Chapter 13
Strange Happenings
Everyone was there, staring at the dark red, heavy curtains covering the stage. Adain could hear them whispering. In her black skort and black cami, Adain was fairly confident. Black always did that to her. Her long mud colored hair was brushed strait and hung down her back after being thrown back from her temples. Adain was the last one to perform. Sissy was in her pink tutu again, purposefully whacking everyone in the face with her shoes. Adain resolved that if she did it one more time, Adain would put a wall around her and she wouldn't be able to touch anyone for the rest of the evening.
Seeing Adain's smirk and remembering what had happened the last time Sissy had gotten one Adain's nerves, Sissy put her foot down I a sign of truce.
"Hello everybody, are you all having a good time?" the crowd quieted as the principal spoke. "Welcome to the Talent Show!" the swarm of people took their cue and cheered. "Our first contestant will be" Adain stopped listening at this point, knowing that she did not have to worry about making her act, since she had about an hour left. She just sat with her back to the carpeted wall backstage and meditated.
One of the judges was waving a hand in front of her face, saying, "You're on deck, hon." Adain nodded and stood up and stretched.
The lights went down and the principal said, "And for your own viewing enjoyment, Adain Red Dragon!"
Adain walked on smiling as the spotlight followed her. Going into a ballet third position, she moved her arms so that they were positioned daintily behind her hips. The intro to her song started. At the first instrumental she did her gymnastics routine, consisting of back and front flips, back handsprings, round offs and a split flip (you go into a split then you throw your weight over your body and do a vertical 360). Then she started singing again, expertly ignoring the oohs and ahhs she was getting for her fancy display. Then something hit the roof.
Adain stopped and looked up, then took five steps to the left and said, "Oh, shit." A XANA monster, it looked like a mini crab, around Adain's height fell through the ceiling where Adain had been. Before she could ponder the strangeness of why that always worked, Yumi was up on stage with her and tossing her what looked like a sharpened stick. Doing a perfectly coordinated handspring onto the Mini Crab's back, Yumi shoved the stick into the eye thing on it's back and it blew up, showering the crowed with sparkly dust.
"Did you bring the fan?" Adain whispered to Yumi.
"Yeah, but what good will that do us now?"
"We make the audience think it's part of the show, while saving their lives. All we need is the fan and Ulrich."
As if on cue, Ulrich fell down the hole in the ceiling. "What were you doing up there, playing hide and seek?" Adain wanted to know. For some reason, Ulrich had the fan. He chucked it at Yumi who dipped and spun, fluttering the fan in front of her face before tossing it to Adain. Who back flipped into the center of the circle, shut the fan and held it above her. The M-crab that fell down the hole next disintegrated on the pointy end of the fan. Adain then threw it to Ulrich. The three were slowly seeping into the rhythm of the game. Flashes of red were the only thing you should see of the fast moving fan, as Ulrich jumped into a one handed handstand and threw it to Yumi, it passed through a few hornets as it went by. Yumi cartwheeled into the center, then cartwheeled back, holding the fan in front of her face the whole time. Yumi threw it to Adain who yelled, "Kumo ashi!"
(That means move)
Adain did a no handed cartwheel to the other side of the triangle and Yumi and Ulrich flipped to the front of the stage. They ended up with their faces about an inch apart. Blushing they moved to opposite sides of the triangle. It was all very synchronized.
"Scanner Odd. Transfer Odd. Virtualization." In all the commotion, Jeremy and Odd had slipped out and went to the factory. Aelita had found the tower, and it was only guarded by one block. Odd took this one down as Aelita deactivated the tower, but before anything could rewind, it all just froze. Odd, who was waiting to return to the past, saw someone who looked vaguely like Ulrich walking towards him.
"Oi! Ulrich! Over here!" Odd called to the shadow enveloped figure.
"I'm not Ulrich." A low female voice sounded from the darkness. Odd suddenly felt very cold.