Chapter 73

They were, in fact, still taking sign-ups. So Luz and Amity signed up. Enough students and staff were either participating or observing that the school, as part of sponsoring the event, was providing transport which was convenient.

With very little to do as afternoon became evening, Luz and Amity briefly practiced their dancing in the room they shared with Willow before turning in for the night. The next morning was mostly spent in anticipation of the danceathon, but even so, Amity couldn't help but notice that... Luz wasn't quite back to her old self, but she was much closer than she had been... She knew that Luz had been hurting but to think there was that big of a weight on her shoulders...

Come late afternoon, all of the participants and observers were loaded onto... Buses? They were like transport worms but made of metal and not alive. They were pretty fancy from what Luz and Camila had said, but they arrived and began filing out not long after.

The event was located at what appeared to be a temporary pavilion set up in the middle of a large park, with bleachers erected around it for the observers and strange devices stationed at key locations.

"Luz, what are those?" She asked while gesturing to one.

"Those are cameras," Luz answered. "This is maybe televised? But, over there," Luz pointed to a table. "That's the check-in table. We can probably ask there. We're gonna go check in, guys," she said as she turned back to the others, and then, hand in hand, they went to go wait in line.

While there, Amity made note of some of the other couples in line. Most of them just looked like ordinary humans but she found her attention drawn to a young woman with orangish hair and a long, fluffy tail of the same color standing next to a dark-skinned seemingly human woman and a girl whose bald scalp and underlying cranium were clear, exposing her brain, standing next to a girl with blue dye at the tips of her brown hair.

Eventually, they made it to the front of the line where they found April of all people working the desk.

"Hey April," Luz greeted. "What're you doing?"

"I got voluntold to help with the event, so I'm on check-in duty," she replied. "It's my punishment for, you know..."

"...You want me to tell everyone we're cool?" Luz asked.

"Nah," April said with a smile as she flipped through some papers. "This is just a slap on the wrist punishment but... If I'm being punished at allit means they're done treating me like I'm made of glass."

"Well, if you're satisfied," Luz replied. "So are they filming this or...?"

"Oh, yeah. There's gonna be an announcement when we get started but they're televising it this year," April replied. She then pulled two sheets of paper out of a folder. "And your randomly assigned number, pin these to your backs and if you lose them you will be disqualified."

Luz took them and looked them over noted "Huh, lucky number 7. That's a good sign."

"We don't need luck, Mi preciosa," Amity quipped.

"Por supuesto que no, mi amor, pero es bueno tenerlo," Luz replied.

"Well off you get then," April said. "I'd say that I'm rooting for you but... Molly and Klara are dancing so, you know... Priorities."

Luz waved bye to April as they left and they returned to where their friends and family were, stopping only to pin their number sheets to their backs. Once there, they noticed that another person had joined them.

"Hey Masha," Luz greeted.

"Hey, Luz. Amity..." Masha began. "So, if you're here then... I can get you all caught up on the situation back in Gravesfield. I know, I know, bad timing but..."

"It's fine."

"So, the town is crawlingwith people from all levels of Government. All the local cops are out in force, we've got state troopers, the National Guard, the FBI, and SHIELD. I was interviewed by Nick Fury Jr. and an agent from the FBI Alien Task Force who I'm pretty sure gave me a fake name... Must be pretty high-ranked, too, since I don't think heelys are standard kit for FBI uniforms. But, you know, there wasn't much I had to say. All I saw was the body." They shuddered. "From what I've heard they don't think he's still in Gravesfield—Hopkins' truck is missing—but after what he did to that town in Colorado a while back they're turning over every nook and cranny to make sure and all the cops, soldiers, and spooks I've seen are loaded for bear."

"...So the human government has ghosts working for it?" Gus asked.

"Sorry, expression," Masha replied. "Anyway, in less morbid news, I would very much like to go introduce my hot snake GF to my sister and probable future sister-in-law," Masha said while gesturing to a couple a little while away, one the spitting image of an older Masha but with a pink streak in her hair and one a human-lie woman covered in scales with a lizard-like tail. They had the number 12 pinned to their backs. "You know, when I tell people my sister is dating a mutant named Sophie everyone assumes I mean one of the Stepford Cuckoos," Masha said... Amity had no idea who those were. "I mean, come on. There can be more than one mutant named Sophie." They then took Vee by the hand and led her over.

It was then that Amity noticed that Luz was trembling. "Luz, are you alright?" She wasn't picking up any bad feelings from Luz, just...

"Sorry, I'm just a little excited," Luz replied. "Any minute now I get to show off how good my awesome girlfriend and I are at dancing to... At least everyone in the audience. And whoever this is being broadcast or recorded for."

