Four women get out of the mustang. Each of the women look similar to the other at first glance. It is easily seen that the women are well off, each of them dressed in clothes that bespeaks of money. The differences between these women are subtle, yet significant. The most interesting difference at the present moment being that one of the women is wearing a blindfold.
"Come on guys, tell me where we're going!" A vivacious red-head pleads with her companions.
Her comment is met with a great amount of giggling.
"No, miss Lina. This is a birthday surprise. We can't tell you until we get there," a young brunette reprimands Lina Inverse. Amelia proceeds to push Lina a little further down the street.
Though Lina is blindfolded, she can make out voices all around her. Comments such as "Look she's blindfolded" and "I wonder what the hell is wrong with them" embarrasses her beyond belief. Lina opens her mouth, about to make one more argument in favour of the removal of her blindfold.
Before Lina can utter her thoughts on the matter the blonde of the group speaks, " No Lina. Don't even try it. We're not telling you anything until we get there."
The seriousness of Filia Ul Copt's tone is undermined by the gigging girls around her.
"Don't worry Lina, we're almost there, " a soft voice murmurs in an effort to calm down the volatile Lina Inverse.
"Oh Sylfiel, you're ruining all the fun," a sullen Amelia pouts.
Sylfiel counters with, "Amelia, I didn't tell her where we're going, and that's going to be the big surprise."
Lina begins to panic, "Where are we going? Sylfiel, come on, tell me. Please?"
Lina's voice is drowned out as the women begin giggling anew. Lina realizes the futility of her questions and decides to put her faith in her friends.
"I.D. please," Lina hears a deep voice ask.
As the women pull out their wallets and purses, Lina's mind wanders over the possibilities of where she is.
"Lina, give me your purse," Filia demands.
Lina hears her friends rustling through her purse, looking for her I.D.
Amelia utters a triumphant "Here it is!" to the bouncer who remains a bit skeptical.
"Hard to tell with the blindfold on, but I guess it's her, " the bouncer finally decrees.
When the women begin handing over money for the cover charge, Lina demands her purse back.
"Why Lina, don't you trust us?" Sylfiel asks, teasingly.
"All I know is that my money better be in this purse when I take this blindfold off, " Lina tells her friends jokingly.
The women laugh at their friend's notorious greed and usher her into the next room.
Lina hears her friends order drinks, "Can I take this damn thing off now? Come on, we're here aren't we?"
Lina's face burns with indignation at her situation.
"Not until the show begins miss Lina," Amelia finally hints to Lina.
"Show? What show? Where the hell are we?" Lina is just about going crazy with curiosity.
"Oh, you'll see," Amelia and Filia say ominously at the same time.
The women all look at each other and burst out laughing.
"Drink this," Filia hands Lina a glass.
Lina sniffs the drink, "What is it?"
Filia laughs at her friend's suspicion, "Just a screwdriver silly, what do you think it is?"
Sipping carefully Lina tells her friend, "With you guys, I never know what to expect."
For reasons unknown to Lina this comment has the three women laughing loudly.
"Well, it looks like you're about to find out Lina," Sylfiel whispers as the light fades.
"Welcome ladies," a voice booms across the room.
Lina feels her blindfold being removed and sighs happily. Looking around, Lina waits for her eyes to adjust to the dim lighting of the room. With the announcer's voice in the background, Lina notices that she is in a roomful of women. Very excited women. Very excited and screaming women. Confusedly Lina glances towards her friends. Amelia's eyes are glued to the stage, while Filia and Sylfiel are watching Lina rather amusedly. Lina attempts to voice her questions, but cannot be heard over the announcer (or the screaming women for that matter). Lina turns her attention towards the stage.
"...off. So what will you ladies scream?" as the announcer finished his question the women in the room begin yelling at the top of their lungs.
In the cacophony of sound that follows the announcer's question, Lina vaguely hears the words, "Take it off."
Shock resounds through Lina's small frame as she realizes where her friends have taken her.
The announcer leaves the stage and music begins to fill the room. As the music hits a crescendo, a man jumps on stage dressed in the guise of a swordsman.
