Before the usual author's note, I want to say that M.O.C. won this month's crew throwdown! I have been waiting forever! Once I get my paycheck, I'm so buying the iPhone 5 cover, and the Tan Industries/M.O.C. shirt! I've never been this happy in my life! :D Enough of my fangirling here! XD

Now here's the main event! I'm excited for this because I think DC2 has the best planning for the story, but I think DC3 has the best story overall, you know what I mean? XD Well, those who love Riptide, begin to enjoy this chapter!

Agent Glitch: Hope that Oblio's cooking will make you feel better. XD And I speculated that Rasa could have worked for Tan since what you clearly stated is in the story. But right now, I'm still doing my best to update as soon as I can. ^_^

DCFan4ever: There will be some, maybe in this chapter, or later. ;)

AfricanAmazon: Girl, MacCoy loves those goggles. D: Just kidding as well. XD

And for the others that reviewed, thanks a lot! Now, let's get this started!

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~Chapter Eighteen: High Tide Beach~

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Day one of the crew challenges is finally here. It's also the day that Rasa and Lima will investigate more of what Dr. Tan is planning. For now, however, it's more likely the time to relax, because it doesn't start until sunset, especially for Riptide's time. Although, it's only six in the morning, so going right now would be weird to do for the time being.

Since everyone was still sleeping, Luce decided that it was the perfect time to take a shower and fit into her new DCI agent clothing. Putting down her Fallen novel on her slightly messy bed, she gathered her clothes and headed to the next couple of doors to the left, where the bathrooms were. Once she settled there, she put her folded clothes down on the counter, played some music on her phone to pass the time, stripped down, and went into the shower. It was wide and big enough for her to stretch her arms, although her shower back at home wasn't too bad.

One of her favorite songs "Ghosts N Stuff" began to play, and the sound of the organ playing was outstanding and exciting. She has both the vocal and instrumental versions, but the instrumental one, in her opinion, sounded better because it sounded mysterious without lyrics. As the hot water soothes her skin while a good song is playing, Luce founded her own personal peace, despite her hatred of loneliness.

When she thought of the loneliness, she immediately thought of Oblio. What would it be like for her to face what he has faced? Being alone with a working, but secretly evil father was over the limit. Who knows what he was doing behind his back, and his mother's, despite not being in this world anymore? Hearing a knock on the door, Luce turned off the shower, and wrapped a towel around her body, not wanting the person outside the door waiting to be impatient. Despite having her whole body and hair dripping, she opened the door, and through her blurred vision, she sees Lima.

Luce sighed with relief, feeling thankful that it wasn't a man. "Morning, Lima. Is there something you want?" Luce asked, gripping her towel due to feeling cold. The older brunette nodded.

"Yes, Rasa and I are about to get breakfast, so is there anything you want?" Luce thought it was kind of them to get breakfast since the crew throwdown is starting this evening. As Luce told her what she wanted, Lima nodded and went to the rooms where the other three would be sleeping at. Luce used the time to hurriedly close the door so that she can feel warm again. As much as she doesn't want to waste enough water, she decided to take a bath so that the time will pass for her hair to dry off with the towel she just put on.

She got in as the water became warm and the steam rose from it. Luce felt like she was at home again, and that's a good thing. She wondered how Claire was doing now that she was at home by herself. Even Angel, Emilia, and Mo came to mind. If they notice that she's a DCI agent now, will she still be friends with them?

Luce smiled and shook her head, getting out of the bath after a five-minute relaxation from it. Drying her hair carefully and putting on her glasses, Luce knew in her heart that her friends would be happy for her. Maybe in the future, they can be DCI agents as well. She slowly put on her new DCI agent outfit. Despite purple not being her favorite color, she grinned at how good it looked on her. After she brushed her teeth, she went out the door to see Dare and MacCoy in arm and arm, also in their DCI agent outfits.

They waved to her as they walk to the elevator, and Luce waved back with a smile. She paused for a moment to check the time and see if she got any notifications. Asides from a couple of text messages, Luce decided to wait until later to reply back. When she walked toward the elevator, she noticed Oblio heading inside. The brunette froze. The bluenette smiled at her and leaned back to the wall.

"Might want to hurry up," he said. Luce walked up to the elevator, but a second later, it started to close, so she walked faster. Barely making it, Oblio carefully dragged her into the elevator with him, her hands being on his shoulders when she stood in front of him. The door closed, and to Luce's relief, she chuckled, realizing the thrill of getting into new heights like that. "Morning," Oblio said with a raspy voice.

