"Ah, don't dwell on it," Luca said shrugging indifferently to Smith's perceived intrusion, "So, what's first on the agenda?" He asked as he put his index finger down on Naoko's head and attempted to put her ears under the water gently.
As Smith watched Luca poke the Neko about, he relaxed a little. Perhaps it didn't have sway over him? Though, that could be taken as a sign that it did. A form of intimacy? He shuddered when a part of his mind ventured down that dark allyway. "Well Mr. Pavone, what kind of jobs does your crew take on? I'll need to know what I'm up against after all."
Luca scratched the stubble on his chin, and thought for a moment. It was a bit difficult to say that 'we do everything' since it was a bit of a stretch, but he was able to say this:
"We do things such as fighting, diplomacy, righting wrongs, fighting and trying to survive another day," He scratched the back of his head with a goofy grin, "Oh, and then there's the whole 'celebrity' thing."
He sighed and rolled his eyes, "You save one colony from imminent destruction, and suddenly everyone wants you," He then made a verbal backspace, "No wait, two colonies, killing a mad scientist, a butcher doctor, and a truckload of angry NMX," He was having trouble remembering his exact kill count.
Even as Luca toyed with the Neko, Smith had to admit there was some satisfaction in seeing what he regarded as a powerful and fear inducing mockery of life have it's ears poked under water. Hell, it was cute. Like, poking with a potentially dangerous kitten that could bite of one's....no. He wouldn't venture that far. He turned back to the discussion at hand. It was all harmless information anyways, so no need to obscure anything.
"Your other crew members mentioned a high pay. How much in general? Can you give me some examples, Mr. Pavone?" Smith asked. The crew of the Phoenix may be of near legendary status, but, if they were the sort that had to barely scratch by. Well, Smith wouldn't have much to do with them, would he? Fortunately, it wasn't looking that way.
"Well, it's usually at or above 20K a job," Luca said, "Each," He made a correction, knowing that some of the crew had a lot of money to blow, "Usually it's hazard pay that does it. We could earn more if we keep collateral down."
Speaking of which, Luca noticed the hole in the ceiling that was in the process of getting fixed, and couldn't help but ask, "So, how'd that hole happen?" He nodded upwards, curious.
Smith nodded as Luca pointed out the rough estimate. He supposed it was good enough; with mercenaries, pay could end up inconsistent anyways, but that was unlikely in this case. The usually cold businessman gave a warm chuckle when Luca asked about the damage though. "Long story short, when the Mishhu parasites were taken aboard the Dawn by accident, they caused a mess."
Mr. Smith waved his hand, gesturing to the numerous points of interest. "From what I've...seen, one female employee in particular was particularly unfortunate when an improperly armed missile was accidentally set off by some careless workers who were sent to properly diffuse it." Matthew gave a small, mischievous grin.
"The guys are still talking about it."
A pair of lights made their way toward the onsen, brighter by far than the sky that was simulating early evening, with a beautiful orange sunset, coming from nowhere in particular. About thirty feet above the Onsen, they stopped, but one could not determine the model or color of the vehicle in the twilight. it rocked, slightly, as if an occupant was moving inside, and then a figure disembarked into mid air.
Falling gracefully, much slower than made sense, a very small woman with dark hair and a bright green bikini could be seen swan-diving toward the onsen, precise control of the station's simulated weather making her hair ripple gently in the breeze as it flowed behind her in a manner which spoke of much greater speed than she actually traveled. However, roughly five feet above the water (they could by now, tell it was CEO Aerin Tatst), she abruptly tucked into a cannonball, and let the station's gravity take its course, slamming into the water with much more force than was necessary, splashing water and oranges all over the courtyard surrounding the artificial hot spring.
"Speaking of bombshells," Luca chuckled as he shook his head to get the water out, and an orange that'd been caught on his sideburns. He then had a laugh as he realised that he done something similar earlier into one of her factories, from the same vehicle, no less, "What a pleasant surprise!"
