The lighting rig shifted.
The intro track started its electronic build.
Low at first. Almost nothing. Just a pulse in the floor.
Then the hand claps came in through the speakers and the audience picked them up without being asked, a thousand people finding the same beat in the same second.
"Hey! Hey! Hey!
The city's going quiet but I'm here to stay!
Hey! Hey! Hey!
Extinction came knocking, told 'em 'Not today!'"
The stage lights crashed on.
The crowd stopped being a crowd.
The UV panels blazed across the fractured View District stage, cracked neon, collapsed structures, the whole thing glowing in deep blues and burning orange, and standing inside all of it were five silhouettes that the room already knew by shape alone.
The crowd lost its mind.
Soorin watched from backstage through the gap in the partition, monitor to her left, Daehyun beside her.
She told herself she was watching for lighting discrepancies.
★☆★☆★☆
