Virtuoso Fantasia

Chapter One

The Black Star

FANTASIA - A musical piece in which the composer has not been bound to any conventional form

VIRTUOSO - In music a highly gifted and technically adept concert artist.

Blake Sterling was excited. Of course, Blake was always excited as a general rule. However, today he was extremely excited. Tsubaki Nakatsukasa was having a hard time keeping up with him.

"Blake!" she yelled as she chased him across the open room where the dancing would take place.

"Tsubaki, what is it?" he said as he turned and grinned at her. "I'm ready to get the booth set up. I still haven't gotten everything the way I like it. The Black Star never delivers a less than huge production!" he said, practically bouncing with excitement.

Tsubaki sighed. "Blake, I know you're looking forward to this. But seriously, we need to make sure that all the paperwork for the appearance at Death City next week is arranged! It's Friday, and if we don't have it done by five, we're going to lose the spot!"

Blake sighed. "Fine," he grumbled and sat down to finish filling it out.

Blake Sterling, or Black Star as he was known in the music scene, was perhaps one of the most well renowned DJs in the area. Blake had been born to wealth, the heir to the Sterling family fortune. Early on, though, rather than interest in business or enterprise, he showed aptitude for music and DJing in particular. His musical knowledge, though, went deeper than just liking to spin decks and mix different sounds. He had an ear for it. He knew how to balance the trebles and the basses and create unique sounds. No one had managed to do what he managed behind the booth. He took on students all the time, and he had some impressive ones, but he still managed to be the best in the industry, especially in Santa Muerta. Blake lost his parents early in life to a deadly plane crash. He was raised instead by a man named Sid Barrett. Sid had managed to keep the young man on the right path as his fame skyrocketed in the area. He'd encountered Tsubaki when he was taking classes in music theory at the local college. She herself was an Operatic singer, but she lacked the confidence to perform. Black seemed to think he could incorporate her vocals one of these days if she'd let him.

"There, there," he muttered and shoved them at her. "Is that all? I still have to check the decks before set up. The controller needs to be set right, and everything's got to go off with a flourish!"

Tsubaki sighed and shook her head as he took off up onto the platform. Tonight was a big day for him. This was a celebration, an elite party/performance to mark Blake's first DJ Award for Techno. He'd been nominated in Trance and House as well, but he was good with taking home one award. He planned to premiere some new styles tonight for those that had made the exclusive guest list. Of course, that guest list had at least two hundred people on it from the press, other music stars, and other DJs that Blake wanted to connect with.

The rest of the afternoon flew by. There were guards on the doors, and several security guard patrolling the outside. Blake, of course, was zeroed in on his set up. The front of the table featured a large black five pointed star with "Black Star" written in electric looking white letters over it. Blake himself had dyed blue hair, and that had always been his trademark look. Sometimes he'd paint blue and black stars over each eye, and his clothes always featured stars of both colors. Tonight he'd done one eye with a black star and the other in a blue that matched his hair. He'd worn one of his flashy outfits. It was an electric blue jacket with black stars down either arm of it. The sleeves were tucked in tight to his wrists, of course. He didn't want to get caught on the decks in the middle of something. He wore black jeans and no shirt with the jacket. The back of it had his logo on it, the black star with electric white writing over it. The black drop was metallic silver and had strobe lighting that spilled out from behind him as he performed. For him, it was more than music. The whole thing was a performance.

He looked up as the lights went to a mid-level. They'd stay there until eight when the show began in earnest. He didn't mingle on the floor until his set was done. There were another DJ that would go on at 10, then he'd take back the decks and do another set at 11 and go until he got tired. That could be two or three hours, though. He loved what he did, and perhaps that's what made him the best at it. He glanced at the computer for the time and saw it was almost 7:30, so not much longer. He smiled as he went over the order he was using, and some of the new mixes he was using tonight. Not all were conventional, but then neither was the great Black Star.

Tsubaki came up and nodded to him so he knew that the doors were closed. He hated to have people walk in mid set. So he leaned over the mic and started for the night.

"Welcome to the Black Star's home and party crib!" he yelled and clapping and yelling ensued around him. "You all came here to see the best, and the best you will see, and hear of course! You know who I am, right?" he yelled.

