Location: The Uptown Dome (Main Stage)
Time: 8:05 PM
The bass dropped. So did Dante.
He leaped from the catwalk, plummeting fifty feet toward the stage. The air rushed past his ears, drowning out the hypnotic pop music. Below him, Cardinal Lust was hitting a high note that shattered glass in the VIP boxes.
"BENJI! NOW!" Dante screamed into his earpiece.
CLICK.
High above, Benji slammed his laptop shut. He didn't hack the sound system. He hacked the pyrotechnics.
Every firework, smoke machine, and sparkler on the stage exploded at once.
BOOM.
The stage vanished in a cloud of rainbow smoke and glitter. Lust stopped singing, coughing. The hypnotic spell broke for a split second.
Dante crashed through the smoke, landing in a superhero crouch right in front of the pop star. He opened his black umbrella to shield himself from the sparks.
Lust stared at him. Her diamond dress sparkled in the chaos. Her eyes—pink and slit-pupiled—narrowed.
"You ruined my intro," she hissed. Her voice wasn't cute anymore. It sounded like scraping metal.
"You didn't have a permit for the fireworks," Dante deadpanned, standing up. He flashed his D.P.S. badge (which was actually just a laminated library card). "I'm shutting this down."
"Kill him!" Lust shrieked into her microphone.
The command rippled through the stadium. The front row of fans—who had already drunk the Red-Eye—convulsed. Their skin turned grey. Their jaws unhinged. Hundreds of Ghouls clawed their way onto the stage.
"Oh, great," Dante muttered. "Zombies. I hate zombies. They never tip."
"I got your back, Crow!"
A pink blur shot out of the mosh pit. GiGi vaulted over the security barricade, used a Ghoul's head as a stepping stone, and landed next to Dante. She had a glowstick in her mouth like a cigar.
"Let's dance!" GiGi yelled.
She whipped her blood-wires out. The stage became a blender. Ghouls were sliced, diced, and kicked back into the crowd. GiGi was laughing, moving to the beat of the music that was still playing.
"Dante! The speakers!" Benji yelled over the comms. "She's trying to sing again! If she finishes the chorus, the whole stadium turns!"
Dante looked up. Lust was floating above the stage now, suspended by wires (or magic). She opened her mouth, inhaling deep. The air began to vibrate with purple energy.
"Not on my shift," Dante growled.
He grabbed a heavy stage monitor (speaker) and hurled it into the air.
Lust scoffed and blasted it with a beam of pink energy from her hand. The speaker disintegrated.
"Is that all you have, little hybrid?" Lust laughed. "I am a Star! I shine brighter than—"
BZZZZZT.
A horrible, ear-splitting feedback screech tore through the stadium.
Lust clutched her ears. "AHH! WHAT IS THAT?!"
"Feedback loop!" Benji shouted. "I routed the microphone output back into the input! It's infinite noise!"
Lust fell from the air, crashing onto the stage. Her concentration was broken. The purple energy dissipated.
"NOW!" Dante yelled.
He charged. Lust scrambled to her feet, her beautiful face twisting into a monster's snarl. She grew massive, razor-sharp claws.
"I WILL FLAY YOU LIVE ON STREAM!" she screamed.
She slashed at Dante. He caught the claws with his umbrella. The impact drove his feet into the stage floor. His piercings glowed blinding white.
"GiGi! The rig!" Dante shouted.
GiGi looked up. She saw the massive lighting rig hanging by a single cable (which Dante had weakened earlier).
"Timber!" GiGi yelled.
She threw a blood-wire, wrapping it around the cable. She yanked with all her strength.
SNAP.
The two-ton lighting rig fell.
Lust looked up. Her eyes went wide. "Wait—"
CRASH.
The rig slammed into the stage, burying the Pop Star Vampire under a mountain of steel, glass, and hot lights. The stage collapsed under the weight, sending everything tumbling into the orchestra pit.
Silence fell over the stadium.
The music stopped. The Ghouls in the crowd blinked, confused, as the Red-Eye wore off without the song to activate it.
Dante stood at the edge of the pit, looking down at the wreckage. He was panting. His "VIBE CHECK" t-shirt was torn.
"Is she dead?" GiGi asked, peering over the edge.
A hand burst from the rubble. It was burned and broken, but moving.
"You..." Lust's voice rasped from the darkness. "You... canceled... me..."
"Yeah," Dante said, closing his umbrella. "Your contract expired."
Suddenly, the stadium lights flickered. The giant screens behind the stage—which usually showed Lust's face—glitched.
A new face appeared. It was Eri.
She was sitting in a dark room, adjusting her glasses.
"Performance review: Inadequate," Eri's voice echoed through the stadium speakers.
"Eri!" Lust screamed from the pit. "Help me! Kill them!"
"No," Eri said calmly. "You failed to convert the audience. Your stock value has plummeted. The Dominion is... downsizing."
On the screen, Eri pressed a button.
The rubble on top of Lust began to glow. The stage equipment—which Eri had rigged—wasn't just lights. It was a bomb.
"Wait!" Lust screamed.
"Goodbye, darling," Eri smiled.
BOOM.
The orchestra pit imploded. A contained, silent explosion (a sound vacuum) swallowed Lust whole. When the dust settled, there was nothing left but a crater.
Dante stared at the screen. Eri looked directly at the camera, seemingly making eye contact with him.
"Good show, Dante," she whispered.
The screen went black.
"Did..." Benji's voice trembled in Dante's ear. "Did the bad lady just save us?"
"No," Dante said, wiping dust off his Hello Kitty keychain. "She just fired the competition."
Dante turned to GiGi. "We need to go. Before the police get here."
GiGi nodded. She grabbed a handful of confetti from the floor and threw it in the air.
"Best. Concert. Ever."