Beep beep beep!

Shouri’s eyes cracked open upon the tuner’s notification chimes gracing his hearing. He lay there for a moment, processing reality. Taika had claim of his torso, the vixen undisturbed by the annoyance of electronics out of her grasp. The oranges from the evening sky box filtered into their room providing a rough guesstimation of the present hour. Curiosity got the better of him and he sat up, slipping out of his clingy fox’s embrace.

Rebecca and Pacifica were conked out on the couch, lying on their sides. Pacifica’s head rested on Rebecca’s hip, and the fox’s warm tail wrapped itself around the otter’s torso. They must have decided to take a nap after coming back to the room – intentionally or not.

Either way, someone had bothered to message him, might as well see who it was.

If he hadn’t been awake before, he most assuredly was when the identity of the messenger was revealed to him.

Colette

Discordant Shouri had never opened a text message faster in his nearly two decades of life.

Colette: “I’m okay, call me when you got a sec.” 7:48 PM

Of course, she skimped on the details – and that’s how he knew it was her. His thumbs flew through the menus and not five seconds later the artificial ringer buzzed in his anxious ears, his heart pounding as he prepared himself for disappointment.

“Oh hey! Didn’t expect you to call so fast!” that familiarly annoying voice spoke from the other end. The tension melted away as the boy brushed his hair back.

His voice was stuck in his throat as the relief pooled in his heart.

“Shouri?”

He exhaled sharply. “Are you okay?” he asked, barely avoiding his voice cracking.

“Yeah? I mean Vail attacked me, but she didn’t stand a chance against Kaira.”

The Maestro couldn’t help but laugh. He laughed so loudly, it woke the other three in the room who all stared at him.

“God, I missed you not explaining shit,” Shouri said, wiping the gathered relief from his eyes.

“I don’t see how that’s funny,” Colette pouted from the other end.

“From the top, explain yourself,” he demanded, leaning back and preparing himself for a long conversation.

Taika sat up while Pacifica and Rebecca joined them in bed, eavesdropping on the call.

Thankfully that wasn’t difficult for the trio of tailed maidens given their superior hearing.

“I went back to Lyreann after you got kidnapped,” Colette started.

“Thanks for not worrying about me,” Shouri mumbled sarcastically while rolling his eyes.

“Huh?”

“You didn’t ask how I was doing when I called you.”

“I figured if you were calling me from your tuners, you were fine. Why would I ask?”

Another eye roll from Shouri. Pacifica placed a hand on his thigh closest to her, extinguishing her Maestro’s ire. After a moment, he decided to move on as his itchy curiosity demanded answers. “Why did you go back to Lyreann?”

And answers she would provide. “Right, so after Taika said she was attacked by Whistler, I wanted to make sure Dr. Vim was okay, but he wasn’t answering any of my calls, so we went back,” she explained.

An incredulous stare met the tuner as he pulled it away from his head. No amount of perplexed expressions would get him any closer to the answers he sought, for that he reapplied the device to his ear. “Colette, did you maybe consider he might be the fucker behind all of this?” questioned Shouri.

“Why would I think that?” came the innocent question.

Shouri opened his mouth to bark at her, but a squeeze of an otter’s hand on his thigh extinguished the fires of exasperation in his heart.

“Okay, let me lay it out for you like you’re five,” he said, earning a yelp of “Hey!” from the other Maestro.

“Ilea’s behind this shit, he’s gotta be. The dastardly duo works for him, and probably that third guy also. They were specifically sent by him to come get me.”

“How do you know that?”

“I mean, it’s kind of obvious? Besides Elijah getting the intel before I was attacked, we were specifically separated and weakened. Plus, only I was taken; Taika and the others were left alone after they got me.”

A contemplative hum came from the other end. “I guess,” she muttered.

“Ilea has been really in the weeds about the Feroce stuff. He knows too much, right?” Shouri fired back.

“He’s been studying it for a long time, it’s only natural he’d be the foremost researcher on the topic.” Colette countered.

“I disagree - he knows more about this than he’s letting on.”

“You think so?”

“I know so.”

“How?

Shouri allowed himself a moment of silence. He didn’t have any hard proof but…

“I can feel it,” was the answer that came from his gut

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“You can feel it?” questioned Colette

“It’s just a feeling. The fucker’s guilty,” Shouri asserted.

