At dusk, everyone gathers in the lobby, their votes accounted. There is no need to count the votes, and Nightsky zones out their voices as she stands to the side, notebook in hand—or, in her case, paw. It's opened to a page with three words on it written in large, capital letters, each one underlined twice. Her eyes narrow as she reads them over and over, every line of every letter imprinting into her mind. Finally she tears her gaze away from it, acknowledging that there's no need to keep looking at it. Taking a deep breath, she turns to face the gathered people, their voices finally reaching in her ears once more.
"I suppose there's no need to count votes," Lee observes, and everyone stops speaking as they turn to face her. "It's clear who has to die." Everyone stands in silence for a moment, thinking of the events of the past twenty-four hours. They had killed the protege, the one person who could find who was innocent and who was guilty without having to resort to killing, and lost one of their greatest assets to the Mafia. Certainly, things were looking grim. However, Muffinman's death was not in vain, for he had left a clue to one of the killers.
"He's not here," Nightsky observes aloud, and Antihero nods.
"He left the hotel earlier this morning," he says.
"And you didn't try to stop him?" Sabrini asks, his eyes wide. "It's kind of obvious who he is."
"I was drunk," Antihero stated bluntly. "I wasn't exactly thinking straight."
"We can discuss this later," Meed interrupts, frowning. "Let's just go get him now." The group lets out a chorus of "Yeah!"'s and "Right!"'s as they stormed out the door of the hotel. Nightsky lingers for a moment, glancing at the words in the notebook one last time, before hurrying to join them. Once outside, she takes flight and glides to the front of the group, taking the lead next to Lee.
"Where do we look first?" Sprite asks from the back.
"I'd say the nightclub," Nightsky says briskly.
"The nightclub?" NekoSuave frowns. "Why there?"
"Just a hunch," Nightsky says cryptically, ignoring the look Lee flashes her. However, no one questions it, and they redirect their walk towards the nightclub. Lee tries the handle and frowns.
"It's locked," she says.
"Open it," Nightsky orders KoriCongo. He shoots her a puzzled look, but reaches into his pocket and pulls out a key. He puts it in the lock and begins to turn it, but pauses.
"Uh, does anyone else hear music?" he asks, and everyone tenses, listening closely. Sure enough, the faint sounds of a piano can be heard, almost too soft to hear at first. Hesitantly, Kori finishes turning the key and pulls open the door, and the music becomes louder.
"This is Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata," Magravan observes in a hushed voice.
"Okay, I'm starting to get a bit creeped out," Chaz whispers. "Can we go back to the hotel?"
"No," Nightsky says, walking inside the nightclub. The others rush to keep up with her brisk pace, and they enter the main bar area of the nightclub. The lights are far dimmer than usual, putting them on guard as they carefully walk inside. Sitting at the piano on the stage with her back to them is a strange woman they'd never seen before with gorgeous, golden-brown hair and wearing a sexy red dress. For a moment everyone stands in awe of the beautiful, solemn melody, watching as her gloved fingers dance across the piano keys. Finally, the song is brought to an end, and the woman lowers her arms to her sides. As she does so, Lee raises her gun and points it at the stage.
"I'm guessing you're the mysterious Stella we couldn't find," she declares grimly, her eyes narrowed. The woman turns her head slightly towards them, allowing everyone their first look at her face, even if only from one side. Her lips are ruby red and her cheeks have an ever-present blush, and there's a beauty mark beneath her eye.
At first glance, she has the appearance of an innocent and gentle, if somewhat homely, young woman. However, this image is quickly shot down when she pulls out a gun and shoots at Lee, sending the agent's gun flying from her hand. She rises from the piano bench and turns to look at the shock crowd face-on. While usually one should be terrified in such a situation, it took a moment for the fear to sink in as they took in her red dress, which showed off all her curves to their fullest potential, with a bonus slit on the side to showcase her leg.
"Now, now, Agent, no need to be so nasty," she says in a soft, high-pitched voice, flashing a menacing yet strangely seductive smile. "We're both women in a man's world, after all."
