RP: ISC Phoenix [Mission 9] Enzo's Lady of the Night

"Listen," John nodded towards Smith, "You really aren't adept at the whole 'keeping cool' thing," He then looked over to Luca, who was taking a swig of drink from the fridge, "Besides, I'm not going to argue with the Captain."

"Besides, Vincent's been unusually sleepy recently," Luca said, noticing that the door outside Vincent's room didn't have a pit trap dug into it, just like he did on Nepleslia Prime, "I think he's losing his touch, and I need some heavy gear in this mission,"

He motioned to Ivan, "Ivan is our heavy gear."

"For the moment anyways," commented Ivan as he reached into a his coat for a smoke, a move which instantly drew the attention of everyone in the room. When his hand emerged with pack in hand he glanced up at the scouring eyes and merely smirked.

"Beer?" Luca asked nobody in particular, motioning to the fridge.

Naoko raised a hand, lazily, still watching Ivan speculatively.

"Beer it is!" Luca replied as he reached into the fridge, and tossed a cold one to Naoko, "Catch!" A flick of her eyes, and a snap of her hand, snaking out from the too-long sleeve of her Haori jacket, and Naoko had the bottle. Taking her eyes from Ivan, and her hand from the axe handle, she began to fiddle with the bottlecap. Then she bit at it, until it came off.

And for some reason, the silence she gave off after the speech drew Smith's attention more than anything else. He slowly took Ivan out of his sights, and tucked the weapon away inside his suit before glancing at Naoko, just as she reached up and grasped at the beer that flew her way. 'Messy. Unfitting.' he thought.

Then the sleeve of her haori jacket slid down to her shoulder, revealing more of her arm, shoulder, and a little of what was beyond. The Origin Representative turned his head away as casually as he could, and made for the refrigerator, getting a beer of his own. As he took the cap off with a bare hand, his eyes settled upon each person in turn, looking at Naoko last, with the briefest of glances. His heart still pumped away, pushing and swirling about his angry, hate filled feelings for Nekos inside his mind. 'At least my little brother and sisters don't have to deal with this crap.' he thought.

The earlier video call came to mind. He tried to push it away, but he couldn't. How could he? They were his family. But, they told him to...'Be nice to Nekos.' Why?! He took a sip of his beer and mulled over it.

Looking directly at the pissant and noticing the direction of his glances Ivan couldn't help but comment, "Got a skin fetish there buddy?" he asked Smith directly. This observation caused Luca to take off some of his jacket to show off his shoulders. He waggled his eyebrows comically in Smith's direction. Naoko almost snorted beer, turning away to laugh.

Smith took another sip of his beer before replying. "Better a skin fetish than an incest fetish." he replied, briefly tilting the beer bottle towards Ivan. He looked at Naoko again, this time quite frankly, without trying to hide his gaze. 'The thing does look miserable in clothing like that.' He thought, giving a little ground to his younger siblings' argument.

Aware of his attention, Naoko - recovering - pulled her sleeve and jacket back up over the ill-fitted shirt. The look she gave him was one of mild, suspicious curiosity. She took another drink of beer.

"Aw no peep show?" Snarked Ivan before dropping the cancer stick to the floor and smashing it into oblivion. The question was answered with silence. An ear twitched. Lightly. This merely resulted in a wider grin on Ivan's part.

Watching it, or as his siblings would insist for some reason, 'her' move around in the clothing like that only made him think some more. It was a blood thirsty (literally, if hemosynthetics could be counted as blood), sex crazed little psychopath, but what was perhaps the still soft part of Matthew called out at him; 'Just look at it!' Which he did, and frowned. He wasn't going to like this, but if he did this and said it didn't work, his siblings would let it rest for good, and never bother him again over it. He sighed out loud.

"We need to go shopping later Naoko. I cannot work with someone so unprofessionally dressed." He pointed his beer bottle at Ivan. "You too." This resulted in a very old but very effective hand gesture from the other Nepleslian, a singular 'finger' of defiance.

At that though, Smith downed the beer in a single go, and put the empty bottle aside. He then put one closed fist up, and pretended to start turning an invisible crank, at which his own 'finger' rose up, complete with the mimicry of squeaking cogs.

"Ku-ri, ku-ri, ku-ri, ku-ri, POM!" Naoko hummed, following a tune that resembled, at least vaguely, a jack-in-the-box. She articulated with the end of the now-empty bottle. "Sounds like you two are pretty good friends, now, ne?"

Luca replied to this exchange with a colloquial shrug, "Yep," He said before taking a deep swig, indicating that he wanted to get to business.

