Snippet #2822752

This was Bella's first event without Page; both for Hale Enterprises and for Aegis. She'd been given time to recover from both, but the world had to stay moving, and now it was time for her to re-enter the world. She kept going to search out her mentor to make some smart comment about Dave from Admin or to offer to set her up with whatever handsome waiter handed them champagne. And every time, she would start to move, and then remember.

She tried to throw herself into work to distract herself from it. Officially, she was there to manage social media content for the event. Unofficially, she was also there as part of the undercover security team; although she had to question how feasible that would be in her dress and heels. She felt naked without any weapons. When Shiloh and Mikey said something in her earpiece about earpieces acting up, it just made her nervous. She'd barely been able to hear their voices. So instead, she focused on her cover.

"Can you send me a few photos to go up on our instagram? Preferably from when people were arriving? And can you also send me your instagram handle so I can tag you in them? Gotta get you that credit, right?" She said. The photographer grinned at her.
"Tell you what. Give me your number, and I'll text them to you," he said. Bella's smile became a little more forced, although it didn't change externally.
"Sorry, man. It's all gotta go through my work email, or else my boss will get mad at me. You know what it's like." She scribbled her work email down on a napkin and handed it to the photographer, who was shrugged a little.
"Shame. I'll send them on to you now," he said. He left the conversation at that, and Bella sighed with relief as she turned around.

It was as she turned around that her earpiece began to buzz, and she caught a strangled cry of Mikey's voice. That wasn't good. She turned around, scanning the room for a disturbance. She couldn't see anything, so she began to head for the door to see if she could get her comms to reconnect once she was outside. Then she heard someone whispering about some drunks having a fight up on the balcony. That seemed like a good spot to start. She calmly and coolly glided out of the room, before breaking into a run once she was out of sight.

The fight was over by the time she got there, and Leo had bet her to it. She sighed with relief at the presence of another hero there. "Mikey, the fuck is up with your comms? I barely knew it was you and I only got like half a word before the signal died altogether." She sighed, before turning to look at Leo. "Hello, Leo. You look amazing, as always."

The gods were apparently not willing to help Kieran out today. Somehow, he'd been one of the ones to end up inside the museum. He'd specifically requested he was kept out of the museum if possible, but instead, here he was, staring at a sword and being able to hear its final owner bitching about that "foul villain who hath slain" him, all while crouching in the shadows of a balcony overlooking the party. The noise of the ghosts, not just the knight standing beside him and striding up and down the corridor while swearing revenge, was significant, and he could feel a headache starting.

But even the noise of the ghosts wasn't enough to drown out the fact that Ris was on top form in his earpiece. He was having to resist the temptation to either take out his earpiece for five minutes of peace or tell them where to shove it. When they swore, he wasn't sure whether or not to wonder if they'd just seen a particularly attractive woman, or if there was something wrong. And then the hair stood up on the back of his neck, and his attention was drawn, as if by magnetism, towards a woman in a clingy black dress. She was stunning, her dress clinging in all the right places, but that wasn't why she caught Kieran's attention. To him, she positively reeked of death. It seemed that this time, it was both a hot woman and something wrong.

"My eleven o clock. Black, clingy dress. Just entered. Taking to equally hot woman. They're our targets?" Kieran confirmed, speaking into the mic built into his sleeve.
"Copy that and confirm. Good news is, we know she hasn't gotten any hidden weapons," Maelstrom murmured in response. The smirk was evident in his voice. Kieran scanned the room, before spotting the familiar mop of blue hair. He was on the other side of the room, but had a direct line of sight to her.
"You're probably the only person here who thought that, you realise that, Mael?"
"That's why you get a gay to be your lookout."

Kieran slowly crept along the balcony, careful to make sure he was still cloaked in shadow. "Confirm direct visual on her from my position."
"That woman... her attire... what woman would wear such a thing? She... she is a witch!"
"Thanks for that, Sir Percival," he mumbled, rolling his eyes.
"Give me my sword and I will slay her, for the good of the country!"
"No. You don't get your sword until we know she's going to attack."
"You would sabotage me, young page?"
"... yes. Now be quiet."