Garrett Forger forcefully pushed his way through the wall of bodyguards and confronted Dirk, his eyes piercing with coldness, demanding, "Who are you?"
Still reeling from the attention and the kiss, Dirk said, "I don't know."
Roy's arm wrapped around Dirk's neck and pulled Dirk excitedly, "Bro! That was amazing!"
As Dirk's senses slowly returned, he found himself scanning the room for Elise, his heart pounding. The angry pretty boy's question about his identity was mere background noise, as Dirk was determined to savor his moment. He found Elise in his vision, thought she looked anxious, and gravitated toward her.
Elise decided it was better to be forward than upset with Dirk for something out of his control. She pushed past Lyle, hugged Dirk from the side that Roy wasn't occupying, and said, "DIRK! You were amazing up there! I had no idea you were that good!" Elise shot Miss Rayven a death stare while squeezing Dirk.
Miss Rayven was still riding her emotions from the performance, which she needed to reignite her passion for music. She was genuinely thankful for Dirk. She caught Elise's look, realized her mistake, and mouthed, "Sorry!" to Elise.
Elise squeezed Dirk tighter, then stuck her tongue out playfully at Miss Rayven.
Garrett Forger witnessed Elise's jealousy and learned that this guy's name was Dirk. He let his jealousy go since it would get him nowhere in front of a guy who had just earned his fifteen minutes of fame. Garrett instead decided to try to figure out who this guy was and asked Dirk, "How do you know Miss Rayven?"
Dirk turned toward Garrett and shouted, "What?!?"
"HOW DO YOU KNOW MISS RAYVEN?!"
Dirk shook off Roy and Elise, then pointed to his Night Hawks shirt and yelled enthusiastically, "HUGE FAN! I LOVE THIS BAND!"
"THAT'S ALL?"
Dirk nodded and yelled, "WE'RE FROM CITY EIGHT!" He was starting to get annoyed by this guy because he was killing his emotional high. He remembered that Oscar had been stuck with that General from earlier and felt they should hurry back.
The attendant, who had been consistently watching over their needs, tapped Dirk on the shoulder and said, "A gift from the manager!" then handed Dirk four backstage VIP passes.
Dirk examined what she brought and turned to his friends excitedly, his mouth hanging agape, holding the four backstage VIP passes like they were playing cards. He then carefully handed one pass each to Roy, Lyle, and Elise. Coincidentally, Dirk also felt that Oscar could handle things on his own for a bit longer.
After glancing at them, Roy and Lyle hugged Dirk together. The Night Hawks were their favorite band of all time, unless you count old Fire Bomber. Getting a chance to meet them backstage would be a dream come true!
Elise looked at hers and merely shrugged, but was happy for Dirk and company. She thought the concert was good, but was not a big fan of the Night Hawks, especially after watching Dirk "accidentally" kiss the lead singer and guitarist. "I bet he did it intentionally," Elise muttered to herself.
Dirk and Roy were now playing air guitar while Lyle flipped over the various empty snack containers Roy had ordered and used them as drums.
Elise couldn't help but smile at their antics and murmured to herself, "I was wrong, it wasn't intentional. Boys will be boys."
Garrett looked on in amazement and felt he had enough of the concert. Without any of the crowd's attention on himself, Garrett started to feel a little lonely watching Dirk, Roy, and Lyle, and wished he made more friends in his youth. "Let's head back," he muttered, motioning with his fingers to his bodyguards.
Roy and Lyle excitedly followed the attendant, presumably heading backstage to meet the band.
Dirk turned to Elise, grabbed her hand, and excitedly said, "Let's keep up!"
Elise blushed when Dirk grabbed her hand. She admired Dirk's innocent eyes, twinkling with excitement like a little kid in a toy store. She hadn't seen Dirk this excited about anything and realized she needed to learn more about him if she wanted to get closer to him.
The inside of the venue had started to die down now that the band had left the stage. The noise no longer drowned out everything, and Dirk, Elise, Roy, and Lyle could finally converse at normal speaking volumes.
The attendant led them through an open doorway with a dimly lit corridor behind the stage. Dirk peeked through every door they passed and saw what appeared to be changing rooms, makeup rooms, and even storage. He couldn't help but admire the setup since the only venue he'd played at had a single room for everything, making it nearly impossible to get ready.
"So this is what the big time looks like." Dirk whispered to Roy and Lyle.