Naoko had been bombed out of the pool by Aerin's landing, and had splash-landed in an adjoining pool that had limes bobbing in it, and some other occupants who were as surprised as she was.
Smith leaped up onto his feet in surprise, and managed to settle himself back into the warm waters. His hands instinctively reached up to push up glasses that were no longer there, and with a hint of embarrassment, dismissed his hand back into the water. "Yes, she does have a tendency to do that from time to time." Smith admitted.
From the darker patch of water that signified the CEO's position underwater, there issued a plethora of bubbles, followed by her slowly rising figure. Once her head had breached the surface, Aerin flung it back, whipping much of the water out of her hair, before she smiled at the two men in the Onsen with her. "My, My. fancy meeting you two here." she said, casually, as if the previous events had not even happened. An hourglass-shaped bit of fabric floated up from just beneath the surface, before Aerin grabbed it, returning it to its proper place. "Oopsie~" Aerin mumbled cutely, biting her lower lip in faux embarassment.
Smith turned his head away and shielded his eyes for a moment, not just for Aerin Tatst's sake, but to avoid any blood that may have spurted as a result of witnessing the scene. He neatly coughed into a closed fist before speaking. "Well, I'm glad to see you still have it Miss Tatst. I have to admit, the kids would have loved to see you swan dive like that, minus the last part of course." Matthew glanced at the group, noting that everyone he needed to talk to was here. Minus the extra of course. He sighed, subdued due to the nature of what he needed to do.
"Oh, how are the little tykes doing?" Aerin began, before being stopped short by Smith.
"Actually Aerin, there's something I need to discuss with you, concerning Mr. Pavone here."
"Smith, Smith," Luca said, who had a poorly concealed dumb grin on his face from Aerin's wardrobe malfunction, reminded of when he had a similar situation back at college, "It's alright, everyone figuratively loses their pants once in a while."
He leaned back and then summarised what Smith was going to ask, "I think Mr. Smith wants to ride with me for a while, hope you don't mind."
"More or less. Mr. Pavone here has offered me a place on his crew. It's substantially higher paying, so, I can't easliy refuse." He spoke submissively. "However, if you wish for me to remain here, I will. You've done a lot for us after all."
"It's the hazard pay," Luca mentioned offhandedly.
"Well, you have two options at this point, Matthew." Aerin began, lifting up two fingers to demonstrate. "One, you can quit Origin and go with Luca as his regular crew, your house here on Dawn will remain as long as you can pay the lease, and we can see to your siblings being taken care of." She put down the first figer. "Or two, I can reassign you to field research, with a position as Liason to Luca's crew, which is a higher position and will receive hazard pay, but you have to send regular reports and manage mister Pavone's account with us." She smiled, looking at the two men again, dropping the second finger and slipping her nad beneath the water once again. "What shall it be?"
Luca gave Smith a nudge in the ribs, "Regular reports don't sound that difficult. You get to keep your job," He said, "How hard could it be?"
He then paused for a moment to consider what Aerin said about Smith's siblings, and his eyes widened a little, glancing over to Smith with a face that was quietly surprised.
At this point, Smith felt like having his eyes widen in shock, and then suddenly giving Aerin a crushing bear hug before lifting her up into the air by the armpits. In all honesty, he wasn't sure if he should. Regardless, it was exactly what he did. "Thank you Aerin. I'll do the best I can while aboard the Phoenix." Matthew spoke, holding Aerin up in the air, eyes level.
Luca then remembered something else that he'd almost forgotten, "By the way, we passed by Tami when you guys were on the way out with the Mishhu on your tail, I managed to rescue one of your sales folks," He then nodded towards the Hangar district where the Big Bird was parked, "She's on the Big Bird, recovering slowly. I'll put her into your care."