“I dunno. He’s a respected scientist, he’s like a messiah in the field of rhythm studies.”

“The perfect cover story – nobody would expect it to be him of all people; he’s too clean.”

Shouri met Pacifica’s gaze, who nodded back with her eyes alit with red rhythm. He could always count on her to be by his side. That wasn’t fair, his eyes stole the two foxes also right there with him – all three of them were as reliable as they came.

They’d follow him straight into hell after all – the least he could do was have a game plan ready for the trip down.

“I’ll come up with something more solid. ‘He’s got bad vibes’ probably isn’t gonna hold up in court,” he relented on that point at least.

The conversation lulled into a quiet idle for a moment. Colette was the one to continue their talk.

“I did get with the police,” she brought up.

The girls jumped as a sudden scowl descended onto their Maestro’s face. “And?” he struggled to keep his voice even despite only speaking one word.

“They said they’d look into it when they had the time,” she replied hopefully.

Rebecca reached over and placed her hand on his leg, trying to help Pacifica impart serenity into her Maestro’s rhythm. Taika, sensing the intent behind her fellow Resonator’s gesture, wrapped herself around him, resting her head on the shoulder closest to her.

“You said Vail attacked you. Was Whistler there?” Shouri abruptly changed the subject.

Which thankfully Colette didn’t question. “No, just Vail. Kaira got her before she got me though.”

“Is she okay?”

“Vail? Not sure, she ran away.”

“No, Kaira.”

“Oh yeah, Kaira’s fine. She’s making dinner right now.”

That was interesting to Shouri, Colette and Kaira were somewhere presumably safe if they were casually making food. “Where are you?” came the pertinent inquiry.

“Colto MA Office. Kaira thinks we should keep moving, and my grandpa is in Dorleans, so we’ll probably go there.”

He didn’t have much more to say to her at the moment. There were certainly other topics he could think up if he tried, but even this short conversation had worn away at his nerves.

The discordant stave was probably to blame.

“Do that. Stay on the move and stay low,” said Shouri, moving to end the call.

“Oh okay.” Thankfully Colette didn’t have much of an argument.

“And stay in contact.”

“Sure sure, g’night Shouri!”

Shouri exhaled sharply through his nostrils as he pulled the tuner away from his ear. He allowed the device to rest on his lap as he furrowed his brows. Taika pushed herself up, but left a hand on his shoulder, squeezing tight with reassurance.

The quartet sat in silence for some time, all ruminating on the new information they received from Colette.

“What the heck was that about?” asked Rebecca, being the one to break the silence.

“Yeah, you got kinda scary when Colette mentioned going to the cops,” Taika pointed out.

His grip tightened around the black tuner in his grasp. “She wasted her fucking time,” Shouri growled, directing his ire towards the unoccupied portion of the bed. “Are we really surprised the police suck at their jobs?” he continued.

Pacifica studied her Maestro. He had this preconceived notion of the uselessness of law enforcement well before their own issues with them.

“They wouldn’t look for Mila, would they?” guessed the otter.

He gave no verbal reply, but his glare sharpened and he held himself tightly. “I don’t trust them,” was what he said when he finally did speak. “They don’t ever consider Resonators. They don’t help Resonators. Why should I rely on an organization that’s so dubious?” he questioned rhetorically.

“I know that fucker is behind all this, but I still have no idea what his motive is,” Shouri hummed.

“Maybe it’s just how he gets his kicks?” Rebecca offered. “Plenty of sickos out there that already don’t think of us Resonators as people.”

Shouri shook his head slowly. “While I want to just take the easiest answer, I feel like it’s not that simple,” he mumbled.

The group fell to silence. Time and again the systems that were supposedly supposed to protect them failed to do so.

It was too common of an occurrence that they had to take matters into their own hands – Feroce and possibly Ilea Vim included.

“Sounds like we’re gonna be needing that overwhelming power then, huh bossman?” Rebecca patted their Maestro’s knee.

His scowl faded and his tense shoulders relaxed as he cracked a smile. “Yeah, something like that.” His gaze rose to meet his precious Resonators. “Guess we should make the most of our time here.”