It was then that an announcement sounded over speakers: "Attention everyone," came a voice, "we're getting ready to begin. Couples please enter the pavilion, observers please take a seat."

After being wished luck, the two entered the pavilion as others began to mill around them. She took in a few more competitors, Molly and Klara, and...

"Oh, great, you're here," came a most unwelcome voice.

"Hey Clara," Luz said in a somewhat resigned tone. "Suzy," she acknowledged the other girl. "...Clara I thought you were straight?"

"We're here as friends, doofus," Suzy replied.

"I was supposed to dance with Scott but he's not feeling up to it so Suzy's subbing in," Clara replied. "Scott's up in the stands."

"Fair enough," Luz responded.

"So is there a reason why you're bothering us?" Amity asked. "It seems like every time we run into you you go out of your way to pick on Luz... Still jealous?"

Clara glared at Amity. "We just wanted to give a friendly warning not to make a fool of yourself."

"Don't worry, we won't," Luz replied cheerfully.

The other two girls sneered and walked off. Amity vowed then and there that she and Luz would be the last dancers standing.

"Attention please, attention please!" Called out an amplified voice. "If all dancers could face the stage."

Turning toward... On the stage, a woman in a sparkly white and silver dress, with long wavey blonde hair and blue starbursts painted around her eyes, was speaking into a microphone. "Welcome to the Third Annual Jean Grey Institute Charity Danceathon! I am your host, Dazzler!" There was enough cheering that Amity quickly concluded that this Dazzler must have been some kind of celebrity. "Now the JGI and affiliates, we like to give back: Things have been getting steadily better for mutants for years and we've long been at the point where we feel safe in sharing the love. We do plenty of charitable events but this, this is our most popular. The rules are simple, for each couple, the Institute's primary financial backers, that is, Charles Xavier's estate, the Rand Corporation, and Stark International will donate a certain sum of money for every song a given couple makes it through. This year, we've managed to talk them up to five hundred bucks American per couple per song, so it's looking like we're easily gonna make tens of thousands tonight!" More cheering. "In addition, as part of their settlement from the case of Kinney v Alchemax the Alchemax Corporation is joining our sponsors this year with five hundred per couple so please, everyone, dance to as many songs as you can because hurting their bottom line is the only way these people will ever learn." That earned laughter. "Additionally, this year we are being televised live from coast to coast. Viewers at home can visit our tie-in website and pledge however as much they're comfortable with to whichever couple or couples they like or if they prefer, just a lump sum. That URL should be flashing on your screams now, home viewers. This year the proceeds of the event are going to a most worthy cause, the Mar-Vel Memorial Cancer Research Foundation."

"Now the rules are simple: If a couple stops dancing for more than five consecutive sentences, collapses, leaves the dance floor, or loses their identifying number, you are disqualified. There will be a brief respite between each song. If you attempt to sabotage another dancer, you are disqualified," Dazzler continued. "Now I notice that despite our lack of a dress code some of the dancers are in formal wear. You're going to come to regret that, as this isn't your Grandma's Danceathon. We're not just slow dancing to ballroom music here, we're dancing to all kinds of music... Unfortunately, for legal reasons, none of mine," Dazzler quipped. "The last couple standing will be brought up here on stage to bask in the glory and get a moment to brag, but if they can make it through one last song, a victory lab if you will, then not only will it count as one last song for pledges, but our Sponsors, and Alchemax, will tripletheir total donations so everyone, please, do your bests. Now, without any further ado, let's start with a blast from the past, an old-school

dance classic from yesteryear!"

Suddenly, a drum beat accompanied by brassy instruments began to play and a man's voice came from the speakers: "Come on, baby, let's do the twist! Come on, baby let's do the twist! Take me by my little hand, and go like this!"

As always when they danced together, Luz and Amity immediately fell into the rhythm. There isn't much in the way of hand-holding or touching with this song, rather dancing to it amounted to, well, twisting, but it was fun and it got the heart pumping. It wasn't a very long song, just about two and a half minutes. All and all it was a good warm-up.

"Okay, everyone's still here," Dazzler noted. "Good, with the two or three dozen couples I see that means we're off to a good start. Now, I'm sad to say that due to a clerical snafu, we could not get the rights to anything by ABBA this year." This was met by groans. "But we were able to secure the rights to a song by a sound-alike band." Dazzler gave a dramatic sigh. "So, let's just... Let's get it out of the way."

