20 - Hitch//Lea

Ignoring the laws of gravity yet again, the three teenagers ran the length of the rope before carefully making their way through the window. It was a large room filled with dusty boxes, peppered with a few statues here and there.

"This storeroom is on the far end of the second floor," Nora said. "The weakest point in the whole security setup; completely empty when no one's using it."

"Isn't the exhibition on the first floor?" Lea rembered from the brochure.

"The main exhibition floor is in the middle of Barium Hall, and it has a raised ceiling that reaches all the way beyond the second floor," she explained before turning to Paxton. "Azure?"

At her call, Paxton rushed up to a ventilation grate that sat on the ceiling and raised his arm. His magical blue circle appeared again and the faint sound of electronic music played as the air pressure in the room seemed to build up around his hand.

In a few seconds the grate flew out of place, blowing dust all around them. Paxton then pulled his hand back down and the air pressure began to work in reverse. The grate came along with it.

"Wouldn't want it banging against the air vents," he explained. The three of them then jumped into the grate began to crawl, following Nora to the main exhibition hall.

"Good timing," Nora said quietly. "They've already finished the closing procedure."

"Is there anybody in the hall?" Paxton asked from behind her. They were all squeezed into the air vent, so only Nora could see what was ahead of them.

"Two guards, one police officer, and a weirdly dressed lady," Nora confirmed. "Probably from the Artist's Market."

"All according to plan," Paxton said with a nervous laugh. "This is usually when something bad happens."

Nora shushed him and nodded lightly. Lea could barely catch the gesture; she was behind Paxton, who was behind Nora, all in a very cramped space.

But she'd caught on, things were about to get crazy.

It hadn't exactly been silent as they plodded along inside the air vents, but it certainly felt like it once Nora had punched the grate that kept the vent closed and jumped out. There was intermittent yelling as the room's occupants spotted her, which intensified into determined shouts.

Paxton quickly followed, jumping down behind her and putting down both of his hands. A blue circle appeared under him and a thunderous medley of various popular songs poured out of it at a deafening fever pitch.

Everyone in the room aside from he and Nora was instantly disoriented, unable to pull out any of their weapons or even walk two steps in the same direction. A few seconds later, every bulb and glass panel exploded as if on cue.

Despite the darkness, Lea could see every little detail in the room from her vantage point, even now that the lights had gone out. Just by the dim light provided by the main hall's skylight.

Paxton stood still, maintaining the sonic assault, whilst Nora ran towards the podium where the Purple Noiz sat.

A strange set of movements in the corner of her eye caught Lea's attention. It was the woman Nora had mentioned, wearing a yellow button-down shirt and shorts with a black and white square pattern on them.

Instead of swaying from one side to the other like the police officers or guards, she was working very hard to grab a pair of headphones out of a bag. Once she had them on, she rushed out of the room like a marathon runner despite the sound waves that were still hitting her body.

A single, crushing thought came to Lea; they were going to get caught.

Without a second thought, she jumped down onto the balcony that separated the second floor from the first and then to where her friends were. They both noticed her, but she was standing right in the center of the room, away from them both.

She tried to yell to Nora, but neither of them could hear over Paxton's music. Nora turned her back to them and returned to the gem she was searching for.

That is, until it stopped.

"This isn't a Noiz!" Nora yelled, holding it up over the podium just as silence enveloped the room. The look in her eyes was annoyed at first, but then it shifted into an expression of pure horror.

Lea was so shocked that she turned back to Paxton, who had been captured in some sort of net.

He was writhing violently on the floor, just like the guards who were still clinging to their ears. His entire body had been covered with a thin metal mesh and a series of sparks were lighting up all over him. Above him stood the woman from earlier, her hand on a walkie talkie.

When he finally managed to get control of himself, his body flashed between his transformed and normal states, constantly shifting.

"Run!" he yelled at the top of his lungs.

Lea couldn't bring herself to do it. She started running towards him instead.

"RUN!" he yelled again, his voice cracking. She didn't listen, just as she was closing in, a second net seemed to spring out of nowhere; it was flying right at her.

Just as it closed in, she felt a tug around her waist and she was violently pulled back. Completely unable to judge what was going on, she lashed out with her arms and a red fog flashed before her eyes for a split second.

A moment later, her hands were filled with tiny red darts that she flung at the woman standing above Paxton. She shouted in surprise, but managed to dodge the majority of them since Lea's aim was off. Eventually Lea was dragged into the air and onto the eastern balcony.

When she finally felt around her waist, she noticed Nora's signature neon green ropes.

"Nora! Nora!" Lea shouted. "We have to save Paxton."

Nora stood silently, looking down at her friend and the woman who was now angrily shouting through the walkie talkie.

Lea's stomach dropped as she realized that there was nothing more they could do.