Chapter 254: Chapter Two Hundred Fifty Five

I expected to be stopped at the door of the Shuffle Masquerade, given  Callie was with me and apparently the triplets hated her, but to my  surprise the bouncer just waved us both through. Once we got inside, I  stuck close to her so we didn't get separated. It was...a lot. I wasn't  overly fond of places like this. It wasn't just the crowds, I'd dealt  with those before, it was more that the sensation of churning bodies  packed into a small building like this made me feel like I was in a  pressure cooker.

Callie knew me well enough to know I'd be  uncomfortable here, hence her offer to back out, but I was able to  ignore the feeling by leaning a bit harder on my Focus than was normal.  In the state of logic processing that was Focus, it was easy to  hyperconcentrate on just one thing and let the rest of it fall away. I  focused on Callie, making sure she was safe and nearby, and it wasn't as  hard to block everything out.

It certainly helped that it  was so much fun to watch her like this. She was practically buzzing  with excitement, and constantly looking around like she expected to get  caught with her hand in the cookie jar any moment now. She didn't seem  anxious though. Just energized. This was a bad idea. She knew it, I knew  it, but neither of us cared. She wanted to do it, and I wanted her to  make a couple mistakes. She spent so much time focused on others, on  being the perfect leader. She deserved to do something dumb just because  she felt like it.

Despite watching her with all my Focus,  I wasn't able to completely block out everything else. My Perception  still mapped the room around us, even as a second thought, so I was able  to both avoid tripping over my own feet and get an idea of what this  place was like. The masquerade was, in a word, strange. The theme here  seemed to be black and white marble with splashes of red. The tiles were  all different sizes, the furniture of different designs, and even the  layout looked chaotic and haphazard in a way that somehow gave the  impression of being intentional.

While the Masquerade was a  gestalt of chaos and variety, it was clear each aspect had been  carefully placed, and that the sheer chaos of the nature  of this place  created an almost homogenous impression. The people certainly seemed to  enjoy it, and I could see dozens of dozens of people in a combination of  cape outfits and formal party clothes dancing and writhing around us  all, with a few small areas of calm amidst the tumult. A table with  ropes around it, a bar, a door seeming to lead up to a second level of  the club that overlooked the entire dance floor.

We, of  course, were heading for the latter. The door leading up to the second  level seemed to be where the triplets were most likely to be spending  time, and Callie wanted to bait the three of them. I probably should  have been nervous about that part, but between the churning cauldron of  discomfort I was avoiding with my Focus and the excitement of a fight,  not to mention happiness that Callie was doing something for herself, I  almost didn't have room to think or worry about the possible negative  ramifications of my actions.

Plus, and I couldn't stress  this enough. I was NOT scared of these people. If spending three weeks  in daily sparring with Abel did one thing, it was normalize power. I was  so used to brawling with someone who might as well be an F-ranker, that  nothing short of that was going to actually scare me anymore. It was  like spending almost a month being chased around by a terrifying  monsters. Jump scares kind of lose their effect in comparison to the  real deal. That might be presumptuous and a bit cocky, and it might be  proven wrong soon enough, but somehow I doubted the triplets would be  the ones to do it, they were basically our age from what I could tell.

It  took less time than I'd expected to make it through the crowd. The man  standing guard at the door was colossal, even by my standards, probably a  full seven feet tall. He was only H-rank, which muted most of the  impression that would have made, but still, big guy. When he saw us, he  crossed his arms over his chest and glared down at us menacingly. Or  rather, at Callie. "Nightstrike." He said, in a voice that was much  higher pitched than expected from such a huge man. "Do you have an  invitation?"

Callie just gave him a wide smile. "Nope.  I've been out of town so I didn't have a chance to set up this little  visit. Tell Disaster I'm here to see her." Once she was finished talking  she just turned back to me, effectively ignoring the big man. He looked  annoyed, but also wary, and turned around to stalk upstairs, presumably  to inform his boss of who was asking for her.

I cocked my  head at Callie and she grinned, twining her arms around me as we  waited. "The triplets outnumber me three to one. If I show up and ask to  come in and they say no, I can just leave, but it tells everyone else  that they're too scared to face me, even with a numbers advantage.  Granted, he'll have noticed you too. But even two on three, not letting  us in sends the message that they're worried about us, which they really  can't afford." She smirked at me. "You didn't think I'd come here just  to get chased off did you?"

"I have no clue." I said with a  small shrug. "I'm just following your lead. The details are all you,  just tell me where to stand." The mouth of my mask opened, large enough  for me to press a kiss to her forehead. "This is your show." I pulled  back out of her embrace regretfully. "And speaking of shows, seems this  one is set to continue. That guy is coming back, we'd better get ready  for the big rvent."

