Sep. 7, Heather Holland's Masquerade, PsykoNet; After School
Immediately upon entering the Headquarters, Heather and Thorne could both immediately tell that something was different. Myriad voices echoed through the halls. It was suspiciously similar to all of the people at school trying to speak over each other in the hallways.
"So this is it… the masquerade ball…" Heather noted. "And they're all celebrating… me?"
"Based on what your Shadow Self's been saying, I would assume, yes," Thorne said with a nod.
Seven walked up to both of them. "I heard through Thorne's cell phone microphone that both of you would be coming here," Seven explained. "Welcome back to my world."
"I feel… welcome, I guess," Heather joked. She still didn't have anything to protect herself with, much less something as strong as a Persona.
"Shall we investigate the masquerade now that it's finally begun?" Thorne suggested.
"I think we shall," Heather nodded. "Let's proceed."
The trio walked out into the ballroom. People in identical masks were dancing in every direction, many with partners, but many content on their own as well. Despite the reactions of the girls in the painting gallery, none of the masquerade participants seemed to pay Thorne, Seven, or Heather any mind. It was as if they were NPCs in a video game, only there to make the place look populated.
There was now music echoing through the ballroom. Thorne decided to listen in on some of the conversations that the dancers were sharing. One masked dancer took a sip of the drink in his wine glass, then said, "Darling, I think your mask is a bit crooked."
"Oh, thank you so much for telling me." The masked person on the other end of the conversation adjusted her mask. "I wouldn't want anyone seeing my real face."
"Neither would I, darling. I wouldn't even want you seeing my real face, love."
"As it should be." The girl kissed her masked partner.
Thorne heard another conversation taking place in the crowded ballroom.
"Heather really did get beautiful over the summer. I'm kinda bummed that I didn't let her sit next to me on that bus."
"Oh, yeah, man," another guest responded. "Like, even Leone is her friend now. I wish I could date one of the girls in that crowd!"
"Screw that!" the first one laughed. "I wish I could date Heather herself! But she's practically a princess now. She's so far out of my league…"
"We… we don't need to listen in on this," Heather insisted. "Can we go check out other things now?"
Thorne guided Seven and Heather up to the second floor. "See that big door? It's got a huge lock on it," he explained. "I wanna see what's inside."
Heather chuckled, "Okay, Agent Thorne."
"Hm…" Thorne also chuckled. "Maybe I should give myself an Agent name. But it'll have to wait, let's go."
There was a guard standing outside the door. However, this one didn't look quite like the other ones. He was taller, and broader, and he looked much stronger. His voice was also considerably deeper than any of the other guards, with an intimidating rasp to it.
"This room's off-limits to the guests," the guard grunted. "Behind this here door is a defective mask that the hostess once wore. Nobody, and I mean nobody, is to enter this room." The guard glared at Thorne. "Also, get a mask on. Are you trying to be rude?"
"Make me," Thorne smirked, Hamlet appearing behind his shoulder.
"All right, that's it, I'm gonna have to take care'a you delinquents on my own." The guard began to transform into a significantly-stronger Shadow than Thorne had ever encountered.
It was a giant knight, in thick, heavy armour, who wielded an enormous sword! The knight's height took up half the tall wall! "I am the Knight in Shining Armour, and I will enforce Her desires without fail!" the Shadow promised.
"I predict a higher probability of your failure than your claim suggests," Seven said robotically.
Thorne smirked, and unleashed an attack with Hamlet's power! Sharp shards of ice materialized in the air as it went cold! They flew toward the Knight in Shining Armour and exploded against his armour! It may not have looked like it pierced the armour, but the Shadow reacted in pain nonetheless.
Seven jumped into action next, summoning Brutus! Brutus dashed forward, coating himself in Nuclear energy, before colliding with the Knight in Shining Armour with the force of an oncoming car! The Shadow took enough damage to be knocked off its feet! The weight of its heavy armour made it difficult for it to get back to its feet, giving Thorne and Seven another chance to attack!
"Thorne, this would be an ideal situation to introduce a new combat technique," Seven explained.
"Huh?" Thorne inquired. "Go on?"
"We can chain our attacks together while the foe is weakened, leading to a Chain Attack," Seven explained. "The power of attacks in a Chain Attack becomes stronger as the chain of attacks extends."
"Sure" Thorne nodded. "Let's do it!" Thorne dashed forward, and jumped up onto the Shadow's knee! He then used the momentum to launch into the air, and fire a trio of bullets into the Shadow's armoured chest!
