RISING PHOENIX ACT SELECT

CHAPTER 24: KINESIOLOGY

Marco walked around outside for a while trying to find a way back inside, eventually finding a dark wooden door at the back. He opened it and was hit with the noise coming from the musical chairs event, meaning he was indeed in the right place. He moved the curtain blocking the door out of the way and closed it firmly - he was now back inside, with no one noticing again as they were watching musical chairs. Marco quickly maneuvered around the tables, trying to make his way to Glenn. To lower the risk of him getting cornered, he moved his way through the crowd that formed around the dance floor to get a better look at the game.

When Marco finally got out of the crowd, he was just a few feet away from him and Glenn’s table. At that moment, the emcee stopped the music once more. Marco then heard a burst of yelling - a winner had emerged. He was uninterested in the outcome and continued making his way to Glenn, whom he eventually reached.
“I got it…” Marco told Glenn as he reached into his suit pocket and pulled out the drive.
“My God, what happened to you?” Glenn asked, genuinely bewildered at the state of Marco’s outfit.
“Just plug it in,” Marco told him, unamused, “...I’ll look out for anyone coming after us.”
Glenn took the drive and examined it for a while before plugging it into his laptop. As Marco looked around nervously, Glenn’s laptop began decrypting the contents of the drive. However, it was taking a really long time.

Glenn tried to copy the raw data off the drive instead, but his laptop ended up throwing a bunch of errors on-screen.
“Glenn, I told you, you can’t modify the drive! It’s not possible!”
“I didn’t know that meant you couldn’t copy stuff! What kind of drive is this?!”
“I don’t know! Ramone told me the Rising Phoenix sealed it! You can only see those files when the drive’s in so just look at them already!”
“Fine!” Glenn replied as he continued decrypting the contents of the drive. Behind Marco’s back however, Glenn began doing something else to the drive.
“Hey…what’s going on here - ” Darren asked as he came in with a mocktail he got for himself.
“Sorry Darren, we’re in the middle of something…” Marco interrupted as he saw Ramone wandering around, looking for him. Suddenly, someone accidentally bumped Glenn in the shoulder.
“Sorry…” he said lightly as he continued walking. Glenn looked back at the laptop and was confused to find an error saying the drive was missing. Sure enough, after looking down at the USB port, the drive was gone.

“Marco…someone took the drive!” Glenn told him frantically as he pointed at the guy who bumped into him. Quickly, Marco sprung into action and began chasing after him. Glenn said something to him, but he didn’t hear it with all the commotion. He pushed chairs and even other people aside as he tried to get to the thief, who was on their way to the dancefloor, which was just opened a minute ago. Meanwhile, Brianna was sitting at her table, sipping on a mocktail when she saw Marco whizz by, chasing after someone. She contemplated for a while, taking another sip in the process.
“Eh,” she said to herself, staying in her seat and continuing to drink.

Meanwhile, the thief managed to make his way into the dancefloor crowd, blending in seamlessly. By the time Marco made it inside, he could barely find the guy - he was wearing a black suit and a blue mask, something many people were wearing. As he continued to follow the thief around, Marco pushed through people who were happily dancing, which ignited the ire of some of them. He was so determined that he even pushed right through a couple who was about to kiss.
“Hey!” the girl Marco bumped into yelled out. Her boyfriend quickly made a rude gesture at him involving a specific finger.

As Marco struggled to keep up with the guy, he saw him suddenly hand off the drive to somebody passing by, clearly unaware that Marco saw it. He quickly approached the guy he saw take the USB and snatched it out of his hands before fleeing the scene. That ordeal was finally over, he thought, and they could go back to examining the drive. However, as he was approaching Glenn, he took one more look at the drive and realized that it was missing the red etching of the Rising Phoenix logo on it - it was a decoy.
“NO!” Marco yelled out as he realized.
“What, what?” Glenn asked.
“It’s a decoy…I lost the drive!” Marco cried out as he sat down on a nearby chair.
“Hey, hey…calm down! I was gonna tell you about this, but I put a tracker program on that drive a while ago…!”
“Wait, what? Why didn’t you tell me?!”
“I tried to, but you ran off before you heard me!”

