RP: YSS Genesis [Episode One] All the Queen's Men

As soon as all the doors to the small SUV were closed, a Volumetric bubble appeared again, accompanied by the roar of the engine and a short squeal as the tires spun for a moment on the pavement before gaining traction, allowing the car to rocket forward.


Rued would watch the dot showing where he was suddenly pick up speed- It wasn't going faster than the hovercar they were chasing, but, soon, it showed that it could possibly actually do what its driver had 'told' them and beat the hover-taxi to its destination. The SUV whipped around a corner to fly down an alleyway, windows, doors, the occasional pedestrian, and, at one point, a honking car, all went by at a much higher speed than was probably safe, the vehicle's tires squealing as it skidded through an intersection, changing direction again. Faster than Rued would have thought, he noticed they were almost to the first point the Taxi was scheduled to stop at- a large building that went up all the way to the ceiling, probably continuing in that level and the one below.

************

The old man adjusted his glasses. "Well, Uhhh... I don't know of any on this level... I think there may be one or two on the next level up, but... Not so sure where." he answered, making his way back to his chair and sitting down in it, the piece of furniture creaking, as if threatening to collapse under what little weight the tiny old man had.

Just outside, the roar of an engine was heard, accompanied by a light gust of wind that rang the bell hanging from the doorway, as a small SUV passed by at frightening speed. A four-armed figure in the back of the vehicle looked suspiciously familiar, as did a girl wearing an SAoY uniform up in the front passenger's seat.

Shinon opened her mouth to say something to Yoko but in the end she stayed quiet. She put on pouting face and slit her own throat with her thumb in 'you are dead' notion to Yoko. She then put her attention outside and let Yoko talk with old man.

Her eyebrows went up as she saw car drive by. She recognized Rüd in the back and passenger in SAoY uniform could not be anyone else then Yumeko.

"Did you see that?" Shinon asked Yoko and walked out strapping her new pistol to her belt. She then took out her communicator and send message to Yumeko.

She typed quickly and sent the message.

Yumeko yelled excitedly as the taxi drove at high speed. When she saw they were closing on the initial destination she grinned wildly. "We almost got our guy! Give'er the gun and beat him to it!" she shouted. When the message popped up she tried to send back a quick reply.

Rüd merely grinned, enjoying himself. It was undeniably an enjoyable experience, chasing an unsuspecting target at high speeds through... dire straights, one might say. And if that target was a friendly, probably peaceable, individual, so what? The journey was still a thrill.

Then Rüd discovered a miscalculation in his planning: rather than bounce upward, as anticipated, Miss Merkur's deft driving instead tossed his head back as they hurtled around a corner. Skull struck glass, and as always the glass won. The Nightwalker grunted in pain, and murmured a frustrated, "Fich!" which was inaudible to his female cohorts.

At Shinon's expression and easily understood gesture, Yoko grinned at the taller woman with a toothy smile.

And then all the crazy ran by in a hurry.

"Aww, the hell? What's up with this shit?" the Geshrin woman loudly complained. "I mean, we got a caaw chase not long ago, and hea's another one! Anotha one!" She shook her head in disapproval. "I know OriSec isn't incompetent since I was one, but they gotta be lazy at this rate, yaknow?" She set her hands on her hips and sighed deeply.

"Forget the cawffee I mentioned to that guy earlia - I might need somethin hard."

"No shit," Shinon replied. She felt like shot of Vodka herself. "Let's grab a cab and follow them." She said turning her head from left to right in gesture of disbelief. What a situation. "Oh and by the way if you will ever get funny about me looking like boy I will make you suffer." She said with gring on her face.

The Small SUV's driver smirked a bit when her HUD-glasses informed her that her rear passenger had smacked his head against the window. A volumetric window gave him a smug warning, a few moments too late-


The Versa continued to roar its way down the road, and a somewhat familiar hover-taxi showed up just off to their right and behind a little- it seems their driver had indeed managed to beat it to their destination. As if to confirm that the Taxi was the one they were chasing, the map Rued had been given was updated- erasing this destination and showing one more at the end of the route- It went right through Sector Seven and to the unmarked hangar bay the Genesis was housed in.