Luce stepped back and felt her heart race when his voice was that low. She smiled at the greeting, however. "Morning to you as well." She glimpsed down carefully to see his DCI outfit, and it was fitting and amazing on him. "Did you sleep okay?" Oblio frowned, but he wasn't sad about the question. He looked away for a second.

"I thought I would, but at around five, I heard a crow cry in my sleep, but there weren't any windows. And then I dreamed of my mother; she looked ecstatic, but after she embraced me..." He sighed, shaking his head. Luce frowned, biting her lip because she wanted to ask him something, but she worried that he would be upset if she would say it.

"If it's okay to ask, how did she and your father meet?"

"They met at a university, five years before I was born. My mother wanted to be a botanist, while my father was earning his Ph.D. in his last year at university. Before I found out my father was insane, he would tell me that she loved flowers and wanted to research them. She even planned to have flowers for me on my birthday, to show how lucky she was to give birth to me. Sadly, I'll never know what her favorite flowers, books, or what she wanted me to be, even if she would accept what I want."

Luce looked into his blue eyes calmly, seeing how sad he looked now. "Oblio, I..." The ride to the headquarters was over before she can even continue, and as much as Oblio wanted to hear her compassion, he went out of the elevator and took note of what Rasa and Lima are doing. Luce found MacCoy and Dare eating breakfast and chatting, and they motioned her to head to where they are at. Luce smirked and when they gave her a bag, she looked and noticed her breakfast is in there.

"Are you ready for the crew challenges today, Diamond?" Dare said with a cheerful tone in her voice, giving Luce her drink. She nodded, eating her chicken biscuit and drinking into her wild berry smoothie.

"We've been to the beach before, but I wonder what it will look like now that Riptide owns the place?" MacCoy asked, drinking his beverage. Luce shrugged.

"Knowing Emilia, she could have added a stand for drinks. Their theme for there does involve sports, after all," Luce suggested. D-Coy nodded in agreement.

"Who knows how many people will be there?" Dare asked. This time, MacCoy shrugged. Finished with her breakfast, Luce went to the other three and looked at what they'd discovered from last night.

"Good thing you came at the right time, Luce," Rasa said, pressing a button on the computer keyboard. "We have found out what the old doctor has titled his plan."

"He calls it, 'Tan Step,' and one of his objectives is to rule Central City and rename it, 'Tan City,' for his own glory." Despite the typical taking-over-the-city plan, it does sound serious and it should be stopped as soon as possible.

"I just don't see why he wants to do this to dancing. I wonder what's striving him to do this?" Luce said, crossing her arms when she looked at the picture of Dr. Tan's file. Oblio glared at the picture of his father, his hands turning to fists. The brunette noticed and started to worry, so she placed her small hands on his large one. She placed her hands on his for some time, hoping it will calm him down. Since it did, he sighed and looked at her pitifully.

"I'm sorry, Luce," he said apologetically. She smiled at him, a way of forgiving him.

"We'll stop him," she replied kindly.

To pass the time, the four decided to head to Riptide's location to check on the construction. It turns out that it will take place exactly where the basketball court is, and there's even a small bonfire going on, probably just in case the dancing can take place at night. Holding Boomy, the boombox that DCI has assigned to the four, Luce put it down and saw Emilia and Bodie doing exercises before they can get started with the dance competitions they'll be having, along with some people challenging them to see if they're worthy of being in their crew.

A few feet away, Bodie noticed the four watching and waved at them. The green-eyed girl looked at what he was doing, then smiled and motioned them to come over where they are. "Hey!" Emilia said cheerfully.

"What brings you all here?" Bodie said, giving Luce, Dare, and MacCoy a fist pump, while he looked at Oblio curiously. "And you are?"

"Luce's crew partner, Oblio," the bluenette replied, giving him a small smile and returning the fist pump, just to be considerate.

"We're here because..." Dare trailed, turning her head to the other three. "Should we tell them?" she asked in a whisper.

"It's not like it's Tan or anything," MacCoy replied. Luce and Oblio looked at each other with shrugs. When they looked at the pink-haired Japanese, they gave her a nod. Out of their huddle, Dare smiled at them.

"We are... investigating," she decided to add. "DCI asked the four of us to look after you four crews just in case." Emilia crossed her arms with a smile.

"Well, you all must be lucky then. I guess Bodie and I will work harder so we can become agents as well." Bodie placed an arm on her shoulder, grinning along with her.

"But for now, I think that you four should watch the first crew challenge," the blond said. "We'll bring the party up to its greatest." After a few minutes, more than about twenty people arrived to rep for Riptide, have a battle against them or see if they can make it to be a part of their crew. So many songs that are upbeat are playing right now. From "I Like It," to Massive Attack," Riptide knows what their genres are and how they can win the future crew throwdown.

