The Aurian Chronicles Chapter 2: Lyte up your life!

 Darkness sighed softly as he parked his car in a parking lot near a huge warehouse. The car flashed with Neon lights that read "Sound City" on a rainbow-flashing LED screen. As Darkness and Silver stepped out, Darkness saw a homeless person wearing an ACU pattern poncho sitting by a telephone pole breathing cold air hiding their face in the hood to keep the air off their face. Feeling bad, Darkness grabbed a stack of hundreds from his briefcase in the car and headed over to them. "Listen, it's like thirty degrees outside, why don't you get yourself a nice hotel and-" He started, But Darkness was cut off when the person took off a hood to reveal their disfigured face. 

Darkness recognized the undisfigured part enough to remember someone from his past. "H-Hood?" He asked. The woman just nodded. "Hello, Sergeant Sonata... heard it was First Sergeant before... you know." She said as she cupped his cheek, The purple in Darkness' hair turned black and his pale skin showed signs of permanent sun damage, his eyes sagged and wrinkled from too many nights without sleep as well. Darkness swallowed hard as he began to hyperventilate in the cold night air. 

"L-listen, just uh, take this money, get you a hotel, maybe treat yourself a bit, and see if you can get back on track huh?" He said nervously, Causing Hood to laugh. "That's too much money at once... I waited Sergeant.. I waited for the VA like they said... all I got was a minor stitch job and painkillers... can ya believe that?" She asked as she hugged him tight. "Thank you for worrying about me.. But I'm already dead... I'm just waiting for the body to match the spirit." She said as she took only enough to survive a couple nights and walked off. Darkness had so many questions he wanted to ask, but his brain wasn't able to cope with the stress.

Silver's eyes widened as she recognized the signs of Darkness having a panic attack and pressed her back into his chest, putting his arms around her. "Shh Shh Shh, Derek, breathe.." she said softly. After a few minutes, Darkness cuddled into her tight and closed his eyes. His breathing returned to normal as did his hair and skin. "Thank you, Silver. I REALLY needed that." He told her. Silver nodded, "I Can see that. So who was that woman? Someone you served with?" She asked. Darkness just nodded back at her and pulled out his old Dog tags, attached to it was a secondary tag that read 'I will always place the mission first, I will never accept defeat, I will never quit, I will never leave a fallen comrade'

"Her name was Barbara Hoodington, but we all just called her 'Hood' because she liked wearing a Hood, even indoors, many a time did I make her do corrective training for not adhering to uniform standards... She got sent home after an IED went off and damaged her face beyond repair." He said as he slowly walked to the club with Silver and gripped her close. "To see that she's like this... Hurts... I want to try and help her later if I can... If she's willing to help herself that is." He said. Silver smiled up at him and nodded. "Of course Derek...  if you want we can discuss it privately. For now, let's go see Lisa!" 

Darkness winced a bit at the loud booming of the speakers as he and Silver walked into the club. He never said it out loud, but ever since he had gotten back from the war in the Middle East, loud booming speakers reminded him of all the noises he heard in combat, and gave him sensory overload, but this meant a lot to Lisa, and he cared more about her support. Both Darkness and Silver scanned the area until they saw A young woman with long blonde hair at the bar. She was wearing a White tube top with White daisy dukes and a Rainbow fishnet bodysuit. She was currently barefoot, but her white light-up boots were underneath the stool. Hey Lisa!" Said Darkness as he walked up to her.

As she looked up and saw her big brother, Lyte lit up and hopped on his shoulders. "HEY BIG BROOOOOO!" She said excitedly as she hugged him. Darkness just chuckled and rubbed her legs "Aren't you a little old for this?" He asked. Lyte laid her chin on his head. "Aren't YOU a little old to be making fun  of me for being short?" She asked. Darkness full-on laughed and looked up at her. "NEVER!" He shouted over the booming music. "Well, there you go! grab my boots, we can head to the back room before I go on stage." She retorted. Darkness nodded and grabbed her boots as he carried her to the room in the back of the warehouse. 