The song opened with a spoken word introduction: "Ladies and gentlemen, number one supergroup all time, BABBA!" Luz immediately started laughing as she started leading Amity in an improvised, informal waltz set to a poppy beat as the oohing of the singers turned to actual lyrics. "Saturday night is a night alright... Time to groove till the morning light... Your bell bottoms on, your hair unfurls... You are the disco girl!"

As they danced, it was readily apparent to Amity that this song was trying to closely imitate another song entirely though since she had never heard whatever the original song was she had no context for why Luz felt this was so funny.

The song ended with a note on how an application for something called Eurovision was under review, and Dazzler sounded dead inside as she spoke again. "That made the top 40 back in '72. Alright, now to clean everyone's ears we are going back to the year 1991 when a cheesy rapper was brought in to write a cheesy song for a cheesy sequel to a cheesy movie based on a cheesy comic book."

The next song started with a whistle before moving into lyrics that were more spoken rhymes than singing paired with instrumentals that Amity couldn't place: "YO! It's the green machine. Gonna rock the town without being seen. Have you ever seen a turtle Get Down? Slammin and Jammin to the new swing sound!" Dancing to this song amounted to a lot of bouncing back and forth while standing next to each other.

When it was over, Amity had to ask: "What's a ninja and what do they have to do with turtles?"

"We have a couple of movies to watch when we get back to Gravesfield," was all Luz had to say.

"Yes, yes, that was all very fun but now we're going to do something very different," Dazzler said. "A certain Swedish Eurodance band is somewhat famous for blending American country music with techno, so here's their most famous number."

"Oh no," Luz said wide-eyed as the song started: "If it hadn't been for Cotton-Eyed Joe, I'd been married a long time ago. Where did you come from? Where did you go? Where did you come from, Cotton-Eyed Joe?"

Luz seemed to freeze for a moment but thinking Quickly Amity pulled her into a sort of dance that involved swinging each other by the ars and dancing circles around each other that she saw some of the other dancers doing before they hit the five-second deadline and once they got going they managed to well enough.

"Okay, that wasn't so bad," Luz said. "It can't possibly get worse from here."

"Such a cheerful song about venereal disease," Dazzler quipped. "Now, it's great to see that all of our couples are still dancing," Dazzler said, "but unfortunately we can't just stay here dancing all night so this next song should thin the herd."

The music that began to play was... Strange. Something that sounded like the engine of a motorcycle being distorted bled into a piano melody that became something almost halfway between a rock song and something you'd hear at the opera. The nervous "Oh boy," from Luz as she began to lead Amity in a slow dance was all that Amity needed to know in regards to what this song entailed.

"And I would do anything for love... I'd run right into hell and back... I would do anything for love... I'll never lie to you and that's a fact..."

...Twelve minutes. The song was twelve minutes of alternating slow moments and fast, rocking choruses... An absolutely epic song, one Amity would add to her repertoire someday, but... It was a lot. Who has the lung capacityto sing for that long?

True to Dazzler's prediction, during the twelve-minute song several of the couples began to drop out until by the end of it they were down to two-thirds of those who were originally present. From the corner of her eye, she saw Molly escorting Klara out of the pavilion in a bridal carry.

"Okay, congratulations to everyone still here," Dazzler declared. "Now, after all of that, it's only fair that we take a short breather: Right now cups of clean water are being telekinetically lifted to each dancer, please take a drink it's important to stay hydrated." Small plastic cups traced in a dark blue aura were levitated onto the dance floor and Luz drank greedily from hers as Amity ook her own. After a few moments, the same telekinetic force took the cups back. "And now, our next song shall be a nice, slow rock ballad to get back into the groove of things too."

The music began and... Amity knew this one. When Luz had found her more of the music by the band she'd been introduced to that first day in Gravesfield. She took the lead holding Luz close and they rocked together to the music as the lyrics began.

"God gave rock and roll to you, gave rock and roll to you, put it in the soul of everyone..."

Amity was glad that this song had been next. Something about it, about gently dancing to Luz with it, was almost life-fearing. She'd been starting to get tired after that marathon of a prior song but this had reenergized her.

...Luz on the other hand, still seemed tired. Not that tired, all things considered, but...

"Our next song came to prominence during the 'Frogvasion' in LA two years ago 2020 when it was played to help amp up the girl fighting it off," Dazzler declared.

The music began and Luz smiled. "Hello, sweet life-giving K-Pop."

Dancing to the song was a little awkward as the rhythm and melody were unfamiliar to her and Amity couldn't make heads or tails of the lyrics but Luz seemed to like it and it seemed to revitalize her just as the last song had helped Amity.

