When the Shadows weren't being run ragged by the mundane tasks they were supposed to do, they spent their time enjoying themselves. And the best way for them to do that was to all gather and have a party.

You heard right, they partied like a gang of rowdy teenagers. And in fact, many of them were pretty good dancers.

Xire had suggested it after they had been on one to many stupid missions. He organized the whole thing, got Sisarix to make a room where they could all dance, got catering from several worlds, and was able to distract the main 13. Soon enough it became a tradition among the shadows that he was responsible for.

And they all had a few dances that they knew fairly well. Xavia could to a nice foxtrot and swing, Sisarix had surprised everyone with some breakdancing skills, Xebre knew a valve pumping tango (among other things), and even Xerrica had a few dance moves in her arsenal.

That coupled with modern 'dancing' that they all could do, they made pretty fun party folk. It wasn't very often as they all had to agree on the date of the events and everyone had to be there. Plus there was the matter of sneaking around the higher ups, but overall it was successful, as the only ones who knew didn't even care.

This time they were going for a dance evening, with every type acceptable. Though some were more so then others, as Xebre had insisted on installing a pole for a certain risque dance that she learned just for these events. The others made sure to have the pole greased to the point no one could grip it properly no matter what they tried.

"You guys are mean." She wined as the music pumped through the crowd, "It'll take forever go get rid of all this gunk."

"That's the point." Xerrica stated dryly.

In spite of Xebre's pole crisis, it was just as great as usual. Myxa was having fun with some of her dolls, and two nobodies named Xatek and Illexim were moving casually to the beat and keeping an eye out for any of the superiors.

Xire was attempting to do a dance off with Xerrica, but she didn't seem to be aware they were having one and barely paid attention to him as she moved. Which was a shame, as her gothic style against his punk type of dancing would have made an interesting dance-off.

Xebre decided to take out a chain and used it to dance semi-erotically. It wouldn't give her many brownie points when asking for intercourse, as it kinda made her look scary.
And near the middle Xavia had decided to just move! And the other nobodies all had something they were doing. It was always a very good time to unwind. Just as Xire had hoped for, they were having some good teenage style fun.

Although as with most things they were involved with, something had to go wrong eventually.

Without warning, the turntables being used emitted a burst of smoke and sparks before blowing out completely, ending all music. All noise and movement ceased as the main machine began to cough up more smoke and fizzle out. Everyone watched the current user of the turntable, Orvix (Yes, even he enjoys letting loose sometimes) try and cool it down.

The shadows gathered near

"What happened?"

Orvix checked the music player, fiddling with some of the knobs.

"It's not working for some reason." He said, "It's broken."

"Broken?" Many of the shadows cried, clearly upset over the loss of their music.

"Well that's just great." Xire groaned, "How am I supposed to let the music run through me without any music?"

"Hey, it can probably be fixed." Xavia said, trying to be voice of reason, "We just need to see what's wrong with it and take care of it."

"Anyone got a wrench?" Someone, probably Xatek joked.

"Well one of us has to fix it." Xebre said huffily, "We can't dance without music, and I haven't even made it to the pole."

"Sisi, can you repair it?" Xavia asked.

She ignored everyone looking at her and said, "I'll give it a try."

With a few quick flicks and clicks of her emergency swiss army knife, she screwed and pried open the top of the machine. After that, she reached in and began to examine the wires.

"Hmm," The bronze haired girl mused, "It looks like somethings been chewing on these wires. Something with sharp teeth and and a taste for copper wiring."

"Something?" Xebre asked skeptically, "Like a rat? Ewwww~"

"Maybe a rat, but this seems to have eaten the copper and left the rubber safety coverings." Sisarix mused "I need to find what's been causing the problem. And to do that, I have to get inside."

With a heft, she lifted herself up and dived headfirst into the mess of wires. Needless to say the others were surprised when her torso and eventually her feet slowly vanished into the jumble and her voice seemed to slowly disappear into the works. A few of them leaned over to see it was more like a tunnel then a turntable.

"How big is that thing?" Xerrica muttered, peering down into the opened disc jockey machine.