Seven jumped into action immediately following, following a gatling of small yet sharp Nuclear blasts from his cannon. He jumped up onto the Shadow's chest and used his position to aim a Nuclear blast into the Knight in Shining Armour's visor guard, blasting it open! Two glowing yellow eyes pierced the dark shadows inside the Knight's helmet.
The Knight in Shining Armour charged up power, before performing a spin attack with his huge sword! Both Thorne and Seven were knocked back and damaged! Thankfully, Heather was standing a ways away from the battle, and wasn't hit.
"I said, I will enforce the desires of The Hostess!" repeated the Knight in Shining Armour.
Seven summoned Brutus again! Brutus dashed forward again, this time delivering a flurry of dagger slashes into the Knight's torso! Thorne fired bullets at the same target!
"Persona!" he called. Hamlet removed the skull from the tip of his blade, and slashed at the Knight in Shining Armour as well. Hamlet and Brutus looked into each other's covered eyes, and nodded, then stabbed both their blades deep into the Shadow's armoured chest!
They both dematerialized, returning to their others selves.
The Knight in Shining Armour slashed his heavy sword down onto Thorne, but Thorne was cunning! "Counter!" he shouted, prompting Hamlet to reappear! Hamlet used his power, and his rapier, to block the sword from coming in contact with Thorne! But the Knight in Shining Armour was strong! Thorne could feel his muscles straining as Hamlet pushed against the Shadow's giant blade! "S-Seven!" he shouted.
"On it!" Seven shouted back, blasting rapid-fire Nuclear blasts at the Shadow! At first, it didn't faze the huge Shadow, but eventually it caused it to give up attack Thorne and change its focus!
You delinquents are persistent, I'll give you that," he responded. "But can you take this!?"
The Knight in Shining Armour thrust his sword into the ground, and an explosion of fire blasted up from the marble floors! Thorne was knocked flat off his feet, weak to the effects of the fire! Seven wasn't, though, and charged up a Nuclear blast.
The Shadow went to slash at Thorne again! Seven was still charging his attack, and Thorne was knocked over! Heather's eyes darted around the hall, until she noticed something. There was a chandelier on the ceiling. It wasn't nearly as big as the one in the main ballroom, but… it did have a very sharp point on the bottom. If she could get it to fall from the ceiling, it would impale the Shadow right on its head! She looked around for any objects she could throw at the chandelier!
That was it! There was a flower pot sitting on a table up against a wall. She grabbed it… She hyper-focused her attention… it wasn't a very heavy flower pot, but it also wasn't so light that it wouldn't be able to weigh down on the chandelier. She waved her arm back and forth a few times, preparing for the throw… and threw it!
She watched it fly through the air… but it didn't go high enough to hit the chandelier! However, it did still hit the Shadow, in the shoulder! The Shadow was distracted from attacking Thorne, and turned its attention to the defenseless Heather! It charged for her, meanwhile she had no Persona of her own to Counter the attack it was raring to strike her with!
Seven blasted his charged Nuclear attack at the Knight in Shining Armour! Thankfully, his aim was impeccable, and the Nuclear blast hit the Knight square in the face! The Shadow fell face-forward to the ground! Heather covered her head, hundreds pounds of metal armour falling right on top of her! The Shadow depixelated, turning to nothingness right before it crushed poor Heather. Heather let out a deep sigh of relief.
Seven walked over to Thorne and extended his hand. Thorne took it and Seven helped him back up to his feet. "Thanks."
"Huh?" Heather noticed something on the ground that wasn't there before. "Did that Shadow drop this?" She picked it up. It was a small key, made of glistening gold. "Maybe it'll work on the door!"
"Here," Thorne said, reaching out towards Heather. "Let's try it."
Heather handed over the key to Thorne. He walked over to the door and put the key into the lock. It was way too small for the huge, exaggerated lock, but the key suddenly grew to fit the keyhole. He turned it, and the door creaked open. Thorne looked back, and gestured for Seven and Heather to follow him inside.
"Hold on!" Heather called. She knelt down and picked up one of the flowers that had fallen out of the flower pot when it broke. She ran up to Thorne and put the rose into the chest pocket of his tuxedo. "There, now your formal look is complete!"
"Perhaps your Agent codename should be Agent Rose," Seven suggested.
"Yeah! Agent 'Thorne' Rose! I like it!" Heather grinned.
"Hm…" Thorne thought. "I like it. Agent Rose it is."
Inside the previously-locked room, the first thing Thorne noticed was a glass display case. It looked impenetrable. Inside, there was a mannequin head, and a mask imposed on it. This one looked very different from the other guests' masks, and even from the one that Shadow Heather herself wore. It was a full-face mask. And, for its nature as a mask, it looked exactly like the real Heather's face. Heather looked a little unnerved. "Is that… my face? That's my Shadow's idea of a 'defective mask'?" Heather asked, her voice shaky.