"However, discussing who's into what isn't why we're here, we're here to plan how to get Enzo's ship back and getting some armaments together if everything goes balls over buttocks," He then made a correction, "When everything goes balls over buttocks."

"Well that's rather simple, we kick the door and kill anything that moves," responded Ivan, patting his holstered 45.

"Good thinking, I like that," John nodded in mock agreement with Ivan, "Ladies, gentlemen, we have a tactical genius amongst us."

"Though if we fail at this considering some of us like sharp pointy objects over lead, there's always employing the proper application of high explosives" said Ivan, seemingly recalling a past event.

"I think we want the ship in one piece," Luca wryly smiled at Ivan's train of thought. He then looked over to Enzo, "So, who do you think would lay a trap for you? Because this seems too good to be true," He tried to remember some of Enzo's table anecdotes, remembering offhandedly mentions of Yamataians and the Reds, "Think - of all the people you've conned - who'd have the stones to con you back?"

Daxle cleaned himself up, somewhere (he couldn't remember) and just tried to get away from the hospital as fast as he could. He figured it would be better to just head to the Hangar; less trouble and hopefully safer from lunatics and kidnappers with grenades. He wondered if he should find and tell that Sebastian fellow about John being taken, and made a mental note to do so once he reached the ship

Panther walked into the hotel dining area and noticed Luca, one of Luca's men, Naoko, and some newcomer sitting and "chewing the fat" as some humans would say. The Kohanian decided to skip out on breakfast on account of the bullet holes in the walls and walked out of the building.

Panther had his hood over his head and hands in his pockets creating the illusion that he was just some street punk despite his awkward gait of his cat like biology. He had on his mind several things he needed to get, such as parts and blueprints to put things together, and his garden would need some expansion.

Back in Luca's room, Enzo was tapping his hand on his chin. The idea of a trap hadn't crossed his mind yet. He had prepared himself to take the ship back by force, but he hadn't considered from whom. Another pensive draw from his cigarette brought words to chapped lips.

"I usually kills 'em if they gots enough brains to hit me back... but I can remembers a few people who gets aways froms me. An' I can recall having to run away froms bein' outgunned lots, too. There are a few guys I mighta left behinds somewheres dangerous still alive out theres somewheres. This one times I even outsmarted a group of Reds."

Enzo smiled as he recalled the events of previous capers. He was truly lucky to still be alive after all the people he'd pissed off.

Uriel almost pistol-whipped Ivan from his position behind the man; he almost shot him in the leg; quite frankly, there were a lot of simply violent ideas thrumming through his mind at the sight and sound of this... scoundrel. Armed Interventionist? Who did he think he was kidding? This man was a gun-for-hire, and just as bad- possibly worse!- than Vincenzo Bortelli. Despite this, Luca had made it clear this was not a man to be harmed. He holstered his weapon with the slightest of an irksome facial tic.

"I'll be breakfasting... elsewhere. Contact me when the arrangements are finalized." That said, he left; breakfast and escape from that man that rubbed him entirely the wrong way. He was a loose cannon and a crook- this Patrician could tell their type from a mile away. Why, not too long ago he was serving the military, and seeing a man of that sort on the streets would have led straight to an arrest.

Then he sighed, venting his frustration in silence. No need to get so worked up over one man. Besides, in Luca's crew it was easy enough to get by without talking to the ones he disliked. With that in mind, he came to street level and took care to stray from the main entrance lest he be stopped by those investigating the crime scene. Ivan's crime scene.

When they left lobby Zeta figured that Luca wanted to get some rest and just accompanied him to his room. She was at first thinking abotu standing in front of his door but that would probably be too much. So she went to her room which was right next to his. She had nothing to do so she took out her revolver and proceeded to clean it. Nice, slowly and easy. She didn't have gun-kit on her possibilities were limited. But she was still pleased with her workd.

It was when she tried how good it goes in and out of holster when explosion happened. Building shaked a little. Zeta ran to balcony an looked down. There was fire coming out of hall and she small figures running around. She recognized Orisec members. "Bloody hell what now?" She asked and proceeded to put on her jacket and go stand in the hall. She got there just in time to see John with some man entering Lucas room and closing doors behind them. Man was armed.

She wasn't thinkig about this too long. Barging in through the doors would get either her or Luca shot. Which would prove quite useless so she went back to balcony. Balcony which was right next to Luca's balcony. She smirked and proceeded to jump across. It was just one meter. When she safely landed she quickly stood up adn took out her revolver. Large glass window with door was looking at balcony but courtains were blocking the view pretty nicely. Except small line in between. Just enough to aim through and angry looking man with shotgun standing next to John.

