Chapter Five

Teal paid the cab driver and got out of the car. She looked across the street and seen a pretty big building, with a big sign across it that said "Echo" in big letters. The music from the club was heard from outside, and the line was pretty long. That was the one thing she hated about going to clubs, the lines were extra long on the weekends. Luckily, when she got on the line, it moved up pretty quickly, and she was at the front in no time. She showed the bouncer her ID and he let her inside. The inside of the club was even bigger, and it was more like a rave. It was pretty crowded on both the dance floor and in the VIP areas. GoGo dancers hung from the ceilings in cages, dancing along to the music. As much as she wanted to go on the dance floor and dance herself, she knew that she was there for one reason, and one reason only. She looked up at the VIP section, and it was pretty normal, except for one area that was heavily guarded. She looked closely and seen two girls sitting down, with drinks in their hands. That must be Nina and Anna...I gotta find a way to get up there, Teal thought. Just then, she felt someone grab her arm, and she turned around quickly, only to see Christie with a big smile on her face.

"Teal, heyyy!" Christie slurred.

"Hey Christie?" Teal said, it sounding more like a question than a statement. "What are you doing here?"

"I had to go celebrate my first tournament victory. What are you doing here? You didn't tell me you would be here too."

"Uh, yeah, I wanted to celebrate my first victory too." Teal lied, glancing back up at the VIP section. I need to get up there!, she thought again.

"Cool cool...you wanna go on the dance floor? I need another dance in before I leave for the night." Christie said.`

"Um...can you get us up to the VIP section?" Teal asked. "We can dance up there."

"Yeah, I can get us up there. Come on."

Christie grabbed Teal's arm and lead her up the stairs. After flirting with one of the bouncers, he had let both of them through.

"Where do you wanna go?" Christie asked.

"Let's go over there." Teal said, pointing to the table next to Nina and Anna.

They walked over to the table and Teal sat down, while Christie stood up, dancing. Teal sat so where she was back to back with Nina, but could still hear everything that she was saying.

"Anna, we have to come to some sort of agreement. I'm not going back to Jin with no answer." She heard Nina say.

"I've already made my decision, Nina." Anna said. "I'm sticking to it."

"Teal." Christie slurred loudly. "You sure you don't wanna dance?"

Teal quickly looked at Christie and shook her head. "No, my feet hurt. Can you go get me a drink?"

"Yeah, sure. Be right back." Christie began stumbling away, almost falling over her own feet.

Teal sat lower in her seat so that she could hear better over the loud music.

"Look, I don't like you, and you don't like me-" Nina started.

"You got that right." Anna said.

"So let's get this fucking over with." Nina said. "Whoever wins this tournament, is who the Zaibatsu will use to carry the final mission out."

"You can think that, but G Corp will get to that person first." Anna spat.

"You can't do that!" Nina yelled.

"Why not!" Anna yelled back.

It was quiet between them for a couple of seconds, and Teal assume it was because they were in each others faces. Everything began to get tuned out again as Teal was beginning to have another vision. It was blurry, but before it could clear up, shots were fired from downstairs in the club. The screams of everyone in the club caused Teal's vision to suddenly go away, and she looked around quickly as her eyes changed back to it's normal color. The rest of the people in the VIP area were running downstairs, towards the exits, and she caught a glance of Nina and Anna leaving out of the club also.

"Damn! So close..." Teal said out loud.

She then felt someone grab her, and it was Christie again.

"Teal, we gotta get out of here before we got shot up as well." Christie yelled over the screams.

"Okay."

Once they were able to leave out of the club, Teal had noticed that Christie had sobered up quick.

"That...was crazy." She panted. "So much for me celebrating my first win."

"Yeah...I think I'm gonna head back to the hotel now. I'm dead tired." Teal said.

"That sounds like a good idea. We should catch a cab together." Christie said,

"Okay."

They got into a cab and was back at the hotel within 15 minutes. Once they were there, Teal had told Christie goodnight and made her way back to her hotel room. She took off her boots as soon as she got inside, and made her way to the bathroom. She took her headband off and began brushing her hair back into a ponytail. She suddenly stopped brushing and looked at herself in the mirror, a flashback creeping into her mind, instead of her normal visions. She could see herself, younger, almost 13 years old. She also saw Jin, who was almost 15. The two of them had a close, almost brother/sister type of friendship. In her flashback, she had seen the two of them doing what they did the most, watching Japanese cartoons inside of her living room. The flashback was short, and simple...

"Jin, why do you always call me raion?" She asked him.

Jin looked at her and smiled, putting another piece of a potato chip in his mouth. "Because you're hair is like a raion; a lion."

Teal did her infamous pouty face. "So now your calling me Lion because my hair too? That's mean."

Jin laughed and shook his head. "Yeah, but that's not the only reason why. I call you a Lion because I think your fierce, and a strong girl."

"Ha, thanks!" Teal said. "Stronger than you?"

"I don't know about all of that." Jin joked.

They both began laughing as the flashback began fading away. Teal finished putting her hair in a ponytail and sighed. She missed Jin as a friend, no doubt. But she definitely had resentment towards him. He had up and left her during the hardest time of her life, and she never really got over it. She did seem to forget about it, but hearing his name and seeing that picture of him now, definitely brought back old feelings. After wrapping her hair in a headscarf, and got into her hotel bed and drifted off into a deep sleep.