"That's what the guard said…" Thorne noted.
"I guess I can see why…" Heather sighed, upset. "If she was still wearing that, she definitely wouldn't be as popular as she is now, with that glamorous ruby mask she's got."
"There's more exhibits along the walls," Seven pointed out.
One of the exhibits showed Heather's favourite swimsuit. It was the same one that Thorne had watched vanish before his very eyes. Another exhibit showed small doll-like figures of Thorne and Heather hanging out together. The next exhibit that caught Thorne's eye was something he couldn't have expected. A black cat, with a tail that looked poised elegantly. The little cat had blue eyes, and had a bow-tie in the fur pattern on its chest. She ran over to it and put her palms against the glass. "It's my Kitty Noir plushie!"
"You have a Kitty Noir plushie?" Thorne asked, chuckling.
"I love Kitty Noir! He's like my favourite character ever!" Heather admitted. "I have so much merch!"
"Interesting… so why is that here?" Thorne questioned.
"Well… I guess it's probably because… if anyone knew I liked Kitty Noir, they'd think I was childish… No one wants to be seen as childish these days," Heather sighed. "I thought about donating that plushie and moving on, but… I couldn't…"
"So, this is a place where the things you hide from people are put," Thorne noted, putting a finger to his chin. "Interesting… I almost thought it would be more integral to Shadow Heather's scheme…"
"The things that make up Heather's true identity seem to be located here. This door was locked and heavily guarded," Seven pointed out. "The same could be said about Heather herself."
"I-I feel slightly attacked," Heather commented, her face flushing. "Isn't everyone like that these days? Isn't that what the internet is for?"
"Hm… that explains why this is a masquerade ball…and everyone is wearing a mask…" Thorne noted with a nod.
"Huh? What's that supposed to mean!?" Heather half-shouted.
"It almost seems like your beliefs about the uses of the Internet have caused the… people… in your Headquarters to wear masks," Thorne explained.
"Allow me to tell you the official term," Seven offered. "The masked guests who are not Shadows are referred to as Roles. This terminology comes from the fact that they serve a Role in the plans of a Shadow."
"Even the alternate Sam and Maggie in the gallery?" Heather asked.
"They too are Roles," Seven nodded.
"I see…" claimed Heather. "Should we keep going?"
"What's left for us to uncover?" Thorne shrugged.
"That's a fair point… Oh, hey," Heather started, "you wanna go back to reality and go to the mall? It's like the perfect way to wrap the first day of school."
"Seven, what's the current time?" Thorne asked.
"The current time is approximately 3:40 PM," answered Seven.
"Sure, we've got time," Thorne nodded. "You can show me around the mall."
Thorne and Heather both pulled out their phones and tapped the 'Exit' button on their screens. Seven returned to Thorne's cell phone after the two reappeared in reality.
Sep. 7, Public Transit, Vancouver; After School
Heather and Thorne sat next to each other on the bus to the mall. They looked out the window together for a while, before Heather suggested, "Hey. Wanna do a MustReed quiz with me?"
"Oh," Thorne sounded, turning away from the window to face Heather. "Sure."
Thorne and Heather were seated face-to-face, so Heather put her phone down on her lap so that Thorne could see it, and opened her Internet explorer app. She went to search up MustReed quizzes, and the first one that popped up, she read the title aloud. "MustReed: Which X-Station game suits you best?" she read.
"Which X-Station are we talking about?" Thorne asked. "X-Station 4? X-Station 2? X-Station G?"
"I don't know, it just says 'X-Station'. I guess we'll see," Heather giggled. "I'll go first… Question 1: Which colour of these calls out to you? Um… hm… this dark blue one! Okay, Question 2: Which set of armour would you wear?" She looked through the offered selection. "I like this black one, with the big gauntlet!"
"Really?" Thorne asked. "I thought you would go with the sexy one with the red fabric."
"Who do you think I am, some gamer girl?" Heather asked, sounding offended.
"Well, I was just judging based on your internet feed," Thorne blushed.
Heather sighed, but continued the quiz. "Question 3: Which house looks coolest? Um… hm.. this one's tough… I like the cabin!"
"Interesting," commented Thorne. "I think I like that one too."
"It's not your turn yet, is it?" Heather asked, sticking out her tongue.
Thorne chuckled. He felt like he was really close to Heather, even despite all of her personal identity issues.
Indeed, Thorne had forged a special link with Heather: The Magician. Symbolizing talents, resources, and self-initiated transformation, Heather would soon awaken to something great, right before Thorne's eyes.