A chant of "Black Star" came back at him. Even with the elite crowd, they answered him. "That's right, so we're gonna have fun, because not only am I the best DJ, I'm the biggest and baddest one around! And this is the best party any of you have ever been to!"

There was a cheer and the lights dropped. Around the room the strobes, blacklights, and spinning globes lit up and everyone waited in anticipation as Black Star began. He couldn't see well, of course, from behind the stand because the lights were aimed at him. Blake used a DJ Controller set up, preferring the simplicity and portability of it. He could use other set ups, and had on many occasions. He'd learned on a DJ turntable set up with vinyl, which was great, but it just didn't have the customizability and interface he wanted to use. He was about halfway through the set when he noticed someone that seemed lost for a second pass in front of the booth. He frowned and shook it away. Blair was coming up next, so he wanted to move to his finish before long.

From the floor, Maka Albarn was looking for her father. She wanted to find him before he embarrassed her again. If he hadn't already. Her father was probably in a corner making out with his boyfriend, if she didn't miss her guess. Granted, she would be lucky if they weren't making out in the middle of the dance floor, to be honest. She'd lost Declan, but she knew his OCD had kicked in and he had to go find a quiet spot. He'd been getting better lately, but sometimes it flared up and he couldn't handle lack of symmetry. Usually, it wasn't a huge problem, he just had to have things evenly spaced, and he had to take even numbers of objects. Sometimes, though, he got way too overwhelmed by everything. This time it was that the lights were uneven numbers one either side of the room, and he couldn't handle it. She'd sent him off to find a quiet place to relax and then see if he could come back.

Maka was quite happy to have come to this, as she hadn't seen Blake in several years. They'd grown up near each other and had been friends as children. When he moved to Santa Muerta, though, she'd stayed in Santa Cruz. This was the first time she'd had a chance to come here.

She glanced up in looking for him and saw a guy standing looking very lost in the middle of the floor. He was listening intently to the music and watching the DJ. He was wearing a black suit and tie but looked really young. Strangest of all, he had white hair that seemed to stick out everywhere on his head. He seemed almost transfixed there. She smiled because he looked to be greatly enjoying it. She started though as a woman in a slinky black dress grabbed him by the arm and yanked him around. He flinched as she leaned over and said something to him. She had brown shoulder length hair and Maka could see that she was clutching his arm hard enough that he was standing on his toes and looking away as she spoke. She started to go forward but someone blocked her view for a moment. When she got around them, she saw the woman was dragging the young man up the stairs. She frowned. For one thing, she didn't think those rooms were open because they were roped off. She was about to go after when she heard a change in music and Blake introduced Blair, a DJ that was going to spin while he stepped off to mingle.

He made his way down and grinned.

"Maka!" he said and grabbed her in a hug. "You came! Where's your dad?"

"Probably almost having sex with Stein somewhere," she muttered.

Blake snorted. "Oh, he still randy all the time? I can't believe they're still together."

Maka sighed. "Yeah, they love each other. But my dad is so over the top sometimes…I know he's out and proud and stuff, but geeze, he needs to tone it down sometimes."

"Kidd around?" he asked, looking for Maka's longtime boyfriend.

"He had a bit of trouble with the symmetry of your lighting. He went to one of the side rooms for a bit," she said with a smile at him. "Um, but can I ask something, are those rooms up the stairs in use?"

Blake looked toward the stairs. "Nah, those are my rooms. No one's up there right now."

Maka shook her head. "I just saw some woman take this kid up there. Well, dragged is more like it. Some kid with white hair and a suit. He looked scared of her."

"Nah, that's not right. Let me go handle it. Stay here, eh?" he said and took off at a jog toward the stairs.

He ducked under the rope and headed up quickly. No one was supposed to come up here. His room, as well as Tsubaki's and Sid's were up there. He definitely didn't want anyone messing with private stuff. He saw down the hall that there was a guy leaning up against the door of one of the spare rooms and looking bored about it. He had his arms crossed over a broad chest and his brown hair looked rather dull in the light. Blake frowned deeply. That wasn't right. He heard something that almost sounded like someone crying out. Well that wasn't going to do, not in his house. He moved through the hall quietly, more quietly than most people gave the normally loud and obnoxious Dj credit for. He was behind the guy and has his arm around his neck, pressing in on both sides to cut the bloodflow to his brain. He struggled against him briefly, but he couldn't do much besides gasp as Blake lowered him quietly to the floor. He put his ear to the door because he still heard someone inside.