"Yeah! It also doesn't smell like a locker room!" Roy mused, with Lyle nodding in agreement.
When they reached the end of the corridor, a tall woman with brown hair pinned up in a business suit and a holographic tablet stood with her face buried in her tablet while giving out instructions through her headset.
"She could be my type," Roy whispered to Dirk.
Dirk grinned but still elbowed Roy, "Shhh!"
The attendant escorting them bowed politely and gestured towards the door next to the woman before scurrying off the way they came.
The woman looked up from her tablet at Dirk, Roy, Lyle, and Elise and stated in a stern, business-like tone, "Thank you for coming all this way from Macross 8. My name is Amy Andrews, and I manage the band. Which one of you is Dirk?"
Dirk nervously stepped forward and belted, "I am Dirk, ma'am!"
Amy's eyebrow twitched slightly. She wanted to rip into Dirk for calling her ma'am, as she was only twenty-eight, despite the stress of her job, which made her appear older.
"Dirk, thank you for giving in to the whims of Miss Rayven and then showing us an adequate performance. You have talent, but ultimately, you're not quite harnessing it."
"Adequate?!?" Roy sneered at Amy, "Dirk is our man! It was freaking amazing!"
Amy pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling a headache coming on. "I do not mean that as an insult. I didn't have the time to listen to the entire show and have been checking social media for any backlash from this stunt by our songstress. Her spontaneity is fun, but I wasn't expecting her to let you sing. You must be special if she was willing to go that far."
Dirk blushed and scratched his head with a sheepish grin, "I was just as surprised, but it was a fantastic experience!"
Amy admired Dirk's honest reaction and hoped he could be a good influence on Rayelle. "Good answer, well, you four and Garrett are the only ones that are coming to visit the band after the show, but Garrett said he wasn't feeling well, so it will just be you four."
Dirk, Roy, Lyle, and Elise exchanged glances with each other, and Dirk asked Amy, "Who is Garrett?"
"Have you been living under a rock?" Amy asked with genuine confusion. She suddenly remembered that they were from City 8 and said, "Oh, my apologies. I forgot you were from City 8. Garrett Forger is the biggest movie star City 10 has ever produced. He's a fantastic actor, handsome, hard-working, dependable, emotional—" Amy furiously blushed when she realized she was gushing about Garrett, pushed her glasses up on the bridge of her nose, and said, "He's also dating Miss Rayven, but they are probably on a break again."
Dirk suddenly remembered that he had kissed Miss Rayven after the last song and now understood why that guy with the bodyguards seemed a little jealous.
"Anyways, before we go back, I'm assuming none of you are carrying any weapons?" Amy asked with a slightly bored tone.
Dirk, Lyle, and Elise shook their heads.
Roy grinned and said, "You'll have to frisk me, ma'am."
Amy touched her forehead briefly and rubbed a vein she could feel twitching again. The vein that throbbed whenever she received stress felt like it was pounding more than ever. She remembered reaching under her jacket, grabbing her taser, then shocking Roy several times with it. Fortunately, that was only in her imagination, and instead, she adjusted her glasses again. "Come this way then."
As Amy opened the door for Dirk, Roy, Lyle, and Elise, they could hear the band discussing what sounded like a new song.
"I don't see how we can play it." Adam added, "It has too many instruments!"
Rayelle countered, "Lisa can work magic with her synthesizers! Right Lisa? We just need to set it up ahead of time!"
"Yes, but I thought we were all about keeping everything live, not pre-recording? Plus, why an orchestra?" Lisa said with a little bit of a whine.
"Exactly! I also don't think you can even sing this and play the guitar as well." Adam added again.
Rayelle felt like the rest of the band was against her new song idea and considered that maybe they were right, but this song idea felt so good. Just as she was about to speak again, she noticed Dirk and the others come through the doorway.
"Dirk! You guys made it!"
Dirk looked at Miss Rayven and was confused because she had the body and face of Miss Rayven, but her hair was pink instead of the usual black.
"Oops, I forgot that I took the wig off." Rayelle said sheepishly.
Dirk suddenly realized how the Rayelle he talked to from Macross 10's military was able to get VIP tickets for the Night Hawks concert. Rayelle was Miss Rayen! He couldn't forget the face of the woman who was taunting him from the cockpit.
Dirk suddenly pointed at Rayelle and exclaimed, "It was you!"
At the same time, Adam stood up, pointed at Dirk, and shouted, "It was you!" with murderous intent!