Would she be okay? Crap!

  Indena tugged me behind one of the big pillars holding up the ceiling. We were so far away from the actual rave that nobody was around us.

  She started mouthing again, so I yelled that my ears were broken.

  Indena slapped her thigh and sighed. Then she turned to look around the room. The next thing she did was take a bit of cloth from her pocket and wipe the blood from my ears.

  “What were you doing?” She mouthed.

  I told her that I was trying to use wind magic to listen to the guy trying to take the girl to Bowler Joe. But it backfired big time.

  She mouthed a series of swear words. Then looked around again in a futile effort to find those two.

  While she frustratedly turned all about, I sat still with dread that I’d be deaf for the rest of my life. I wouldn't be able to save humanity like this!

  -Automatic trauma response diagnostic initiated-

  -Diagnostic complete: Critical damage detected in :: Auditory sensors-

  -Initiating self-repair sequence- -Estimated time to full repair :: 12 hours-

  -Advisory: switching main auditory channel to primary heart gem-

  Oh thank God. I forgot that my heart can actually take in sound. Everything was super muffled and crunchy, but it was better than nothing.

  A little message appeared in my HELP menu. I opened it up and read it.

  -Dear Yalda. Please be more careful next time you use your powers without practice. With all my love, your father-

  This was an automatic message set to send in the event of me really hurting myself with a power. Dang, dad must really have expected me to screw up at some point.

  Samael came down from my hair and hissed at me, worried about my condition. But I gave him a snoot booping and smile.

  “It’ll be okay, Sammy. My ears will be fixed soon,” I assured him.

  Indena couldn't hear me though through all the noise of the rave.

  “What are we gonna do if the Shrimp can’t hear?” Indena said to herself.

  “I can hear now,” I replied loudly to get her attention.

  “Huh, what? How?”

  I explained that my heart took over hearing, just like whenever I let Samael sneak around with it. She seemed relieved, especially when I told her my ears would heal up eventually.

  Regardless, luck might have still been with us. I noticed two people walking well away from the party, heading for a wall with a small red door on it.

  I tagged them both with my IFF. Wherever they went down here, I’d be able to find them.

  “Is he the guy going to that Bowler Joe dude?” Indena asked.

  “Has to be,” I replied. “Let’s follow them. I can track them with my map.”

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