"Come on, you can do it, just let him, you know you want to let him…there. Don't whine, it isn't like you haven't done this before. I just didn't have a camera on you…" a woman's voice said and he heard someone muffled. "Good, good, you think you can manage to get him to lean…there, good…"

"Stoppit…" came nearly muffled voice. "Don…don…"

Well, that was quite enough, Blake thought to himself. He stepped into the room throwing the door back with a loud bang.

"What the hell is this?" he asked as he looked around.

A woman with light brown hair in a black dress was standing on one side of the room with a camera in her hands and was now looking at Blake. On the sofa to by window, someone Blake knew quite well as sitting there. Justin Law, a local party boy who he had invited merely to be nice, was someone that Blake was not fond of. He was sitting with his blue eyes staring in surprise at Blake. The boy on his lap, well half on his lap anyway, was the one that Maka had described. He had pure white hair, and when his eyes fluttered open Blake was surprised to see his eyes were a dark reddish color. He was half undressed and Justin had both hands somewhere down his pants.

"None of your business," the woman said to him and Blake thought she really had no idea how to respond.

"It is my business," he said and moved quicker than Justin or the woman expected.

He pulled the dazed looking boy away from Justin, wrapping one around his shoulders and catching his slacks before they fell off him. He was obviously drugged or something because he was barely able to stand. He stumbled and fell into him.

"Get the fuck out of my house," he said with a very calm sound to his voice.

"He's my responsibility, give him back to me," the woman said and moved toward him.

Blake glared at her. "Like hell he's leaving with you."

"You can't…" she started to say.

"Blake!" came Maka's voice behind him. He didn't turn around. "What…"

"I'll take him, now, Mr. Sterling. Or Black Star, whatever you want to be called," she said. "I'm his guardian."

"No you aren't," Maka said and put both hands on her hips. "I realized where I'd seen him before, Blake. He's a pianist. Soul Evans, I looked it up on my phone while I was down there. And she's just his stage mother. She's not even related to him. He's nineteen anyway. He can do whatever he wants anyway."

"Shut your mouth, girl," the woman growled out. "Soul is mine."

"If you're so concerned with him, what are you doing?" Blake asked, adjusting the boy he was holding. "Letting him fucking rape him in my house?"

She snorted. "He's useless anyway. I was just trying to get my last few pennies out of him anyway. Come on, Justin. I've got better things to do than deal with washed up has beens."

Justin stood and dashed out of the room with her. Blake stumbled with him. "Whoa, come on," he said and Maka ran around and took his other arm, and between them they got him into Blake's room. They dropped him onto the bed and he barely moved.

Maka looked at Blake. "I don't know what we should do…"

Blake shook his head. "Hey, isn't your dad's boyfriend a doctor?"

"I have to find them first, they're probably screwing by now," she muttered as she headed out the door.

Blake sat down beside the nearly unconscious boy. He pulled open his eyes and was amazed at the odd color. He had to be albino or something. No one else had those kind of eyes. He was really pale, so he supposed it could be. He buttoned his slacks back up and then look up as Maka came in looking annoyed. Behind her the tall, serious looking man named Dr. Stein came in followed by Maka's father. Spirit was more than disheveled looking. He had his shirt misbuttoned and his hair was a mess. He tried to tighten his tie up and his suit jacket was hopelessly wrinkled. He didn't look at Maka.

"What do we have here?" Stein said and sat down beside Soul. Soul muttered something incomprehensible under his breath. "Hmm, he's been given something, I can't tell what…his breathing's okay, though, and his heart rates not too fast or too slow. I'd say keep an eye on him through the night and he should be fine by morning."

Blake nodded. "Alright. Maka, can you tell Tsubaki to wind down the party and send everyone off when Blair's done. I'm not coming back down."

"I could stay and keep an eye on him if you want to go down," she said with a frown.

"Nah, he's my responsibility now. He's in my house, and I'll take care of him until I figure out what's going on."

Maka nodded and glared at her father. "And you. The next time I go anywhere with you, I'm putting you in a chastity belt!"

Spirit ducked his head and slipped out or the room. Stein looked back at Blake and winked at him before following them out. Blake frowned and brushed a hand over the white hair. What exactly what going on with this guy, he thought to himself.