A voice booms, "Welcome the Master of the Howling Sword...Zangulus!"
The women go wild, screams and catcalls are heard from every direction. Lina feels faint, dropping her head onto the table in front of her Lina wills herself to die.
Lina hears laughter in each of her ears. Looking up, she notices that Sylfiel and Filia are trying to talk to her but keep ending up in a fit of giggles.
Pulling Filia towards her Lina demands, "How could you take me here?"
Filia would probably answer Lina's question, had she not been rolling in the aisles laughing at Lina's misfortune.
Lina instead grabs Sylfiel (the reasonable one of the group) and asks, "What will Gourry say? How can I explain this?"
Sylfiel, in turn, makes a noise that disturbingly sounds like, "Screw Gourry."
Lina wonders how much her friend has had to drink. Imploringly, Lina looks towards Amelia. Surely straight-laced Amelia wouldn't find this sort of place decent.
Lina's hopes are shattered by the next words out of Amelia's mouth, "TAKE IT OFF!!!"
Lina wonders how many prayers it would take for a nice hole in the earth to materialize underneath her.
"Cheer up Lina," Filia has seemingly recovered herself enough to speak.
"Just wait until you've seen The Chimera, that will make the whole trip worthwhile, " Filia hints dramatically.
"How would you know?" Lina idly wonders.
Suddenly Lina realizes the importance of her question, "Yeah, how would you know?"
Filia falters and looks around guiltily.
"You've been here before haven't you?" Lina demands of her friend.
Sylfiel interrupts the red-head's tirade, "We all have Lina, that's why we knew it would be a fun place for you to spend your birthday."
Lina looks at her friends suspiciously, not sure what to believe.
Amelia stops screaming at strippers long enough to scream at Lina, "Just enjoy yourself miss Lina."
Sharing that piece of wisdom, Amelia returns to her appreciation of Zangulus's act.
As Zangulus is stripped down to very brief briefs, the music falters and the act ends. Sounds of disappointment can be heard across the room, from various women. Lina herself is relieved.
Perhaps, this won't be so bad, Lina thinks to herself. If they don't actually get completely naked, I might be able to handle this.
What Lina's friends don't know about her, is that she is actually quite innocent concerning men. Amelia, Filia, and Sylfiel assume that since Lina and Gourry have been dating since highschool that Lina must have a certain knowledge of sex. They are actually quite wrong. Though Lina and Gourry are very close, Lina is distinctly uncomfortable whenever the subject of sex comes up between them. Though she knows how this frustrates Gourry, Lina is glad that he never makes a big issue of it.
Lina, though modest, is not a nun. She can appreciate a good looking man as well as any other woman, and soon begins to enjoy herself. As Chaos Dragon Gaav finishes his act, Lina has loosened up quite a bit and is screaming for the next man.
"Everyone welcome Zelgadis the Chimera!" booms the announcer's voice over the loud speaker.
"Here he is!" Filia shouts excitedly.
"This one's our favourite," Amelia clarifies for Lina.
Lina looks towards Sylfiel, whose eyes are trained upon the stage, and realizes the truth of Amelia's statement. As Lina stares at the stage, Zelgadis the Chimera begins his routine. Lina gasps. He's absolutely gorgeous she thinks to herself. Every movement purposeful and elegant, Zelgadis captures the attention of every woman in the room. His exotic costume of rock falls enticingly to the ground around him. Shouts and screams accompany each of his movements in sychronicity. Lina finds that she can't keep her eyes off of the young man.
During the first part of the evening the announcer explained several rules to the asemblage of women gathered. Lina, too confused at her environment, had ignored this speech. Lina hadn't heard that if a woman wished a hug and kiss from one of the strippers then she would buy a token from the counter and hold it above her head while her stripper of choice was dancing. He would come over, give her a hug and kiss, and take the token. If Lina had heard this, she would know why Filia was holding a token high in the air and pointing towards her.