"Don't lie." Suddenly Nightsky zooms by the women, swiping at her head. Stella jumps to the side, narrowly avoiding the strike. A golden blur zooms through the air, and she reaches up with her free hand to catch it while pointing the gun at Nightsky. Despite the gun aimed at her, the fennec fox calmly adds, "After all, you're not 'Stella', you're Sleepy." Sure enough, standing before her is Sleepy, wearing a form-fitting red dress that shows off all his curves with matching ruby red lipstick, holding a golden-brown wig in one hand and aiming a gun at Nightsky with the other.
"Please tell me I'm not the only one seeing Sleepy in a dress," Rokulily whispers to Claptrap.
"No, he's in a dress," Claptrap whispers back, his eyes wide.
"Matt would have loved to see this," Sprite whispers, and the two nod, their eyes stuck on Sleepy's strangely sexy figure in the dress.
"How'd you know," Sleepy demands of Nightsky in his usual voice, and the fennec fox holds up the notebook with a smirk. Written on the page, in giant letters, are three words: "
SLEEPY IS STELLA".
"Muffinman saw you the first night," she says. "I looked in his room after we learned he was the protege and found his notebook there. I had a hard time believing it at first, but obviously... it's true." She smirks at Sleepy a bit, who scowls in reply.
"Figures," she mutters. "We should have killed that guy earlier."
"Uh, I have a question," Chaz suddenly says, and the two turn their heads to him in surprise. He shrinks back a bit, seeming hesitant, but then works up his courage and blurts, "Why are you wearing a dress?" Sleepy smirks a bit and shrugs.
"Eh, can't hurt to tell you," he says. "My parents already had two sons, but my mother really wanted a daughter. But when I was born, there were some... complications. In short, she couldn't have any more children, and unfortunately for her, I was a boy. Somehow she convinced my father to raise me as a girl, and I grew up wearing dresses and make-up."
"So when you moved out, you started a double-life," Lee muses, eying him warily. "You were a normal reporter by day, and a Mafia Princess by night."
"Well, it certainly made it harder to catch me," Sleepy replies, flashing the agent a cocky grin, but it quickly fades. "But Jackson had to go and ruin it. He found out my identity and was going to report me to the FBI. We called in a hitman to kill him, but you know how that ended." Sleepy turns his head back to Nightsky, his gaze cold as he eyes Muffinman's notebook. "And of course, his protege also had to get involved and find me out. Men. They're nothing but trouble."
"You do remember that you're technically a man, right?" Meed asks with a deadpan expression, and Sleepy shrugs.
"Sometimes I forget," he replies casually. "Now then, Agent Nightsky, let's end this, shall we?" He pulls the trigger, and a loud bang rings through the room as a bullet shoots through the air. Blood sprays into the air and Nightsky lets out a deafening screech only capable of being made by something from another realm, so loud that everyone winces and blinks. When they open their eyes, they are shocked by what they see. Nightsky stands in front of Sleepy, her arm shoved through his chest. Blood trickles down his dress, the crimson liquid hard to distinguish from the red fabric. He stares at her wide-eyed, his mouth open slightly. "H-how...?"
"You know, shapeshifting demons have incredible regenerative abilities," she growls. "As long as it's not too serious, we can just transform to a form without the injury." Sleepy stares at her in disbelief, but then scowls at her, visibly trying to stay awake. Nightsky offers him a grim, menacing smile as she casually adds, "Did you know Jackson used to be in the FBI? He was my partner until he retired due to a bad injury on the job. This case is pretty personal to me."
"D... Da..." Sleepy's voice trails off as the light fades from his eyes, and his head lolls forward. Nightsky yanks her arm out of his chest, sending blood flying, and scowls as she shakes her arm.
"Well, this is going to take a while to wash out," she mutters.
Sleepy was the Mafia Princess! Raised as a girl due to his mother's daughter complex, he was able to use his charm, elegance, and feminine appeal as "Stella" to convert one person.
It is now the night phase.
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Yeah, have fun with that one, everyone. :D