Xavia peeked inside as well, rubbing the back of her head, "Well, Sisi did make it, so who knows?" She admitted, "It's most likely the entire room."

"She made this thing?" Orvix asked.

"Almost entirely from scratch."

"How?" Illexim mused.

"She's got a lot of free time."

The others all looked hesitant, and Xire sighed.

"This confirms it," He said, "Sisarix is nuts."

Inside the machinery of the turntables and sound system, Sisarix rooted around and followed the damaged wires. She summoned her clock lantern to light things for her. A few examinations of the inner workings showed that it wasn't just wires, but anything copper had been chewed on.

Flicking her mini tool kit out, she set to work replacing every last wire, spreading her magic to the entire system so they would be able to repair themselves.

---

All the while outside the others waited for her to finish. A few had sat down by the buffet while some others took this opportunity to go to the bathroom. In any case it was a little nerve wracking just waiting for the bronze haired nobody to fix the problem.

"I hope she's alright in there." Xavia muttered, worried.

"She's fine." Orvix assured her, "It's her element in there, how could she not be safe in there."

"I just hope she gets it fixed soon, we're burning moonlight." Xebre noted, nibbling on one of the snacks.

"This is lame." Xerrica said, "I'd rather be down in the sleeping quarters watching Sunshine and Red make a vague attempt at being discreet. Hey, that's a good one, I gotta use that against Zexion."

Everyone around her sweat-dropped as she whipped out a notepad and wrote that insult down.

---

Back inside the machinery, Sisarix managed to repair and fix every damaged surface. The only thing left to do was find the thing that did the chewing.

After some crawling, she managed to find a place to stand up and stretch her legs. It was a nice little area, a bit bigger then her bedroom. She would move in there, but her bed was a lot more comfortable then a mess of wires, even to her.

Just as she reached for a small connector box, something emerged form the mess of wires and stared her down. With a menacing growl she looked up at it lumbering towards her.

GRRRRRRAAAAAAAAWWWRRRRRHHHHH!

The circuitry shook at he sound of the creatures growling. Just outside the turntable the others gathered and called into the workings to see what was going on.

"Sisi? Are you all right?" Xavia shouted down the hole, "What were that sounds we heard just now?"

"Just a mousy!" The tinkerer called back, smiling at the sight before her.

It was technically a mouse, though this one was pretty large, bigger then her. It was a tangled mess of wires and spare parts. It was probably made from scrap pieces left around combined with the loose magic around the World That Never Was.  Sisarix's magic must have been what was holding it all together, as machinery was her element.

With lighted eyes, she held out her clock-lantern. Turning it on, she let the brass-works whirr to life and looked back at the giant robotic mouse with the brightest smile on her face.

---

Back outside, the others heard the growling of the 'mousy' and felt a bit uncertain. But just as the sound reached it's peak, a long drawn out clanging filled the air and the growling stopped. When the noise subsided, Sisarix climbed out of the turntable, screwed it shut again, and turned on the music.

The shadows cheered and would have started to dance again, but curiosity made them ask.

"Hey Sisi, what was that growling noise?"

"Maintenance malfunction." She said simply.

They weren't a hundred percent convinced, but decided now was not the time to worry about it. Sisarix went over to Xire who was now dancing with Xavia and STILL thinking he was in a competition with Xerrica who had allowed Orvix to lead her in dance.

"Do you mind if I turn in early?" She asked, "You're the one in charge I figured I should ask you."

He twirled and dipped the therapist, "Don't see why not, you earned it."

With a gleeful 'yay' she turned around and ran off to her room in their apartment complex.

-Later-

Sisarix fell onto her bed, tired from the adventure in the music maker, and the party. She was about to fall asleep, when a sudden realization made her jump up again.

Reaching into her pocket, she took out a small glass case which Illexim gave each of them for gathering small things that could be handy. Inside it was the powered down mechanical rodent, which had been dismantled and striped down, until it was now a very realistic but regular sized toy mouse. It stared up at her with it's onyx eyes and she giggled cutely at it.

With a tiny kiss on the glass, she set it carefully on her nightstand before turning off her handmade light.

"Goodnight Wires." She cooed as she drifted off, "Sleep tight."