They went through several more songs after that, including a show tune about how someone needed to 'shape up' because the initial singer's heart was set on dating them and a song about a place you could go to do things that dancing to involved spelling out an acronym referring to that location with your body.

With each passing song, more and more dancers dropped out for one reason or another. As a song about being on the edge of glory ended, the woman with the fluffy tail and her partner left the dance floor and then the only people left were Luz and Amity and Clara and Suzy... Amity had noticed, as the herd thinned, that Clara got distinctly uncomfortable any time a love song played... If the next song was romantic, that would give her and Luz an edge... But at the same time, winning that way wouldn't be satisfying.

"Alright," Dazzler declared. "Down to our last two couples so as we're nearing the end our next song shall be a celebration of music and dancing... And, as an aside something more my speed, than a few of songs have been tonight."

"There's nothing more that I'd like to do than take the floor and dance with you. Keep dancing, let's keep dancing!"

The music was funky, but Luz seemed to recognize the song and danced in... a way that Amity was pretty sure was an imitation of someone else. Naturally, Amity followed her lead as they dominated the Pavilion. Be it from tiredness, confusion, or some other factors Luz's former bullies ended up walking out before the song even finished.

"And there we have it! The two young ladies of Couple 7 are our winners... Now tell me, girls," Dazzler said, "are you up for a victory lap? Remember, if you can last for one more song our main donors will tripletheir total donations."

Luz looked at Amity, eyes wide and with a huge smile and Aity could feel the happiness and satisfaction radiating off of her. Happiness and satisfaction that Luz desperately needed right now. Amity smiled back and nodded.

"Yes!" Luz called back.

"Alright then, our last song of the night folks. DJ, hit it!"

The final song started slow and wistful. "Now I've had the time of my life. No, I never felt like this before. Yes, I swear it's the truth. And I owe it all to you. 'Cause I've had the time of my life, and I owe it all to you!" However, in the last line of that opening verse, it suddenly exploded into something quicker and more passionate.

The dance she and Luz did was something more... Intimate than how they normally danced, but... It felt right. They even kissed for a brief moment right before Luz spun Amity around.

Midway through the song, someone in the stands shouted "Do the lift!" Amity had no idea what that meant but it clearly meant something to Luz as she suddenly backed away from Amity, by a rather large distance all things considered, and made a gesture for Amity to come running towards her.

Unsure of what was going on but trusting Luz and following her lead, Amity ran toward her beloved girlfriend. As she closed the distance Luz gave another signal and, taking it, Amity jumped.

Luz caught Amity by the hips and held her aloft, Amity's arms spread to help balance, as the song came to a climax. After several moments in the air, Luz let her back down and their dance wound down as the song did which earned them quite a bit of applause.

"Yes yes, congratulations for Couple 7," Dazzler said "Alright girls, come on up here."

They proudly walked to the stage and... Luz just climbed up it instead of using the stairs, sparking a small laugh from Amity as she followed her.

"Alright, Couple 7" Dazzler began, "I have to ask: do you two have any formal training? Your dancing out there was really impressive."

"No," Amity answered. "That was... Like, we dance together, that's something we like to do, but... When we're together we just fall into the rhythm and..."

"We've been able to dance that good for at least as long as we've been together," Luz finished. "The first time we danced together was totally spontaneous but... Eh. I have no idea where it comes from."

"Well there is something to be said for a little talent and a lot of love," Dazzler said. "So, introduce yourselves. Your names, a little about yourselves."

"I'm Luz," Luz greeted. "This is my awesomegirlfriend Amity."

"We like dancing together, reading together, Luz has introduced me to Anime, and we're both pretty good at sports."

"I'm more of a racer," Luz continued, "Amity's into ball sports and is the current champion of a fighting tournament back in her hometown."

"Call me the Mighty Mittens," Amity quipped while making a fist.

"I also go by Calamity, if we're sharing aliases," Luz said. "And there's one more thing. Amity and I, we're..." Luz looked at Amity and Amity nodded.

"We're witches," Amity finished as she made a show of conjuring a fireball and tossing it into the air. "I was born a witch. Luz earned it."

"I don't think this is the kind of thing you earn, Hermosa," Luz replied, "and I had a lot of help, but," Luz conjured a ball of light. "Being a witch has been a lifelong goal of mine. Now I have to find another one."

"Well, there's nothing we like to see more than girls living their best lives," Dazzler replied. "And—"

Dazzler's speech was cut off by a loud crack from the distance. Luz stumbled back and was suddenly clutching her chest. Everyone was suddenly panicking. Amity wasn't sure what was going on but then she noticed that Luz had gone wide-eyed... And was bleeding.