The Driver Screeched the car to a stop, its wheels skidding for a moment before the antilock brakes kicked in and made it shudder to a slightly more controlled stop, just in time to watch the Hovercar descend and stop, one of its doors swinging upward on its center hinge, and showing its occupant- a bit of blonde hair poked out from around a communicator that was taking photographs, a Hinomaru clearly visible on the shoulder of his black peacoat.

************

"Take care..." The old man feebly mewled as Shinon and Yoko left his shop.

Apparently, even if the Station's AI wasn't omnipresent like PANTHEON or MEGAMI, it still knew how to pick out a few key words when matched with context and intent, and within moments a very small hover taxi with only two doors appeared out of nowhere, settling down in front of the girls and rolling down its windows to advertise its availability for hire. Both the front seats were open, so neither of the girls would have to smoosh themselves into the back of the thing.

As Shinon took out her communicator and scrached her head figuring how to call taxy on Origin station, the station itself did the work. Small taxi stopped right in front of the duo. Shinon looked at the tiny car,blinked and then shrugged. She then moved away pointed both her hands to the open doors.

"Looks like our carriege have arrived. After you ma'am," she said with funny tone in her voice, waiting for Yoko to sit in. She hen walked around the car and sat in the passenger seat.

"Very funny," rumbled the Nightwalker. "Hilarious." No, he wasn't offended, just irate- which was a perfectly normal response to banging one's head. It did not, however, distract him from the task at hand.

As they came to a grinding halt, Rüd was able to keep himself from striking anything else. When velocity was once more under his initiative, the Abwehran freed himself of the Versa. Immediately he called after the blond man in Star Army gear, "Soldier! Stop!" Despite the urgency of his tone, he approached with a brisk walk.

"Goil, are you still butthurt ova that?" Yoko asked with disappointment as she sat in the driver's seat beside Shinon. "Look, I was just jokin, yannow?" she spoke, leaning to the side to wrap an arm around the taller woman's chair, hand resting on her opposite shoulder. "Besides, as soon as ya toss off that coat, everyone'll see these babies." the engineer went on, one of her free hands coming up to lightly pat one of Shinon's breasts. "Otherwise, it's just tha haair. You should grows it out a little bit." Yoko suggested friendlily.

"Now, let's get goin! Bring us to tha nearest strip club!" she cheered the station AI on.

As soon as the Taxi was boarded, and a destination input, or, in this case, a general direction, the hovertaxi sped off, making its way toward the vague wondrous beyond that was somewhere over there, where that other taxi and some car thing were. Or something. It wasn't exactly clear if the Hovertaxi could tell, but, it did its best and, amazingly enough, arrived within a minute or two at its destination, not too far behind Rued, Yumeko, and the Versa they were being driven in.

The Hovertaxi slowed to a stop, and parked itself neatly, as opposed to the random stoppage that was the small SUV, and the doors unlocked so the girls could get out and join the situation.

*********

"Could you give me a second?" the blonde man asked, and you could see his hands move as if pressing a button. apparently satisfied, the Star Army soldier smiled as he put away his communicator and clambered out of the Hovertaxi.

"Hello, there, Sir. What do you need?" The blonde man bowed respectfully, looking quite amicable and in no way as if he were doing something wrong. He was apparently just sightseeing.

He struggled for a moment, trying to recall the name. The Abwheran made no effort toward niceties such as a bow or handshake. "Are you Kin Nakamura?"

"And don' be lyin' ta us none! Bettah be honest cuz if ya ain't it'll go much harder on ya!" Yumeko shouted as she dashed up one second behind the Abwehran. Her right hand was pointing out in an accusatory manner at the soldier before she balled her fists up. She brought her fists up into a guard and winked at her partner.

"I gotcha back Rudy!" she said and grinned.

Shinon's eyes went wide as Yoko moved into her comfort-zone. She opened her mouth and gasped as Yoko touched her breasts. Shinon lost her anger and her tough act dissapeared.

"What the hell are you doing!" She then said as she blushed. "I mean, err-" Shinon was quite lost. One thing was that what Yoko said about her breasts was a compliment more or less. One the other hand, being groped is not something she was really used to, especially from other woman. In the end she just looked away red a tomato.
"Th-that is why I don't wear that coat much...." she said softly.

Yoko laughed and laughed and laughed as the car drove on.

