Elise devoted her entire body to the beat. Her eyes closed, body swayed, head shook, and she tossed her jacket off when her arms started pumping.
While it looked awkward to everyone watching since only Elise and Lisa could hear the beat, she had an impressive rhythm in her step that attracted everyone's attention.
Unfortunately for Elise, her leather boots and tight leather skirt hindered her movement, and she stumbled slightly. When she opened her eyes and caught herself, she noticed everyone watching her. Elise's face turned as bright red as Rayelle's guitar, and she quietly sat back down next to Lisa without making eye contact.
"Girl, you were on fire!" Lisa put her arms around Elise and squeezed her tightly.
"...Thank you." Elise was mortified. She hadn't danced like that since she was a teenager. Elise turned to sneak a glance at Dirk.
Dirk gave her a big smile and two thumbs up, then shouted, "This party needs music!"
Elise calmed down a little bit thanks to Dirk's over-the-top reaction.
Rayelle playfully punched Dirk's arm and said, "I couldn't agree more! Just don't expect me to dance like that!"
Adam grinned and said smugly, "She can sing, she can play, but when it comes to dancing, she has two left feet."
Rayelle shrugged, "It's fine, for some reason I just get really self-conscious when I dance. That's not important right now! Lisa! Spill it! What was it that you played!"
"It's not done yet, girl. Ya'll will get to hear it once I can lay some tracks down back in the studio. Just wanted to give my new friend here a little taste and she wanted more."
Elise smiled and said, "I couldn't help it, it took me back to when I was a teenager and would sneak out to go dancin' before-" Elise cut herself short as she had a very dark memory return to her, and she brought her legs up to her chest in a slightly fetal position.
Roy and Lyle were starting to wonder what had happened because Elise had a similar expression on her face in the taxi heading to the concert.
Dirk got up and quickly sat down next to Elise while everyone else, except Lisa, figured it was best to just pretend they saw nothing for the time being. Lisa was very familiar with the party scene and how some things would get out of control.
"Do you wanna go home?" Dirk asked Elise softly.
Elise really hated herself at this moment. She knew if she said 'Yes', that they would go home, and Dirk wouldn't be able to spend time with the band. She also knew that if she said 'No,' Dirk would worry about her the whole time and not enjoy himself.
Thankfully, Roy had found a keytar and shouted, "Lisa! This is for you!" He slipped in a memory card with a pre-recorded backing track and started belting out a popular love ballad while playing the main melody on the keytar itself.
Lisa was admittedly grateful for the distraction, but Roy's singing was so bad that she thought he had to be doing it on purpose. She had never seen such a skinny Zentradi before, either, and it made her think of an animal she remembered reading about once. Lisa shouted, "Sessanu![1] You annoying giraffe!"
Everyone burst out laughing, especially Elise, since she had the same thought about Roy. Elise squeezed Dirk's hand and mouthed, "I'm okay now".
Roy was not deterred. The insults emboldened him, and he switched to the intro to the song Planet Dance by Fire Bomber.
Most of the people in that room were huge fans of Fire Bomber, Dirk scrambled to the microphone in the back corner, Rayelle picked up her guitar, and Lyle pointed at the drum set in the back corner while looking at Marty.
Marty nodded and offered Lyle a pair of drumsticks, but Lyle shook his head and produced his own from under his clothes and quickly took a seat behind the drums.
"Freaks, all of 'em," Lisa said with a big grin to Elise.
Elise nodded, but this was the Dirk she liked best, and she realized that maybe she could try to trust other people a little more.
That night, what was supposed to be a quiet meet-and-greet had turned into an impromptu concert.
Meanwhile, Doctor Norrid had finished running a full battery of tests at City 8's hospital for the patient brought in by ambulance earlier that day. He stared at his own reflection in the glass and at the stupid cat that wouldn't leave.
"The tests show nothing still, he appears completely fine," Doctor Norrid said to the cat as if the cat had just asked him about the test results. "Do you think you can do better?"
Doctor Norrid rested his chin on his folded hands as if deep in thought. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the door to the patient's examination room open, and then he felt the cat brush up against his leg.
"Weren't you just in the examination room? Which idiot forgot to latch the door?" Doctor Norrid pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration when he realized he was the last one in there, but he couldn't help but get angry around this cat for some reason.
"After searching the combined databases, this appears to be a similar case to what happened on Macross 7 decades ago. I don't think we have anyone with Anima Spiritia, and personally, I think it is a load of sh-"
FWOOSH
The door from the hallway slid open, and the night duty nurse came in wheeling a fresh IV and a tray of food.
"Hey doc, figure anything- Why is there a cat in here?"
Doctor Norrid waved dismissively and said, "I don't know, I don't care. As for the patient, do we have any old Fire Bomber recordings?"
"No, you might be able to stream some, but you'd probably have to beg a fan to give up or upload any recordings since that kind of data can take years to arrive ever since we ran out of fold relays years ago."
Doctor Norrid recalled that the Macross 8 fleet departed Earth before he was even born and had unfortunately never crossed paths with a habitable planet before now. The only reason Macross 8 even found this planet was they had detected Macross 10's fold and came to investigate. Now, both fleets orbited planet Aquillane opposite each other.
The nurse perked his eyebrows for a second and said, "There is a Night Hawks concert tonight in City 10 that is broadcasting since it sold out, but the broadcast is almost over and isn't live. They're similar to Fire Bomber."
Doctor Norrid didn't know if the genre mattered, nor did he care, "Alright, put it on."
"One second," The nurse quickly walked over to a little kiosk and punched in the livestream to the concert.
Doctor Norrid, the nurse, and the cat listened to the broadcast. All three huddled around the display screen started bobbing their heads slightly as the Night Hawks' last song, 'Burning for You,' started playing.
Illuzo didn't know what was happening, but he couldn't help but bob his head to the beat. He now realized where the intense spiritia came from. Illuzo whispered, "...Spiritia..."
Doctor Norrid and the nurse both looked at the cat and then at each other. They seemed to think they were both just hearing things and returned their attention to the broadcast.
Doctor Norrid had never heard of this band and asked the nurse, "The woman is quite talented, but who is that guy barely singing?"
The nurse looked closer and scratched his head, "Dunno, he's not doing much though."
Illuzo lifted his paw up to his mouth in a gesture to silence them as he focused on the broadcast.
When Doctor Norrid and the nurse looked at the cat, the cat was rubbing its face to groom itself.
Doctor Norrid, the nurse, and the cat went back to bobbing their heads to the beat. As the second guitar solo commenced, they felt like something was about to happen. They watched the female singer back off and let the male take the lead.
The initially shy male suddenly erupted with powerful vocals. His raw passion made the three listening in the examination room stare wide-eyed at the screen in disbelief.
Illuzo's whole body felt like it was burning up as he continued to watch. The feeling started to become unbearable, and his whole body tensed up, and his claws dug into the desk.
♫♪ I WANT TO BURN! ♫♪
♫♪ BURN! ♫♪
♫♪ BURRRNN!! ♫♪
♫♪ BURNING FOR YOU! ♫♪
Just as the pain nearly became too much for Illuzo, the song had finished.
"Wow!" Doctor Norrid and the nurse said together.
"Was that the last song?" Doctor Norrid asked the nurse.
"Probably."
"Did you pipe it into the patient's room or record it?"
"..."
"Nurse?"
"Uh... sorry, it was a good song."
Doctor Norrid felt that headache coming back and muttered to himself, "Imbeciles, all of them."
[1] Zentradi language, means "Silence!"