"I survived a dreadful accident

In the car crash of the century"

~ Hospital Flowers - Owl City

Glitch winced. Angel's last move had somehow produced a painful cracking – or snapping, which was a more fitting word – noise. Oddly, the dancer didn't seem bothered by the unexpected sound. "That's some real pain tolerance," muttered Mo into Glitch's ear. The protégé nodded absently. "Yeah..." he murmured without bothering to look his brother directly in the face. Ignorance wasn't going to help, but it wasn't like anything would occur soon.

They were at a dance-off get-together at the DCI Headquarters. Most of the dancers were there, but Glitch didn't know if anyone wasn't present, as Glitch never counted them. He had showed up in his agent suit, of course, and he self-consciously rubbed a trace of dust off one of his shoes. The brownish trail disappeared, leaving his shoe a clean purple. Seeing this, he clasped his hands behind his back, satisfied. Impatience caused him to dig in his heels once in a while, clearly showing his eagerness to dance. Mo glanced at him, and then they both looked over to the dance floor again. Lights shone all around them, never constant, as they flashed here, then there, flickering all around.

The Lu$h dancers backed off, and the next crew, the Riptide duo Bodie and Emilia, took up the dance floor. Glitch knew that they were quite the elite, and now they were dancing to one of their signature songs, so the Asian prodigy stepped back and waited for his turn.

Crowds filled the Headquarters, and the buzz of conversation was clear. Glitch caught snatches of these words – talk about the best dancers, gossip about the latest dance craze, friendly arguments about who was the better at this move or that – nothing important in Glitch's ears. What would have had him listening was no longer an interest to the older dancers; it was hard for him to keep his age in mind. Age wasn't only a number here.

Swaths of memory caused Glitch to almost lose himself. Attention was occupied by the Riptide dancers, and seemingly everyone was keen to watch them. Glitch had no idea why Bodie's and Emilia's moves failed to capture his attentive side. Neither did Mo, who was bringing up some talk with Taye and Li'l T; no one took notice of the shorter, less appreciated dancers, Glitch almost convinced himself. Just because he was small didn't mean he was meaningless. So his head swam in thoughts, though he was still semi-conscious about the goings-on around him, so that he would be able to go forward just as his turn to dance was up.

When it came at last – surprisingly, Glitch had waited for half an hour – he heaved himself off his seat and took his place next to Mo. Glitch's suspenders shook as he moved forward. He smoothed his hair. He warmed up by swinging his arms and letting his shoulder blades loosen a bit. All eyes were on him now – he was painfully aware of it, but experience held him at bay, for he was used to this, and knowing such helped slow his racing heart down – and the high expectations of the audience wouldn't allow a single mistake.

Their song was titled Run and was one of Glitch's favorites. He pushed through easily. Hi-Def would not lose to the other crews this night. They were only mere dancers, but mere dancers they were all. One better dancer would make all the difference. Panting, Glitch wiped a bit of sweat from his forehead. He smiled. He was the other half of Hi-Def, and he would be one great dancer if he kept living like this.

Boomy the boombox played another song this time. Glitch recognized the R&B intro immediately, and he clapped to the beat as a start to the dance. He was feeling positive about this song. After all, it was a Hi-Def song, and Glitch had danced to this one plenty of times. Why else was he so positively fired up like this? The happy-go-lucky prodigy grinned. The lyrics soon played. Glitch recited them in his head. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The song itself was Yeah! by Usher.

Glitch managed to catch himself in the middle of the Warbear move – particularly hard, but adds a good touch to the dance – and did it correctly. Phew, he thought. He did the other dance moves: Longboard Breaker, Soul Slide, and Push Back.

Both long overdue and far too early, the dance was over and Glitch froze in his finishing move. He topped the dance with a few extra moves before turning to the boombox Boomy. Hi-Def was apparently the last crew dancing there. DCI had been the first, much to every dancers' displeasure, followed by D-Coy and Flash4wrd, and then a couple other crews. The Glitterati hadn't been present, to the relief of many dancers. Snobby Jaryn and Kerith weren't exactly wanted anyway. They were being neglected as the best of Dance Central, ever since they were absent during the turmoil of Dr. Tan's army.

A moment or two after the dance, praise was given from dancer to dancer, tactful critics and gentle rebukes. Glitch saw some of the taller male dancers with each other. Someone said "Good job back there," and another said "You were pretty good," and even Lil'T commented on one of Glitch's moves. He returned it with a grudging admit of "You weren't so bad yourself," before running back to Mo. To be honest, he hadn't really been watching when she had been up front. Glitch never really liked the girl, and they usually acted more rival than friend to each other. After all, each crew should be independently competitive.

Glitch liked to think of all this as a game. He enjoyed dancing, but there was more to life then carrying out Rasa's work. Nowadays, Glitch rarely danced for himself. Most of his commitment went to Hi-Def. And being allied to Hi-Def meant being a part of Dance Central, and that ultimately led to the lending his loyalty to DCI.

After all the drama was over and everyone was heading home, Glitch's eyes were getting bleary. It was late and he was beginning to see things less clearly. Lights were obscure balls of bright colors and walking people were fuzzy smudges of black. Shadows bathed the streets, as if there was something lurking among the roadside bushes and swirled around the street lamps. Mo had to guide him through the roads back to their apartment. But Glitch didn't know what was going to happen next. Neither did Mo. And yet, tragedy decided that it would come late that night and the two Hi-Def B-Boys reached home safely.

With Mo resting in his room and Glitch taking a quick sleep on the house couch, the atmosphere became quiet and eerily silent. The air was heavy, cold, and still, like frigid water slowly frosting and becoming ice. Glitch slept quite long, and when he woke his vision was better and the dark living room became easier to navigate in. He switched on a light and changed into a jacket and jeans. He took off his suspenders and hooked up his mp3 player.

Being a dancer wasn't all Glitch was. Sometimes at night he would walk around the streets, doing who knows what. Sometimes he would stop by at a store and buy something, or pay a visit to certain places that were if interest to him. This night was one of those nights. Glitch would ponder the day outdoors.

Plugging in his headphones, Glitch stepped down the stairs to the streets. The lights didn't help his much to see, which was an odd reason for him to like the place. That was when he remembered that Mo had asked him to buy a new pack of batteries. Memorizing dance moves in his head again, he crept round the roads until he found a suitable store. He paid for the batteries and made his way back home. Soon enough, he reached the turn in the street that took him to only three houses away from Mo's apartment. At least, with the batteries, he would be more prepared if he needed a flashlight or a remote.

However, he was not prepared for facing a burglar armed with a car that was speeding towards him with police cars pretty far behind. Glitch had his headphones on and was unaware of the noise. Suddenly the car exploded from within roadside bushes and crashed into him. Pain and agony swallowed Glitch's legs, and began to consume him. The last sight in front of Glitch's eyes were of himself falling downwards. Even so, the suffering lasted only for a millisecond, as it ended quickly. Then his vision blurred once more and Glitch dropped into darkness, losing awareness of the world and everything about it.

And the darkness moved no more.

"My shattered hopes

Collapsed on cold cement"

~ Hospital Flowers - Owl City