“ONE! TWO! THREE! LET’S GO!”

Lights blaring, music blasting, feet moving. Popster was in the zone, making sure that the surrounding crowds of people were all directly looking her way. She knew what she had to do and executed it with near perfection. She just needed to please everyone she could. Although this was still technically a group performance with the rest of her group, no one else mattered. She outshone all of them.

Her performance had to be consistent with a specific routine that was laid out to her and the others beforehand. She could easily do all the dancing segments, even with distractions (She wouldn’t be an idol if she couldn’t). The issues rise when the performance asks for her to use her kinetic abilities to heighten the performance quality.

In normal circumstances, this would be simple as she’d done similar routines hundreds of times, however…

This purple glow prevented any smooth sailing.

She already knew that she was going to need to use her kinesis wisely.

“Yeah. That’s some talent right there.”

“SO SPARKLY!”

“It really is.”

Urchiri had left her seat earlier to stand near Stress’s seat at the very top of the stands. Watching Popster from afar, barely being able to make out her movements. Yet despite this, you could probably see her from a mile away. That form, those moves; it was all too distinct.

“How does she dance like that?” Urchiri said in a curious manner.

“I’d love to tell you, but this is not my expertise. It’s probably just a lot of routine and practice to be honest.”

“So… if I try hard enough, I can do that?”

“Maybe. You’d probably need a different build for that though.”

“What do you mean by build?”

“The way your body is built. Your structure and stature. That type of stuff.”

“Wooooah, I don’t know those words!”

“I swear you need to learn your vocab soon enough otherwise I might go insane.”

“Vocab?”

Stress didn’t respond after that. The blaring lights and music were rending enough.

Popster was still slightly wary. No signal, no delay, no nothing was going to warn her.

“H e l l o , - I d o l.”

A fractured, raspy voice appeared in her head. Telepathy, so it seemed. She already recognised the voice and knew that it was coming from the top of the stands. She had to focus on the performance, so she couldn’t look in that area for too long without getting some questions from viewers. Attracting attention to the observer, the source of the voice from the top of the stands, was the last thing she wanted to do.

“I - d o - a p o l o g i s e - f o r - m y - c r u d e - a c t i o n s . O r d e r s - c o m e - f i r s t . Y o u - k n o w - t h a t , - r i g h t ?”

She didn’t want to give any form of acknowledgement to it, although she was starting to wonder when the performance ended.

There were 3 segments left. The end of the first one of those required a kinetic usage, three uses for the next segment, and all the remaining for the third.

The first of the segments was at its end, signalled by Popster shouting…

“Let’s see it done! Let’s see that motivation! Let me see your…”

“Y e s .”

“C O N S I D E R - I T - D O N E . “

“STANDING OVATION!”

The crowd all rapidly started to clap together, the one who were sat down now standing. Shards of sharp metal melted mid-air into nothing.

“Y o u - w e r e n ‘ t - s u p p o s e d - t o - d o - t h a t .”

She was safe for now. She just grinned in its face briefly before getting back onto finishing those final two segments.

“D o - n o t - a c t - l i k e - t h a t - t o w a r d s - i t . T h a n k – t h o s e – w h o – a i d – y o u .

She couldn’t ignore it anymore.

“Oh you… That thing you value so much has done so much to ruin me already. I have nothing to thank it for.”

She was communicating telepathically back it, her sharp tone permeating the words themselves being portrayed.

“Y o u r – c a r e e r ? T h e – r e a s o n – y o u – e v e n – l i v e ?”

“I don’t thank it for those things. Unlike the rest of you, I have desires, not emotionless devotion.”

“P l e a s e – d o n ‘ t – s a y – t h o s e – h o r r i f i c – s t a t e m e n t s . J u s t – l e t – i t – h a p p e n .”

Final segment. Four poppers had gone off, each more explosive than the last. Smoke permeated the air, though invisible to everyone still captivated by her brilliance. She had eight poppers in total so only half of them had been fully used.