Aerin laughed as she was pulled into the air, and even after Smith let go, she remained floating at the same height, turning to Luca as he spoke about an apparent employee they had found. "There were four who were unacconted for on our transports out of the system. Which one have you found?" she asked, becoming more serious about the subject.
"Nyezeh, Jolokia Nyezeh," He said, "I couldn't find anyone else," He sighed, crestfallen by the subject.
Smith pursed his lips upon hearing this. "Jolokia? She's one of the earliest, senior employees of Origin..." His eyebrows furrowed as he looked at Luca. "Why didn't you mention this sooner?" the Origin Representative asked, slightly confused in tone.
Luca blinked in response. Well this is awkward, "Back when I was at the factory, my mind was busy on kicking Vitriol and Malice's arses. Nyezeh hasn't crossed my mind till now since the fight has died down," He blinked a couple of times, "Jim's been taking good care of her since she came in."
"She actually handed in her resignation minutes before the evacuation was completed." Aerin recalled, dropping back down into the water, deep in thought. "The last of our security shots showed there was someone with her, but we weren't able to positively identify him. He wasn't with her when you found her?"
Luca shook his head.
"I suppose we'll simply have to inform the families. Some may be able to be ST'ed, but one of them was a Nepleslian citezen." She shook her head as well, closing her eyes for a second. "Transfer her back to us, we'll take care of her. she's still our responsibility at this point, as we were the ones evacuating the planet after the Star Army had left."
"Certainly," Luca nodded decisively before hearing the chinking of glass behind him. He turned around to notice that a bath hand was kind enough to put some drinks down, along with floating coasters. Luca shrugged indifferently and took a glass of warm sake, watching it bob in the water.
He then noticed a familiar face further up, "Hey!" Luca smiled as he recognised the voice.
"Hey dad," He said, "How's the new ship?"
"It'll be ready tomorrow," Sebastian said as he came into view, wearing a pair of form fitting speedos, and showing off some of his entirely bionic right arm, and surprisingly muscular physique for a man well in his sixties. He sat down in the water quietly, "So, mission success?" He asked the group.
Smith solemnly nodded in reply. "Yes, more than we could have hoped for I think. Aerin?"
"It seems so. Though, I think I may still have some business with the Captian..." Aerin said, swiftly making eyes at the sideburned man, trying to hide the motion from Sebastian. Her hovercar slowly drifted downward, to park itself next to the Onsen. "If you don't mind, I'd like to discuss this business in private." Aerin asked, making her way out of the bath and towards her car, both of the doors opening upward to allow entrance.
"Yes," Luca nodded as he downed the sake in one gulp and put it on the side of the pool, "Business," He then proceeded to pick up his clothes from a neat pile, stuff them in a bag and climb aboard the car with a towel around his waist, and a stupidly wide grin.
Yeeheheee, this's gonna be GREAT!
The doors slammed shut, and the vehicle quietly gained speed and altitude, flying off in the general direction of the nearest juncture between sectors nine and ten.
Mr. Smith stood and bowed deeply as the two departed. As the car flew into the distance, he turned to Sebastian and asked the older man one thing. "How." He spoke, letting it hang there. "How did your son catch an orange in his sideburn?"
Sebastian shrugged idly, with an orange caught in his own beard, "The orange was obviously female."
MISSION 8 - COMPLETE!!
VERY Special Thanks to Kai for letting us use Dawn Station (amongst other things!)
The Dramatis Personae:
Enzo Bortelli - Lam
Naoko Aihara - Gallant
Uriel Hisshana - Blackbird Lore
Whispering Trees 'Panther' - Scot
Robert Raggleton - Nevaraon
Seiren Isbala - Moogle
Daxle Demalier - Frost
Zeta Five - ShotJon
Arin Berelai - Fian
And Introducing...
Matthew Smith - CadetNewb
Guest Starring...
Aerin Tatst - Kai
Finally...
Luca Pavone - Himself
Everyone Else - Themselves