“Alright…how do I track it down…?” Marco asked.
“Use this,” Glenn explained as he gave Marco a small device with a radar screen on it. There was a green dot on it that was in the direction of the dance floor.
“Every few seconds the dot’s position will update. Just follow it and when it’s right in the middle, that’s when you’ve found the drive,” he explained.
“Ok…thank you, Glenn. Thank you,” Marco said as he took the device and headed back into the dance floor. Meanwhile, the guy who took the drive was starting to get lost in the sea of people himself. Overclock was still waiting for the drive to be delivered to him, whereas Voltage and her fighters were outside trying to frame Obsidian for smuggling alcohol inside and getting too drunk. As Marco waded through the people, the green dot began to move closer to him, indicating that he was within range.

At that point, the emcee announced that they would be playing a romantic song, so the couples in the crowd began to hold hands and form space around each other. Marco carefully maneuvered around them so as not to cause trouble, still following the tracking device. The thief spotted Marco coming towards him and panicked - and for good reason. Marco looked up and made direct eye contact with the thief. Immediately, he tried to run away from Marco but was blocked by a bunch of people. Marco put the tracking device in his pocket and gained on him, eventually grabbing him by the wrist. The thief tried to grab Marco back, but he managed to catch it with his other hand. The two of them remained like this for a while, trying to out-strength the other while desperately trying not to cause a commotion. What confused Marco was that the thief kept trying to step backwards instead of trying to push him like he thought. Marco briefly managed to push the thief’s hand away and took out his tracking device - but the green dot wasn’t in the middle.

After this realization, the thief broke free from Marco’s grip and ran away. He knew what happened - the drive was now in someone else’s hands. Marco turned around and began following the direction of the green dot once more. He followed…and followed…and followed. Then he reached the drive. He looked up and saw Darren staring at him, confused.
“Is something wrong, Marco…?” he asked.
“Darren…you have the drive,” Marco clarified as he confirmed it on the tracking device.
“What? How?”
“Somebody must’ve slipped it onto you…can I pat you down?” Marco asked Darren, which he gladly agreed to.
“Woah…okay…” Darren said as Marco frisked him. Eventually, Marco patted Darren’s outer suit pocket and felt something hard and drive-sized. He took it out and, sure enough, it was the drive - not a decoy.

Before Marco could grab it, however, another thief took it out of Darren’s suit pocket. In a moment that felt like slow motion to him, Marco locked onto the drive and took it out of the guy’s hand before he could get a good grip on it. However, doing this made him lose balance and nearly fall face-first to the ground. Luckily, Darren managed to catch him by his free hand. He then pulled Marco up with all his might, accidentally making him land onto his chest.
“Umph!” Darren let out as Marco made impact. He quickly got off Darren, who was still holding Marco’s hand even though he regained balance already. They both giggled nervously to themselves as Marco looked at the drive in his hand.

Meanwhile, Ramone was still looking around for the drive. They ended up noticing Glenn slowly working on a laptop under the table, so they quickly approached him. They noticed the decoy drive on the table as well and assumed that was it. After reaching the table, they swiftly snatched the drive and looked at it. Seeing the lack of red etching, however, made them realize it was a fake. They turned to Glenn and saw him looking at them groggily, trying to process that who he was seeing was Ramone.
“Where is he?” Ramone asked sternly to the dumbfounded Glenn, who still hadn’t said a word to them. His eyes darted to the dance floor for a split second, which gave Ramone all the information they needed.
“Thank you,” they said as they headed straight there, pocketing the decoy drive.

In the crowd, Marco saw someone else who looked like they were looking around for the drive, which he was still gripping tightly in his other hand. He quickly moved behind Darren to stay out of view, with Darren still holding his free hand.
“Darren…I know this sounds crazy, but we’re going to have to dance our way out of here,” Marco told him, which lit up Darren’s face.
“This is like Grade 8 PE all over again,” Darren quipped.
Suddenly, another person tried taking the drive, but Marco simply stepped to the side of Darren and pushed them away. As the music began to get louder, the crowd started to get rowdier, which was making it difficult to leave. Suddenly, Marco tripped trying to get out, but Darren managed to pull him back up. The way he pulled him up, however, actually spun him to the other side. As the two tried to figure a way out, Ramone saw them both.

