A New Star Appears

Nov 14, 2018
108
1
8
#1
January 26th
1:00 PM
Solar Stadium
Neo Harajuku, Japan


The winter sun beat down upon Neo Harajuku, the light reflecting off the high rises and glassy architecture creating odd spots of warmth on the cold winter day. An epicenter of this soothing heat was, coincidentally, the Solar Stadium, Stardust's official venue built courtesy of DEI. From block to block around the covered arena, flyers, posters, and screens were plastered with what could only be called propaganda; some proclaimed the coming of a new age of stars while others invite the public to test their conviction in becoming the next big hit. The latter had a myriad of dates and locations on it where one might go to sign up or audition.

"The rigging looks good. Circulation system's up, prep the dispersal systems and we'll move on to the capture sync."
"Dispersal's primed. Ready when you are, Mr. Solomon."

Inside the stadium, Stardust's heavily customized Gratia sat; It looked like a monumental diamond that had sunken into the ground thanks to the DEC shell that covered it. Much commotion was happening on top of the craft; several men in lab coats along with others in more casual working attire toggled switches, fiddled with lights, and adjusted cables, among many other tasks. Solomon oversaw the operation and held a number of checklists in his hand. He hadn't had this much support from DEI since their event back in Jeddah, not that he was complaining; the company was leaning hard on this tour to succeed and Solomon wasn't about to let him down. The first concert was still a week away, but the last thing anyone involved needed was for anything to go awry.

The idols had lined up at center stage and were busy chatting away as they stretched or motioned through a few moves. "Get ready, girls," called the cyborg manager, "Disperse medium." Several strange looking metal tubes and domes that lined the Gratia's exterior shot out geysers of sparkling DEC dust and moments later a quiet hum came from various places around the stadium and the glittery particles began to spread around in a more even manner. By now, Stardust had gotten into a more orderly formation and stood in neutral positions. "Capture." A worker flipped a switch and a spotlight shone on each idol and a cloud of multicolored haze enveloped them. The man togged up and down more switches and turned a dial here and there; the haze darted around in various directions but gradually gained form and focus, finally ending up looking like a colored outline around each of the girls.

The idols had on less elaborate attire than they would be wearing at the concert, but the important part of the wardrobe here were the shiny metal bands that they had placed on specific points of their gloves and stockings. Via and the others now began to move around a bit as the worker adjusted more dials; small crystals adorning the bands blinked as the five moved.

After a short warm up time, the staff were preparing the rest of the systems while the Fairlions were being pulled out and set up. "We're going to go ahead and check the sound," a man reported to Solomon. The manager nodded and looked to the small sound room out in the stadium's stands and motioned to them; there was no visible response save for a few lights coming on inside the dark box. A buzz shuddered through the stadium and quickly developed into a more subtle murmur as the groups standard, ambient "filler" music came on. The crystals in the air rippled as the sound system came on. Some buttons and knobs were adjusted and the quality shifted to a myriad of sounds ranging from good to bad in a broad sense.

On one particularly terrible sounding setting, the gentle ripple of the crystals turned into a violent roil. Despite the technicians' efforts, a horrific crackling resounded through the air as the waves became jagged. Several of the men in lab coats immediately began to run away while many of the other workers simply cowered or cringed as they looked on. The air itself looked as if it were being pounded on before it finally snapped and shattered into jagged pieces as the telltale sound and colors of a dimensional quake blasted through stadium, punching a sizable hole through the building's roof. Screams and shrieks were drowned out by the turbulent noise.

From the rainbow colored void of the Inbetween came the first interdimensional visitor. However, unbeknownst to everyone, this would be the only one to come through and she was certainly not the DAMON everyone had been expecting.

Indeed it was a she, for out of the hole came the nubile form of a girl emerging like the figurehead of an old ship. Through the cacophonous shattering of space, a gentle voice could faintly be heard from her. As the girl completed her entry into the world and began to plummet to the ground, Solomon, for reasons even he did not fully understand, bolted forward and caught her before she could land. In his arms now lay an unconscious girl; wicked horns adorned her head and a thick, monstrous tail stuck out from her. Across her body were what looked like scales of DEC and the rocky black exterior of a DAMON.

Almost as suddenly as it came, the quake subsided and the tear in space appeared to have mended itself, though the roof was still worse for wear; sirens outside of the stadium abruptly cut themselves off and pinged, notifying the populace that the alarm was over. Via was the first to approach Solomon and the rescued humanoid. Where one might expect a look of fear or trepidation was instead a look of genuine curiosity. One of the remaining, lab coat wearing technicians, notably female, approached second. She and Solomon looked to each other and silently agreed to report immediately to DEI.
 
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Nov 14, 2018
108
1
8
#2
January 26th
4:15 PM
Neo Harajuku DEI Branch Offices


"Rest assured, Mr. Solomon, we'll cover the damages. We can afford fixing it more than we can leaving it."
"And the girl?"
"Progress is... not forthcoming."

