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In the circle center, facing their performative rivals, The Everglow Girlz lined up in a dance V formation. Issy stood in the furthest front and center, Maria was to her left, while Toni was to her right, and in the furthest back, Barlog stood at the right flank, and Emmelia stood at the furthest left flank; all wearing their individualized masks.
Allone slowly descended from an elevated platform, held up by a thread of silk, to greet the performing challengers. Curdenway gave them a small nod. Placing a thin roll of paper with a trail of smoke into the corner of his mouth, he took a firm bite into it and slowly ground it with his teeth from where he eased into his resting chair on the high-rise platform.
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As the music began, the girls commanded the attention from the center of the stage, snapping into choreographed poses as well as instantly taking control over the music. Vocalizing together through their intro, not only was their presence strong, but so was the light glowing from their masks. Issy's solo began their song while the rest supported her vocally, and they never strayed from each other.
If the audience blinked for even just a moment, it would appear as though Allone has seemingly disappeared from the performance, but it was Barlog who pulled the eyeline with a quick drumming up of the music, each muscular arm stretched, curled, and braced for almost an unseen force.
Shimmering trails of glitter traced the path in which Allone charged, to then be parried, rotating around the arm with a binding band of silk for another, and over and over again till they parted. In his dash past the girls' group, a gleaming streak was left in his wake.
As Curdenway aimed up his shot through the reflection of Maria's glasses, in a quick twirl and flip of the accessory, a motion that rippled through their formation, so did a shimmering rainbow gleam around them and rammed into the bullet's trajectory.
Traces of light danced from their fingertips as their movements summoned walls of light, illuminating their presentation that bent and redirected Allone's untraceable sprints. As their group was named, the girls truly glowed with smiles, performance, and through the masks that they wore, enjoying the art of performance and the showering sparks of their manifested lights, bursting through the ricochet shots of the sniper.
One of them did notice something different, though. Maria saw how some of the special effects that illuminated around them weren't just from the effects, but traced from a part of her ear. For the performance, she simply brushed it off and tucked her ears back with her hair as though nothing had happened.
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Their dance was breathtaking. Emmelia and Toni's sequence together curled and twirled the yarn of her cast between the two into an unusual but completely effective iconography of protection through a blossoming flower. Once struck by Curdenway's next shot, the spell was shattered into a bloom of fluttering butterflies around the girls, to their next phase.
The tempo had continued to increase to a pace that they started to struggle keeping up with, and resorted to taking back control over the music with their voices. Harmonizing, all 5 sang in unison in a high, pure, and perfectly in sync. The sound of their voices combined sent waves through the performing arena, making the air much more dense and applying physical pressure onto the tent walls. But that air pressure made movement much slower.
It was quite clear the paths Allone had made for himself and how some strings had been snapped by the sniper shots. This caused the lines to change their pathing, all of which he solely ran on in both the grace and speed of a high-wire performer and speed demon.
Issy was next in the line of sight for both the spider and the sniper, so that she could now see herself. Her eyes met his, through the rims of his glasses, peering into the cynical delight that was barely veiled through the joys of entertainment that brought a smile to his face.
She lost her concentration, her notes faltered, and they lost the field and aura they had accumulated through the performance. She took a step back from where she had seen Allone, letting out a small, fearful peep. With nothing restricting his movements, he was free to move- and in an instant, he vanished.
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The duo's actions were quick and concise, well-timed and even better coordinated. Barely had the sound of her fear passed her lips when an unseen force crashed into her side and broke the girls' formation, their illuminations in turn fell with her. As Issy fell, the sniper took his shot. Panels and mechanical systems flaring from the sides of the gun as the bullet left the barrel. While the shots taken before had their variations, this one was too obviously different from the rest, and the effects were rather catastrophic.
Before Issy fell onto the floor, a thin line of confetti shot out from behind her as everyone turned with held breaths. In the next heartbeat, the lead's shoulder exploded in a flurry of color.
Collapsing onto the ground and gripping onto her arm, she let out a pained and guttural scream that pulled all attention away from anything else in that moment. The other girls rushed to her side, abandoning the performance. Toni immediately began slowly healing the injury while Maria turned to the sniper in the rafters, screaming to him, "WHAT IS WRONG WITH-". Her speech was cut off by the high-pitched sound of not just a bullet flying by, but through her ear completely this time, unlike the scrape before. She quickly folded her tall rabbit ears back down to where she had them before, holding where the injury burned and throbbed.
Barlog stood up and over where the girls knelt by their teammate, taking a wide stance moments before a loud impact sounded that kicked up a cloud of dirt. This dust came from the grounded stance she took, the bottom of her shoes digging into the ground as she took the full force of an unprecedented speed and stopped Allone in his tracks with her brute strength. Her body trembled at the force, but she stood sturdy against it, even when one of her upper arms slowly but quickly began turning a dark shade of purple.
The two were locked in a tense stalemate, but with the knife at his side, Barlog took one step back in a large sweeping motion and redirected the acrobat off his path and into one of the tent poles.
"We forfeit." Maria cried out. "We'll take the loss and whatever detriment that comes with it." She said, trying her hardest to be her usual brave and cocky self but the note in her voice gave away she was just on the brink of tears.
Allone pulled himself up onto one of the higher-strung silk threads and sat for a moment thinking about it, rather perplexed. "But that's not how it works, doesn't it?" he said, seemingly to the open air.
In response, one of the torches lighting up the area flickered, a wailing horse skull erupted out of it, Reign already on her fully summoned bike, hood pulled up and over. "It is now," she said blandly while Frostine quickly ran over to where the girls tended to their lead in earnest worry and concern.
"But that wasn't the rule before." Allone rebutted, but Reign caught the black light that flared up Allone's mask, something he couldn't see as she answered him. "Well, it is now." Her tone was sharp and strict. "With the addition of our V.I.P. guests, a lot of rules have changed. I would strongly suggest that you revisit your script," she scolded darkly. "The broadcast is over," she announced. Turning to face the camera and a flick of her hand, the signal was cut off rather abruptly before the channel went offline.