Sure enough, less than a minute later  the towering form of the bouncer returned, glowering down at us.  "Disaster says I should let you in." He grimaced. "Your...friend, can  come too." The glower seemed even more extreme when aimed at me,  presumably because Callie was perceived as a legitimate threat after her  years in the spotlight and I was just a big dude in a mask. Still, I  WAS G-rank, so the guy didn't actually say anything to me. The chances  of this random bounced being able to punch up ranks were minimal. Hell, I  doubted anyone in the city could manage it, and even if they could,  they wouldn't be able to do it with Callie and I. We weren't your  average G-rankers.

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Turning and  gesturing for us to follow, the large man led us up the steps and into  the second floor of the club. To my complete lack of surprise, the  second floor, which looked like a small balcony from downstairs, was  much bigger on the inside. Entering the top level, we emerged out onto a  huge dance floor, easily equal in size to the bottom layer of the  building, albeit much less fancy and refined.

The  top floor was much more stereotypical night club in terms of design, at  least from what I'd come to expect from movies and books. The dance  floor in the middle was a series of glowing blue cubes pressed together  to create a square grid. Around the edges were railings and decks made  from some sort of opaque dark blue gemstone, with strange zaps of  electricity arcing through the material at irregular intervals that  seemed to somehow line up with the music.

Much  like the lower floor this place had plenty of people, though it wasn't  quite as packed. I noticed several suited forms wearing the masks that  denoted the Queen's people, though not the usual ones I saw in the  streets. Most of the hearts masks I saw on random thugs were ten masks,  with the number signifying their place in the organization. The people  here, however, were mostly sixes and sevens from what I could see, with  the sole exception of the three women sitting at the large table in the  back corner.

The  three of them, all wearing what looked like corseted dresses with wavy  skirts, each a different color, all had heart masks with the letter A on  them, something I'd never seen before. Aces, I supposed, which made  sense since the Ace was simultaneously the highest and lowest value card  in the deck. If these were the Queen's daughters the Ace designation  was probably how she marked them as second in command and also reminded  everyone they were actually fairly low on the chain of command.

As  I drew closer, I was able to see them more clearly. A brunette, a  blonde, and a redhead, all with long, nearly identical haircuts. We made  our way straight for the table, Callie dragging me by the hand to  approach the three women. I didn't think we were going to fight so soon,  they wouldn't be stupid enough to get baited into attacking within  seconds of our arrival, right? As we got closer, I could see the  identical green eyes behind the masks fixed on us. "Nightstrike." They  said in unison as we got closer. "To what do we owe the pleasure."

I  winced. That was really creepy. They almost had to practice that.  Callie's grimace showed she didn't like it either, but she wasn't going  to give them the satisfaction of admitting it. She just raised en  eyebrow, her eyes fixed on the redhead. "Disaster. Thanks for the  invite. Always nice to see you. Hope your mother is well, I haven't seen  her is quite a while."

Politics  made my head hurt. Everything Callie had just said was pleasant and  polite, but I could tell from her tone she'd been taking some sort of  potshot at the trio and the Queen herself. I personally preferred the  direct approach. What ever happened to just calling someone an asshole  to their face? On the upside, it seemed to break them out of their weird  unison talking thing, because the redhead, Disaster, looked over to me  in interest. "And who is your friend? I didn't realize we were in such  esteemed company? A G-ranker from the capital I take it?"

I  was kind of bummed she didn't recognize, me if only because I'd thought  my reputation in Valen had been pretty good since beating Stricture.  Still, it was kind of cool to be taken seriously. Callie didn't seem to  share that impression, and I winced a bit as her hand tightened around  mine in annoyance. Not hard enough to crush my fingers or anything, but  tight enough to be momentarily uncomfortable. "You know very well who he  is." She  said, in a calm, measured voice. "This is my boyfriend  Solomon."

Ah,  it had just been more political bullshit. Fair enough. I raised my none  crushed hand and waved. "Hi." All three of them looked at me intently,  and Callie glared. I slowly put my hand down. Right, I was clearly  missing some of the not so subtle undertones here. "Hey, Nightstrike,  why don't we go get something to drink." I said as cheerfully as  possible. Fighting I was fine with, but this was just uncomfortable, I  wanted to leave.

That  seemed to be the right thing to say, because Callie smiled brightly.  "That's a great idea!" She turned to the other girls with an extremely  fake grin on her face. "We're going to go enjoy the festivities, thanks  again for the invite. We'll see you all later." Then she dragged me  away, off toward the small bar that the second floor had available. I  breathed a sigh of relief as soon as we were clear. That had been so  awkward. I hoped the rest of the night would be much more  non-confrontational. I was just here to support my girlfriend and punch  things. Why did people have to be so aggressive?

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