“ALRIGHT! THIS IS IT! I’M GONNA GO AAAAAAALLLL OUT!”

Her remaining poppers rose. Her movements sped up a whole lot, with barely a sign of sweat on her face. Her feet barely hit the ground with each shift, as if she were floating. Her arms rhythmically waving omnidirectionally, as if they were wings. It would give the crowd at least, a heavenly image of one of God’s own angels.

“GIVE GOOD OL’ ME A BIG… No, a MASSIVE-

ROUND OF APPLAUSE!”

She unleashed. A dark cloud that surrounded, quickly turned bright. Two of her poppers remained. That move was good enough for now; it was flashy and impressive, and importantly practical in this situation.

“D o – n o t – a c t – s o – s p o i l e d . Y o u – e x i s t – f o r – t h i s – p u r p o s e .”

She had had enough.

“PISS. OFF. I have a real life to live. Unlike you SHITTY, ROTTING and DELUSIONAL little ball of tripe.”

“J u s t – k i l l – y o u r s-“

A large barrage of high velocity water came smashing into its head, snapping it’s neck sideways, like it was flimsily attached.

It was the policepostwoman, stood there on top of the stands with the attacker, watching as its neck twisted back into shape. It finally then spoke audible words towards her, its mouth motionless.

“D o – n o t – d i s r u p t – m y – w o r k .”

“Your work of killing another person? Yeah, right. I will not hesitate to use force again if you dare lay another finger on her.”

“D o n ‘ t – t r e m b l e . Y o u – w o n ‘ t – a p p e a r – s t r o n g – t h a t – w a y .”

It was right. Her legs weren’t stable, her aim wavering. She didn’t know what to think of her attack causing his neck to move like that, almost like it wasn’t alive nor organic despite its clearly fleshy torso. These factors made her overestimate the foe; she knew she needed more force.

In that moment, she quickly reached for a capped tube sticking out of a gallon water tank on her back and uncapping it, then quickly trying to attach it to the butt of her water pistol.

The creepy attacker saw this and quickly teared some piping from its back and throwing them into the short wooden pole in its hand, the pipes melting around it and orbiting it. Suddenly the pole had turned into a tiny grip for what was…

“G U I L L O T I N E .”

Presión Máxima.

All happening within under 3 seconds, the giant cleaver formed from the melted metal pipes horizontally swept beneath the officer as she swiftly evaded via a well-timed front flip followed up by a tiny beam from the pistol. Despite its size, the beam ripped right through the attacker’s flesh as it got pierced and forced backwards, sliding right off the stands falling off the dome.

However, they were gone after the officer went to check the body.

The officer stood over the edge, then quickly backed away realising the height. She took her phone out of her left pocket, which was vibrating in her hand. She picked up the call. The man on the other end spoke firmly with her.

“Give me the details on the attacker. We’ll send over a written report to the department so don’t worry about that.”

“Thank you for that. The attacker seemed to be wielding a short wooden pole containing grains emitting kinetic magnetism. They use Terrakinesis, using the metal piping on their back as ammunition. Other than that, their body was uncovered, and they had an almost skeletal frame, same thing goes for their arms. The lower half of their body is mostly just piping and other metallic structures. As for their head, they were hooded, so I couldn’t really get a good look, although I do admit blasting a hole through their head.”

“YOU DID WHAAAAAT!?”

“HOLD ON! I would’ve probably ended up getting horribly injured if I didn-”

“I know it was probably self-defence, but still, you need more restraint.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. However, I seriously don’t think I phased them, because when I shot them, their neck snapped, then twisted back to normal.”

“Hmmmm… It seems like they may not be an organic humanoid based on what you’ve been telling me.”

“You may be right. After all, their hood had the same shape as the Heretics’…”

“The Heretics, eh? If they’re targeting Popster…

We need to ensure her safety as soon as we can.”

“I’m on it.”

“Thank you, Officer Manta.”