“Sorry, scratch what I said, I think I should leave alone,” Marco explained to Darren.
“No no, I can help you!” Darren pleaded.
“Listen,” Marco explained as he showed the drive to Darren with two fingers holding it, “...this drive is the most important thing right now, and I cannot let - ”
At that moment, Marco saw something that horrified him. It was a playing card, which flew straight into the drive, knocking it out of his hand. Ramone was there. The drive quickly fell on the floor straight after.
“NO!” Marco shouted as he tried fishing around for the drive, but another thief picked it up a few seconds later. Ramone then walked straight into the thief, bumped them, and swapped the real drive with the decoy. Marco tried to keep up with who to follow, but he could still feel Darren tugging on his hand.

Marco looked around and saw a few people staring at them - judgingly. That is what sent him over the edge.
“I CAN’T DO THIS RIGHT NOW!” Marco yelled out at Darren, which caused even more heads to turn. Darren’s expression instantly turned sullen.
“I’m sorry…” he said as he let go of Marco’s hand and walked away, heartbroken. Marco took a few deep breaths as he watched Darren disappear into the crowd, feeling like he did something wrong. He brushed it off and continued to go after Ramone, who was approaching another table with a girl sitting by herself. Marco quickly maneuvered around the tables and chairs towards Ramone, who was unaware that Marco was approaching. Suddenly, they felt a hand grab their suit. They turned around and saw Marco staring right into their soul. They quickly pulled out their remaining playing cards out of self-defense.

“Give me the drive,” Marco told Ramone with pure conviction.
“I didn’t get my money,” Ramone argued as their eyes darted towards the girl on the table, which Marco noticed.
“Who is she…?”
“Hazel’s not involved with this. Leave her out of it!”
“Not until that drive is mine.”
They looked towards the drive, which was deep in their suit pocket, and back at Hazel a few times before they made their decision.
“I’ll give you the drive…just don’t bother us anymore, please,” Ramone said as they stared at Hazel, who was beginning to notice what was happening, leaving Marco surprised. They took the drive out of their suit pocket and placed it firmly in Marco’s hand, also giving some of their playing cards as well to keep.
“You got what you wanted, Marco. Just…promise you’ll take them down for me.”

With that, Ramone walked away from Marco. He looked at the tracker and the drive itself, confirming it was the real deal. Marco stuffed the drive and Ramone’s cards in his suit pockets and began making his way back to Glenn’s table with a sense of accomplishment. Brianna, who had just been at her seat this whole time, saw Marco walking back to his table grinning from ear to ear. This piqued her interest, so she made her way over there as well.
“I got it back…” Marco told Glenn. After getting no response, he looked closer at him and realized he was completely asleep.
“Hey…!” Marco said as he tried shaking Glenn awake, but he quickly fell back asleep again. Marco could only sigh in frustration.

“What happened…?” Brianna asked as she approached talking distance.
“Long story…” Marco told her as he patted the suit pocket with the drive in it.
“Can I see?” she asked in an innocuous tone.
“No.”
“What?”
“I got this. Not you,” Marco told her bluntly. This made her upset, but she continued asking about what went down.

For the rest of the prom, Marco stayed in his seat and kept the drive right in his suit pocket, only getting up for the dinner service and the bathroom. After Glenn finally woke up a couple hours before the prom ended, they agreed that they wouldn’t open the drive in the prom itself so that Glenn could bring it home and examine it there. Marco also saw Ramone and Hazel dancing together, which stood in stark contrast to what happened with him and Darren, who took the seat opposite Marco to avoid looking at him. Marco soon came up with a secluded meeting place in Pisay for the Dexterous Detectives to go to finally destroy S.P.E.C.T.R.E. - once and for all.

After a fun prom night came to a close and Glenn was about to get in his car, Marco gave the drive to him and sent him on his way.

As Glenn’s car drove away, Marco knew - this was the beginning of the end.