The transformation was like watching time-lapse photography in reverse. Where moments ago there had been nothing but dust and shadows, now streams of beautiful people poured from unmarked trailers, their movements hypnotic and alien - palms turned backward as they swayed, toes marking rhythms into the ground. The loading docks blazed with impossible light, and the line that formed seemed to stretch into forever.

“We stick out like lawyers at a rave,” Daniel murmured, his height making him a sentinel between them as they joined the queue. The professional cut of his suit caught the strobing lights, turning him into something almost mythical among the sea of modern marauder wear.

“If HR wrote this up, they’d call it ‘team-building’,” Juniper offered, trying for levity.

Sophia’s response came deadpan. “Yeah, I don’t know if I’m into team building like that. Half these people aren’t here to do quick tug… most of them are looking to get completely tracked out.”

She glanced at Juniper with a raised eyebrow, ‘And you thought I was on a steep.’

Juniper’s eyes darted away nervously, unsettled by Sophia’s dark implications that she was currently out of her depth.

The bouncer’s eyes swept over them, empty and mechanically-cold. “Kracapp,” he stated flatly.

Juniper’s body tensed at the unfamiliar term, her eyes darting uncertainly between them, but Sophia was already moving with the casual confidence of someone who spoke this language fluently, tilting her head slightly as she stepped forward, exposing the side of her neck to the scan’s soft blue glow.