So far, nothing bad happened, and for the first day, it was great. Those who challenged Riptide had more losses than wins, but it was fair and fun, so no damage was done. It lasted for five hours, and it took another thirty for the four to help clean up the place, along with Emilia and Bodie. It was the life of the party, so it was worth cleaning up the beach. As Luce waved goodbye to Emilia and Bodie, she got on Oblio's motorcycle, and off he went back to DCI headquarters, along with MacCoy's van trailing behind.

"So who's next after Riptide?" Luce asked enough for Oblio to hear.

"We should know by tomorrow," he replied calmly. While waiting for the red light to turn green, Oblio glared at his father's tall building, TanCorps. No matter what it takes, he'll make sure that he will stop his father's actions at any cost. As the light changed color, Oblio and MacCoy revved their vehicles to the building where DCI would lay low secretly, headed to the telephone booth, and then it turned into an elevator. The four of them noticed Rasa and Lima still working on Dr. Tan, just to be sure and accurate.

"We've returned!" Dare and MacCoy said together. The DCI crew smiled back at them.

"What's the status?" Rasa asked.

"Nothing bad happened, and we have the songs' data listed in Boomy," Luce replied, giving the boombox back to them. Lima took it and put it down beside her.

"Very good. It's about... ten o'clock, so I suggest you get some rest. Bring your uniforms to the laundry room and have a good night."

As the four young adults head to the elevator to their respective rooms and do what the DCI assistant said, one of the DCI crew members sat down at their rotating chairs and looked at the computer for the information they'd typed into loaded. Lima crossed her arms while Rasa walked ten steps and rinse and repeat behind the brunette and computer. When the loading finished, Lima typed it on her tablet. While doing so, she looked sad. Rasa noticed when he tilted his head after his walking.

"What's wrong?" he asked. Lima turned her chair around and showed him what she typed from the computer. As she gave it to him, she plugged Boomy into the computer so that they can get the song data as well.

"Dr. Tan's not doing it for himself. There's a reason darker than that. And I wonder... if Oblio even knows the reason." Rasa's emerald eyes blinked and they reacted to what his assistant meant.

"I doubt it, but the others, especially Luce, would feel his sympathy more than anyone else in this area." Rasa does know of the four's past, mostly D-Coy's and Luce's because they're more open, unlike Oblio, except for his family tree and background.

"What do you mean?" Lima asked, turning off her tablet. Since they have been busy with DCI work, they didn't have time to follow the news except for the media in general. Before Rasa can speak, he adjusted his tie, and look dead straight into his assistant's brown eyes. He gave a long sigh so that he can relieve himself.

"Luce's mother died last year due to madman being in the dose of drugs and alcohol. Because of that, she knows how Oblio feels about not having a mother, but sadly, she'll never know the pain of losing one after birth..."

Lima instantly thought of Luce's last name, because that can define who she is related to. The brunette gasped and stood up. "The Katherine Valentine, the dancer and actress?" Rasa nodded. Lima shook her head slowly. "Oh, God. I knew she had a son, but as I recalled when I was little, watching TV with my mother, they never said anything about her having a daughter; just a son." Rasa nodded in agreement.

"They didn't tell the press about it until years later. Katherine wanted to make sure that Luce was taken care of, so she was on hiatus until Luce started school. As for her son, she did love him, but she and Luce's father met and fell in love during her video shoot for a music video. I guess you know the rest." Lima nodded.

"When she found out that she was pregnant with Luce's brother, Connor Valentine, a famous movie and music video director, proposed to her, and they were happily married. I heard that when she died, Connor couldn't look at Luce for around that time." Lima frowned with remorse for Luce. "I just hope that Luce is strong enough to help Oblio." Rasa placed a hand on her shoulder, giving her a reassuring smile.

"I'm sure she will be. After all, she's a part of Lightning with him."

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~Chapter Nineteen coming soon...~

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One down, four to go! I know there are a couple of you that are excited for the Glitterati to finally appear (and me too!), but I want to know who else you're excited for! I also wonder who's looking forward for Luce and Oblio's relationship growing stronger? I know I am, but I'm still trying to write down the next chapters, so it can happen in a way you wouldn't expect it!

Aaand another thing: at first, I was originally going to make Oblio head into the same bathroom that Luce was in while she was showering (he would be wearing earbuds, so he couldn't hear), but I was like, "Never mind; Too typical in a fanfiction." XD

Be sure to leave a review, my dancers! I love your opinions and all that good stuff! ^_^