Solomon, Stardust, and a man in a suit were meeting at the local DEI branch to discuss the day's happenings. The group all sat at a large conference table with Solomon and the DEI representative sitting across from each other at the head and the girls being dispersed around the rest of the seats. Via appeared placid but attentive while her peers, Momoka and Amelie, were fidgeting and looking distracted; the former was simply still shaken up about the situation while the latter was perhaps a bit over eager to hear more details. Shizue was as spacey as usual while Sena was in her famous "briefing mode".

The representative produced a small remote from his pocket and pressed a button that made a large screen slide down from the ceiling. He clicked the remote again and several pictures and graphics appeared, the most prominent of which seemed to be a live feed of the DAMON girl in a particularly sparsely decorated room which looked strikingly similar to the room they were meeting in. The walls were adorned with a handful of Stardust's promotional posters and next to a bed was a speaker; the girl sat on the bed happily kicking her legs and apparently her tail as well, seemingly fixated by the speaker as she swayed left and right. Despite the washed out look of the security camera, the colorful lights of the girl's horns and scales and even hair could be seen shifting around slowly. She had been given some spare clothes shortly after the event thanks to Sena.

Other graphics on the screen included graphs and charts along with a number of medical looking displays and x-rays. "As you can see, we're not exactly dealing with a normal human here. Heck, we're only designating her as an Outsider because we can't figure out anything else that's the only posterity friendly thing we can tag her with," the representative began as he pointed at the screen with his remote. "Officially, the quake today resulted in no DAMON incursion -and technically we're right. Unfortunately we're still working on spinning the whole system's reputation back around; a loss of sales for the concert are still being projected but by the time the concert comes around it should be mostly negligible."

"As for the girl, all we can tell is that she's a very dedicated fan." As if on cue, her mouth started to move as she apparently sang along with whatever she was hearing. "She seems to know everything word for word. As such, we've been leveraging that angle to get some information but nothing... well, important has been learned." The man clicked through a few more media bits before Solomon commented, "I hope we're not causing any trouble by having her kept here for the time being." The man flippantly waved his hand, "Oh, it's really no problem. Actually it's not the first time we've converted that space; we get some long projects and basically have officially sanctioned sleepovers here in the office. A laugh was had by the group and they continued on with some more lighthearted discussion and questioning.

After some time, Via abruptly asked, "Can we meet her?" Everyone looked at her with varying reactions. Seeing the earnest, eager look in her twinkling eyes, the representative replied, "I'll see what I can do."

- - -
"Everyone come in one by one."

A researcher had guided the group to the room and carefully opened the door to step through. Via was the first to enter with Solomon and everyone else filtering through steadily behind him. The DAMON girl's music seemed to be in tune with the door opening as its volume gradually lowered to become more like background noise. The girl looked quizzically at all the newcomers but remained seated. There was a long moment of general silence before Via slowly stepped forward.

"Hi," she said, smiling.
"..H̶i̶g̷h̷.̴.̷.̴?̵"

The DAMON girl's voice was pretty and clear but a sort of distortion hung around her words. Via got closer and held out a hand. "Via." The girl tilted her horned head slightly in confusion. "V̷i̸..V̵i̵a̸ ?" She perked up after she said this, seemingly recognizing the context. "V̵i̵a̴! Via!" Scaled, clawed hands gently but excitedly grabbed Via's as the DAMON smiled to reveal quite literally sparkling white teeth which were remarkably sharp. Unfazed, Via continued introducing herself, pointing at herself to indicate. The girl continued parroting until Via now pointed at her and asked, "You?" "Via!...?" Via shook her head and affirmed, "You. Name?"

"Y̸o̶u̶.. Via. N̸a̵m̴e̷? Via, you n̵a̸m̵e̶ ... Name... Me?"

Her excitement began to dwindle as she trailed off. She put her hand to her head and muttered on. Finally she had evidently reached some sort of answer.

"Ā̵̪r̵̲̾l̷͉͑...R̸̛͎̂æ̴̡̬̂..." The girl quietly uttered no longer looking at Via. "R̶̜̈́r̶̼̔n̴̞̈=̷̬̂ǽ̴̹͆_̸̢͂.̸̻̌ ̴̜̒Z̸̘͋ ̶̩́a̷̯̾.̵̹͝.̴̱̑=̷̛ " She looked visibly distressed, but Via firmly grasped her hands and nodded with conviction. Shaken, the girl hesitantly continued, "Ā̷̗r̶̅͠l̸̫̀ ̸̈́͂R̸̘̆a̵̍̔e̵͎̽ ̸̔̽Z̷͂̓ǎ̶͐k̴̒̈́i̴̛̕r̸̈́͌y̶̰͒å̷͘ " Discordant voices and chattering echoed and distorted her words yet Via seemed to understand, at least somewhat. "Kirya?" She probed. "K̷i̷r̸y̸a̵.̷ ...K̴i̵r̸y̵a̵?" Finally, the DAMON girl slowly lifted her head to meet Via's gaze. Though teary, her vibrant eyes met Via's. "Kirya," She said simply. Via hugged the stranger tightly.

The rest of the group looked on, dumbfounded. "How did-...?" Gawked the researcher. Solomon shook his head. "I wish I knew."
 
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