Zelgadis worked his way off the stage and walked purposely towards Lina. Lina, unsure of his intentions, looked around nervously. The miscievious laughter of her friends did not escapte Lina, she knew that they were up to something. Then all thoughts of her companions fled from her mind as she was grasped in Zelgadis' sweaty arms and kissed. Before Lina could properly make any sense of the situation, The Chimera had left her a trembling mess.
As Lina recovered herself she heard the announcer say, "So ends the first half. Let's get to the birthday celebrations."
Lina groaned, knowing that her friends would make her enjoy whatever birthday celebrations this place was going to offer.
"Would all birthday girls please make their way towards the stage," the announcer stated.
Lina found herself being pushed towards the stage, against all her better judgement.
Well, what's the worst that can happen? Lina asked herself.
Walking onstage with a gaggle of delirous women, Lina noticed a group of chairs on the stage.
"It's time to play musical chairs!" the announcer said, much to Lina's shock. "I think all of you women know the rules. When the music stops, find a seat or lose."
As the strippers filed onstage the announcer continued, "The only difference in our version of musical chairs is that the chairs will be occupied by our strippers! So when the music stops ladies, find a lap quickly to sit on."
Lina's face burned from embarrassment, she couldn't possibly do this.
All of the strippers found chairs to sit in and the music started. Lina walked with the rest of the women in a circle around the seated strippers. When the music stopped Lina hoped that she wouldn't be able to find a lap to sit in. Luck was not with Lina, in the first round there were plenty of laps available. Lina reluctantly took her place in the lap of Noonsa the Fish Man, who seemed a little too friendly for her tastes. A couple of strippers took their chairs and left the circle for the second round. Lina convinced herself that she would lose this round, to no avail. As the music stopped, the woman in back of Lina pushed in order to reach the nearest lap. Being the independant woman that she is, Lina shoved back, leaving herself the lap of Rezo the Red Priest. The spirit of competition had now ignited in the fiery red-head, and she knew that she wasn't going to lose this game on purpose. Several rounds later, there was only one lap left and two competitors. As the music stopped Lina literally jumped over the back of the chair and onto the lap of Zelgadis the Chimera. Screaming her triumph Lina jumped up and hugged The Chimera eagerly, who hugged back. Lina accepted her prizes proudly, which consisted of a shooter on the house and a free pass, and walked towards her friends' table triumphantly.
"Wow miss Lina, I didn't know you had it in you," Amelia said amazedly.
Filia and Sylfiel echoed her statement, and Lina preened under their complements.
So impresses was she with herself that Lina only caught the tail-end of the announcer's most recent speech, "...where we get more serious. Here's the second half of our show."
Lina wondered what the announcer had meant by "more serious", but figured that things couldn't get any more embarrassing.
At the end of the announcer's speech music begins to play and Zangulus is seen once more.
Lina looks at her friends, "But we saw this guy already!"
Her friends give her a knowing look and Amelia says, "Oh, but we didn't see EVERYTHING."
Lina lets that statement fly through her slightly clouded mind and comes to a conclusion.
"LINA!" Amelia, Filia, and Sylfiel yell after their friend who has taken off running towards the exit.
More then a little annoyed, they all get up to follow their friend.
Lina hasn't a clue where she's going. Panicking at the thought of a naked man dancing in front of her, Lina finds that she just needs to get out of there. Seeing the outline of a door, Lina pushes through, convinced that it must be some sort of exit. As the door closes behind her, Lina finds herself in a dark alley. Cursing the blindfold that she was wearing when she got to the club, Lina pulls on the door she just came out of, only to find it locked. Lina trembles in frustration. Frustration turns to fear as Lina spies the outline of a man several feet away from her. Looking for some way out of the alley, Lina realizes that she will most likely have to walk past the man.
"Lost, are you?" a soft velvety voice asks Lina.
Lina turns nervously towards the voice, "What does it matter to you?"
"I work here. If you need directions or anything, I could probably help you out," the smooth voice tells Lina.
The stranger stepped out of the darkness and towards Lina. Lina stopped backing away when she sees the strangers' face.
"My name is Zelgadis," The Chimera says, "I believe I saw you inside."