Lyte grabbed a soda from the refrigerator and sat in her chair as Darkness just looked around. "Nice place! I can't believe you got your own livable set-up back here!" He said in astonishment as he admired the white room, it had a Disco ball with a flashing rainbow laser pointed at it to turn the otherwise white walls into flashing rainbows. There was even a twin-size mattress in case Lyte partied too hard to get home. "Yeah well when I bought the place, I figured I'd make it my own ya know? Streets around here are dangerous... Maybe if you tried playing guitar again I could let you bring a band back here?" She offered hopefully.

Darkness' smile soured as he let out an audibly loud sigh. "I thought we moved past this conversation... that door is closed, Lyte." He told her. Lyte's smile seemed to fade at his expression and words as she narrowed her piercing blue eyes. "No, it is NOT Derek! You think it's gone, but I can SEE  the spark of a musician dying to burst out of you... Your excuse as a teenager was not being able to find people for your band? Well, guess what? I KNOW people, I could get you some up-and-coming talent to rock out with! Please try to consider it?" She begged. 

Darkness threw his hands up and relented. "I'll think about it Lisa... but whatever you see in me isn't all you think it is." He told her, Lyte leaned in. "No matter what it is, it's better than whatever you're doing now for Mr Capryse, I don't always know what that guy has you doing, but I know what he's known for.`.. you should out there trying to make people happy! Not profit off their misery!" She said as she drained her soda. "You wanna see how fun it is? CHECK THIS OUT!" She said as she attached LED Lights to her fishnets and headed to the stage. Darkness and Silver gave each other a shocked look and went to watch her.

The stage of the warehouse began blowing out a fog as laser lights rained down from seemingly nowhere while a heavy Bass drum began pulsing to the rhythm of a heartbeat. Lyte swayed her hips seductively as she walked out onto the stage towards her equipment and winked at the crowd. "LONG ISLAND NEW YORK! IS EVERYBODY FEELING GOOOOOD?!" She said into the microphone, a huge crowd screamed out and pulled out their glowsticks, some of them throwing them on the stage at her feet."GOOD! BECAUSE WE'RE GONNA LYTE UP NEW YORK BABY!" She said while blowing kisses. Heart-shaped Rainbow prism lights blew out into the crowd. As her Lasers hit them, they seemed to reflect off each other in a spectacular light show.

Lyte began playing her music and scratching her discs with her nails as she chanted into the microphone, she placed a voice-changing device to her neck. "When a hottie with a body's feeling naughty at a party and she steps into the light, better make a move or dude you're gonna lose WE ARE ALL SLAVES OF THE NIGHT! A little ravin' is what I'm cravin' feeling brazen til your ragin? Satisfy my plight! You can't be feeling lonely when I'm the one and only SOURCE OF ALL YOUR LYTE!" She sang, letting it echo throughout the club, the smiles of all her fans made Lyte's smile grow, she even seemed to levitate from the positive energy she was feeling.

Silver by now was swaying and dancing to the music, resisting the urge to go wild in the pit only because she was watching from the staged area. Darkness raised his eyes at all the hype of the crowd. He could practically see all of the aura coming off the crowd, only to squint as he saw a flash of blue. It was brief, but he could see a ghost of a man in an old-looking brown suit with long black hair, his eyes covered by shadows, smiling at Darkness. Darkness felt so many emotions as his own purple Aura seemed to radiate off him, whether we wanted to admit it or not, Lyte's music had gotten to him, causing his heartbeat to match Lyte's song.

As the Concert played out Lyte, watched Silver and Darkness when she could while smiling. She didn't quite know what Darkness was going through at the moment, but right now none of it mattered. Darkness had been to many of her concerts, but now for the first time, Darkness was watching with his entire being, and that had her ecstatic. 'More where that came from big brother.' She said as she continued playing for the crowd.