Buenos Aires - Part Two

by Aris Merquoni

o/~ Rio de la Plata / Florida / Corrientes Neuve de Julio / All I want to know! o/~

- Buenos Aires, Evita

I emerged from my room clad again in my unitard, but this time covered in my vest and skirt. Normally, I hate skirts and would go for anything else, anything at all, but we were supposedly out of combat conditions and my spandex o' doom wasn't enough to keep me comfy in a suburban environment. Oh, all right, I like looking nice. The skirt fit well. What can I say?

Shad and Phoenix had changed from Doom Four to a fighting game, one that looked suspiciously like a three-d version of Mortal Kombat. Shad waved me over, so I grabbed and extra controller and joined in.

Just as I started getting in the thick of things, the door opened. Ari stepped in, accidentally covering the screen.

"Nexx! Watch it!" Shad called.

"Firefoot's fe'thra!" I groaned as Phoe took the momentary distraction to pound me. "Move, will you?"

Ari, and Selvane, who I saw was tailing her, glanced from us to the screen. "A video game?" my hiking buddy asked.

"Enough Mortal Kombat for now, guys," Nexx yelled to be heard over the soundtrack. The three of us protested (One more win and I'd be in contention for the Ultima Battle round!) but the set clicked off all the same.

Ari introduced Selvane to the others as we put our controllers back in their recess. I had missed the vegetable thing, but I could well imagine it. I hefted a pillow and tossed it, hitting the Ruskie right smack in the face.

"That's for making me wait out in the cold all alone," I pouted sarcastically (I don't know if that's possible, but Tee's pulled it off before, and I figure I did a passable job.) Then I smirked and said, "And for not taking the easy way in." I flashed my ultra-handy spiffy and shiny new Chi-lin ID and grinned.

Selvane was about to reply when Nexx cut him off. "All right, you two, we'll discuss it over dinner and drinks. On me."

Shad jumped up from the couch. "Gentlemen, I believe our mission CO has spoken!" The dragon jogged to the elevator and grabbed his coat off of the rack as we gamely tried to catch up.

--

"... and *THEN,*" I finished, "he punched the guard out, right in front of everybody!"

We were sitting in a corner booth of a rather large nightclub, one that was reminiscent of a sports stadium or a large theater in the round. We were on the balcony level, sitting around a table nursing drinks, and listening to the music drifting up from the lower floor. The lights from the dance floor below streamed up the stairwell a few tables over, and the bass made our seats shiver with the sound.

"*THEN* the locals started to pelt him with produce," Ari added, before finishing off her drink, something she called drykkur. According to the bio-computer next to me and my badge's scan patterns, I would be able to drink it, but the secondary effects from my metabolism would probably put me in a coma for a while. I decided to stick with stuff on the tee-tee-hatch-nex-ool list for my biotype.

"No no no no," Shad corrected, "After he comes up and asks for help, then gives you this blank look when you say to stand still." Phoe cracked up, and we joined him in laughter.

Nexx jumped onto her seat and yelled at the waiter, "Another drykkur over here!"

The waiter picked his way through the tables with amazing speed and nodded at us. "Another round for everyone?" We nodded back at him. "Your food will be right up." He vanished, and returned a few minutes later with drykkur for Nexx, throatwarm for me, rum for Selvane, a pan-galactic gargle blaster for Shad, and something that looked green and bubbled for Phoenix.

"What did you three do when we were gone?" Selvane asked around his drink.

"We sort of winged it," Shad said, chuckling, then related their tale. Everyone laughed again at the story of their flight, and the drinks had the effect of cooling my burning resentment at the universe down to an almost bearable ache.

Almost.

I was about to choke back a bitter comment about wishing for wings, when a sudden flicker of lights made the comment unnecessary. The lights dimmed, then steadied, and the music below ground to a halt.

"A brown out?" Phoenix inquired.

The PA system switched on. "Sorry, folks," a voice called. "Freak surge in power. The blenders exploded. Your food orders are wiped. But hey," the voice called, before anyone could get angry, "free round for everyone, on us!" The cheers rising from the dance floor signaled that the staff had been forgiven this minor problem, and the music switched back on with a roar that could be felt through the table.

"It's okay," Nexx called over the returning music. "We'll just get some food back at our room." She stood up and we followed her to the stairs. "Hey," she said, with the air of one that has just had a great idea that has been influenced greatly by toxins in the bloodstream, "you guys wanna hit the dance floor for a bit before we leave?"

Shad shrugged. "It's been a while, but what the hell?"

I hesitated, but then a song that I recognized from a few days in the Sprawl caught my attention, and I followed them down. I was immediately spun off into the crowd of gyrating bodies, feeling the crackling energy of music and light and hearing and feeling and smelling the feel of an amazing amount of people pressed into a small space, all moving together while moving independently. Off to my right there was a fight going on, while to my left someone had started a congo line. I found myself dancing next to a brown-and-white striped Th-varian, and we grinned at each other. I showed him that I knew something about Th-varian dance, he laughed and showed me that he knew more about dance then I could ever dream of, and moved better than I could ever hope to. Male Th-varians are like that, all quicksilver and grace. We spun, we danced, and in that whirling medley of faces and music I could forget about my troubles and the mission, and just relax and be myself.

Finally Nexx and I bumped into each other, and we realized almost at the same instant that we needed to get back home. I said goodbye to Del'tam, got gathered up by Shad and Nexx, and staggered out into the hot streets of Chi-lin. We were back at the hotel before we knew it, and I collapsed into my bed with a sigh of relief.

Blast Firefoot. I could have been a Th-varian for just one night.