Echo Demter Eight

Amino sits at the bar with her hands on her chin. She’s worried sick about Runaway, but Rook is worried sick about her.

He sits next to her and the two of them look out into the crowd of partygoers.

Rook: Do you need a drink?

Amino: I don’t drink, alcohol is a drug.

Rook: Right. I don’t either, but I used to. I had to stop, because I didn’t want to set a bad example for my girls. Also, Nadia would’ve crucified me if I drank in front of them.

Amino: Heh. Cedric wanted me to drink. He said it would help relieve stress.

Rook: It does, but at the cost of your health.

Amino: Ah! Another short term solution with a drawback. Hate those.

Rook looked around for something else to talk about, but he didn’t need to look for long. Amino found it for him.

Amino: Dmitry. Look behind the bar.

Rook looked behind the bar counter and saw something unexpected.

Rook: Are those…Crow’s headphones?

Amino leaped over the counter and grabbed the headphones and looked around to see if she could find Crow.

Amino: Something’s wrong. He can’t survive without these.

Rook: Why would he take them off?

Amino looked to the ground where she found them and noticed how one of the tiles on the floor seemed to be slightly tilted. An unimportant detail, a normal person would have overlooked it. But, Maria Salvador is no ordinary person.

She knelt down and pressed on the tile. The rest of the floor seemed to eat the tile as it opened and revealed a secret passageway into a dimly lit hallway.

The two of them looked into the hallway. Rook laughed.

Rook: So, we don’t even get a break at a party?

Amino: You know the answer to that.

Rook laughed again. He jumped over the counter and looked around consciously.

Rook: We need to hurry, someone might notice that we’re doing things we have no business doing.

Amino: Okay, rescue mission. Get Crow, get out, and pretend nothing ever happened.

Rook: Sounds like a plan.

Amino nodded before unsheathing the garden shear underneath her dress. Rook tapped his wrist watch and it expanded into a circular disk.

Amino: What does that do?

Rook: It’s a smaller version of my shield. Should get the job done just fine.

Amino: Alrighty. Hopefully Bird Boy thanks me after this.

The two of them descended into the hallway and prepared themselves for whatever awaited them.