NOVEL NEXT Ch 2.86: Pickup
“Holy shit,” Tira said as she watched Shein collapse. “Carline, was that you?”
“No,” Carline replied. Tira was pretty sure she could see a proud smile growing on the girl.
“Grab them!” the bouncer who’d taken over hosting screamed, right into the microphone. Some of the crowd was already gasping at the sudden fall, but at that command they went into a full frenzy, screaming and running for the door with no idea what was even going on.
“That’s probably our cue,” she said, watching as the four guards that had supposedly been there to protect Prisma’s modesty turned towards them.
“On it!” Flora was already in motion, performing some sort of spinning kick to take out three while Tira herself was busy unhooking the bracelet around her wrist. Once she did had it undone though she was able to join in herself, pushing the fourth bouncer away and using [Momentum] on his clothes to carry the force farther, knocking him down. “I’m up on you, Tira, three to one!”
“You probably want to stay with us, Princess,” Tira said as she ignored Flora’s comment and darted off towards the stage. Elaina had her wristband off too, was pulling that bouncer Mille off that stage with a chain and heading for the other Temmie as more casino employees flooded the stage. Just as she reached the subcore though, reached out to grab it, her face filled with confusion. Tira could only watch as Elaina tried to grab it multiple times, her hands phasing through the object each time, like it were nothing but a mirage.
“It’s not real,” Carline said as Tira slowed, progress impeded by the stampeding crowd.
“Fuck,” Tira said, trying to push through the crowd. It was no use though; they’d have to go the long way around. “Were we played? Has it been gone the whole time?”
“No,” Carline said, eyes darting around the room. “They wouldn’t get rid of it, not when they don’t even know what it is. It’ll be here, somewhere.”
“What are you people talking about?” Prisma said, hands clutching at the back of Tira’s outfit. “We need to get out of here!”
“If you want to run out into the street, be my guest,” Tira said, pushing Prisma’s arm away, “but I wouldn’t go outside in that outfit.”
“Actually,” Flora added, “you already promised—”
“The office!” Carline shouted, pointing to the back of the room. “Elaina’s trying to get to the office!”
Tira turned to look. Carline was right, that’s definitely wear Elaina was heading, wading through a sea of both regular patrons and employees alike, whipping them aside with dual chains and plowing ahead, making a beeline for the back door, disappearing into the crowd. “We’ll meet her there; Flora, take point!”
“Aye aye, Iron Whip,” Flora said as she cracked another bouncer across the face and charged ahead, stopping to let a group of people by. “But there’s a lot of people whose bones I probably shouldn’t be breaking.
“Leave it to me,” Tira said, closing eyes. [Momentum] had always been handy in situations like this, multiple people all around her, Tira needing to wade through them all. She couldn’t sense people, but she could sense their belts, their shoes, their bracelets. Nudging them in certain directions was hard, but not as hard as before she had her class, and in the midst of a crowd shove she could do it without attracting too much attention.
But she wasn’t just feeling around herself, not anymore. She had the link through Elaina’s [Good Girl] skill, and as such she could feel from Elaina’s point of view as well. It was actually quite inconvenient that Elaina was butt naked, since that made it harder for Tira to get a bearing on the girl, but she was still able to get a sense of the people around Elaina at least, and it was easy to pick out the bouncers with them all sharing a uniform.
And so, Tira practiced something she wasn’t too familiar with: subtlety. She couldn’t draw too much attention to herself, but the gentle force she could apply on the people around them was better than nothing. A quick push forward of one shoe while the other slowed down, a guard flying just a little further than he should have and into his friend as Flora threw him aside, an innocent bystander a little bigger than the others unable to stop himself as he bowled a path through for Flora.
“Key!” Flora shouted. Tira opened her eyes to see they’d made it to the locked door.
“Got it!” Elaina’s voice said, cutting through the crowd. She emerged, pushing through a group of people who, despite the commotion, still turned back to watch her naked body running and jiggling through the building.
The lock clicked open though, the five of them funneling inside and Elaina closing the door behind her, the lock clicking once more as Tira could feel their pursuers closing in.
“I think we’re trapped,” Carline said, suddenly looking panicked as people began banging on the door from the outside
Elaina pushed past them, looking over the room. “But the door will hold, so we’ll worry about that later. Find Temmie, she’s in here somewhere.”
“What is going on!” Prisma said, backing up against the wall and covering herself with her arms. “And Florence, were you using your aspect back there? What about the bracelets?”
“Oh, these are just [Body Paint],” Flora replied, joining Elaina in the search of the room.
“Body paint doesn’t dangle off your wrist!” Prisma said, but the other girls were ignoring her, Elaina going through Shein’s desk, Flora running her hand across the walls, Tira tossing books off of a small bookshelf and across the room while Carline scanned the office as a whole.
“Carline, is Shein going to be okay? Is she gonna live” Elaina eventually asked as she pulled out a bottle of liquor and threw it aside, the contents spilling out.
“I think so,” Carline said. “You honestly went pretty light with it. I didn’t notice until right before your match.”
“How did you even do it on the middle of the stage?” Tira asked, grunting as she pushed the bookshelf off the wall and looked behind it. “Damnit, nothing here either!”
“Have none of you checked behind that painting?” Tira looked around, confused, seeing Prisma pointing at an empty area on the wall.
“Are you daft, Princess? Nothing’s there.”
“Wait,” Elaina said. “Prisma, can you move that?”
“Sure— I mean, but don’t look at me!” Despite the condition given, Prisma didn’t really hesitate to do as Elaina asked even as the four of them stared, moving towards the wall and standing on her toes, giving them a unique view of her naked body that even Tira had to reluctantly admit to herself was quite nice.
“Elaina, do you see something?” Flora asked.
“No, but I feel something.”
Once Prisma reached all the way up, the girl grabbed something. It looked like she ripped off a square panel from the wall, but behind it was just more wood, the same wall that had been ripped off in the first place. “This is it, right?” Prisma asked.
“What’s it?” the other four all said together.
“The thing,” Prisma said as she threw the wooden panel to the ground, a panel that broke apart at the edges suspiciously like a picture frame might. The girl reached into the wall, the same way Elaina had been reaching through illusory the subcore before. She started to pull her hands back out, and something with them besides, hanging on to a strap just like the one the fake Temmie on stage had around it, dragging the dull crystal sphere through the wall.
“Wait,” Elaina said, “Prisma, stop!”
But it was too late. Prisma turned at the sudden shouting, losing the footing on her tip-toes and stumbling backwards. She pulled hard on the strap surrounding the Temmie, ripping off that aspect—and apparently crystal—suppressing device and leaving the orb to fall through the air, suddenly growing bright blue.
Prisma’s ass hit the ground first, and the subcore fell into her lap.
“System User confirmed as Star Blessed. Status: Aspected, classless. Age: twenty-one years, zero months, two weeks, five days. Party compatibility for System Administrator Elaina Weaver: One hundred percent. Initiating protocol: Class Assignment.”