Finally, she managed to wipe the tears from her eyes as her hearty giggles of glee died down. "Oh! You says you're a Yammi, but you sounds like ah, ah, y-young Neko fresh out of the Star Army!" the Geshrin replied, fighting hard to stifle another fit of giggles. "I mean, look at ya face - you're likea red cherry or somethin goil - I mean, you'd probably see a tomato in the mirror if you looked now!" The rougher woman's laughter suddenly stopped as something dawned on her, and a mischievous smile crept onto her face oh so slowly.

"You're a virgin,~" she grinned. Yoko snickered again. "Now I've seen everythin! A virgin Star Army goil! Wow!" At that, the vehicle came to a stop at a surprising sight.

"Shit! Bail out! It's like the whole gang's all here yaknow?"

"That would be me, Yup," Kin answered amicably, not seeming to notice the way that Rued and Yumeko were acting toward him- or ignoring it. "What can I do for you?" he asked, noting another taxi showing up and then a couple of women hopping out of it- like the pair before him currently, they were wearing an Origin and a Star Army uniform, respectively.

Seeming to realize that the makeup of the people currently soliciting him wasn't just a coincidence, Kin checked his wrist- remembering there wasn't a watch on it, and then checking his communicator for the time. "Oh. It's still on Yamatai time..." he muttered, pressing a few buttons to change it to local time.

Kin's eyes Widened a little at the result, and he chuckled nervously. "I'm like, an hour late, aren't I?"

Shinon pointed finger on Yoko as her mouth was opening and closing as if she wanted to say something but was too stunned to really say it. It ended with just something along the lines of "I.." and "You..." or "That is.....", it all ended with grunt of frustration. The now red-faces woman just looked away, folded her arms on her ches as if she wanted to hid it.

"So what if I am? It is none of your bussiness anyway," she said in the end and closed her mouth in clearly visible pout.

Lucky for Shinon they already caught up with others. Rüd seemed to have situation in his hand, so she just walked to the others. Young man in fron of her just pretty much explained what happened. Poor man just forgot to set his watch. Shinon sighed and decided to not chew him out later, she will just warn him to be more careful. For now she will just let Rüd resolve the situation.

Rüd sighed. This was a lesson easily driven home. "Oversights like that can get soldiers killed- or demoted to janitor. I'd be more conscientious of time in the future if I were you." His voice had a smooth rumble; he was calm but a storm lurked just beneath the surface.

"Now I need you to get in the vehicle," he gestured toward the taxi Shinon and Yoko had utilized.

"Course it ain't sweetheart," Yoko replied airily. "Course it ain't my business at all," the Geshrin smiled, waving the words back to Shinon behind her. She then strode a little closer to the group they had and waved at them all. "Ey! If ya wanna use our taxi, you'll haveta sit in the back by youaself Rued. You're just too much man for one spot," the woman started speaking with a straight face. She then rubbed her chin in thought for a bit with a scarred hand before an LED came on in her mind.

"We can have blondie here sit up front, but he'll hafta choose which goil he wants sittin on him, cuz the brunette witcha's gotta be in the back with Rued - she'd fit there best, yaknow?" The woman spoke, gesturing over to the massive Abwehran and the comparatively small girl.

"So, who will it be blondie? Wrench wench goil here," she thumbed at herself, "Or lil miss cherry?" Yoko asked with a sly grin, now motioning with an upturned hand at the cherry red Yamataian. "We'll just have Yumeko sit on whoeva's left of coase."

'Cherry' was oh-so fitting for Shinon at the moment, and in more ways than one.

"Perhaps we should use the one I already have?" Kin suggested, pointing to the much larger taxi he had been riding in, himself. The Blonde kind of scratched his head, and looked back, remembering that his stuff was in there anyway. "I don't mean to be a party pooper or anything, but we might be a bit more comfortable in that one."

In the Versa SUV that was sitting nearby, the driver was seeming to be frustrated. Her Glasses' HUD had picked up on what Yoko had said, and a volumetric speech bubble appeared out the window of her car, if anyone cared to notice. It bossily stated


As if to demonstrate this, she impatiently revved her engine, and it growled and rumbled, a throbbing roar of exhaust making its way out of the modified system the vehicle used, sounding much more demonic than the sterile, silent, battery or fusion-powered hovercars everyone was more used to by now.