Just when she raised her gun Smith ran inside throwing knifew and being all kinds of badass. Zeta smield again. She couldn't hear what they talked about but Luca apparently tried to calm it down. Zeta aimed at angry tall guy meanwhile. She didn't aimed at head, too small target and he could move suddenly. She aimed at his belly which was easier to hit. It also hurt more.

Luckily for Ivan Zeta wasn't looking for blood today. Yesterday afternoon she would just shoot him and would be done with him. But she was still furious yesterday. About goo-things and other things. She was kinda of glad when she didn'T have to discharge her weapon now. When peopl started to drink beer she just opened the sliding doors and walked in. Her large revolver stil in hand. In wide move she holstered her Handcannnon with her cybernetic hand and give Ivan a smile.

She then shifted her attention to Smith. Finger exchange was kinda funny but she reminded herself of othar stuff. "Hey Smithy I would like to buy that Impulse with assault pack, peashooter with sabot and other ammo and also some munition for gauss rifle. Oh and one 10 milimiter pistol too." She said to him as if nothing happened. She then walked to Naoko. "Hey cat, let's go buy something to wear. I feel like looking smart." she said still smiling. Luca was safe here with Smith and others. And she really needed to buy some stuff.

The 'cat' glanced up at Zeta, a dark, slender eyebrow raised questioningly.

A couple seconds later saw the empty beer she had been holding land perfectly in the waste can near the door, and a small ill-clad 'cat' returned to the freezer for another one. There was enough beer in the fridge, but she chose a bottle of something else from the courtesy fridge instead. Some sort of colorless vodka or manufactured shochu. The lable was in another language. It was probably a sip drink, but she went ahead and fetched a glass out of the cabinet, anyway, levitating to reach it instead of standing tip-toed.

"Yes," she said to Zeta as she fished three or four good ice cubes out of the bucket, "But I want to see the end of this first."

She poured herself about a half a glass of it, then set the rest of it aside, crossed her legs on the counter, and began to nurse, watching the rest of the room as if she were some sort of spectator about to view a gladiatorial match.

Zeta smiled again. "Right," she said and took a beer from fridge. She opened the bottle with her cyberaemr nad tapped it against Naoko's glass. "Cheers," she said and had a swig. She then shifed her attention back to Smithy and Ivan.

Smith was about to reply to Zeta's request, ignoring the insane statements from Ivan, but before he could, the Neko started floating about like a vengeful spirit. An Oni. As it's back was turned to him in the process of grabbing some things, Smith eyed it with visible apprehension before forcing himself to look back at Zeta. "Yes. I have an Origin Ordering Assistant with me right here." He spoke, reaching into his pockets. He pulled out what looked like a PDA, but hooked it onto a small spot on his jacket; a volumetric menu popped up in front of Zeta to choose from. "All orders will be sent directly to your ship." He spoke, then turning to the rest of the crew. "If any of you would like to make your own orders, you may do so now after Miss Five."

Matthew was glad for this change of pace, a moment of normalcy in what was looking like an increasingly insane path that he had chosen. It let him relax and act normally, if only for the moment. "Oh, Mr. Pavone? If you insist on taking...Ivan with you on your crew, you'll have to forward a settlement to Origin Industries for the damage caused."

"I'm sure Miss Tatst will be lenient though." He added on. Smith already regretted saying that, and gave the Neko another glance. Yes. He was going to regret a lot of things he said. No doubt about it.

The Smith-christened 'Oni' turned its brown eyes to him, contemplating his obvious apprehension. Naoko had a habit of playing people - this time it was working just a little too well. She was becomming annoyed with how effective it was, on this one. Instead of being charmed by her cute - even beautiful - demeanor, he was revolted. Instead of being endearing, she was being downright creepy. It was becomming difficult to maintain. If she were going to accompany Zeta and Smith on this clothing run, she would have to give them something to mitigate that impression, but she wasn't sure just exactly what that something was going to be, yet.

All this, she hid behind that single glance, meeting Smith's with her own. Then she blinked and removed her heavy attention from him. Maybe that would put him more at ease, but probably not. Naoko took another sip of her drink, and rubbed a little at one of her eyebrows, deciding to let slip that she was tired. That was believable, enough.

Muzukashi...

Zeta nodded to Smith in confirmation. Okay then this will be interesting equipment. But that can wait for now.

She looked at Smith and his quite non-pleased glances he gave to Naoko. It looked like he really hated her. Now that will be something to have in a crew. Well Zeta didn't know Naoko very well yet, that is why she is going to take her for that cloth shopping. Maybe Naoko will drop the curtaian and stop acting superior for a while. But Zeta might need a little help for that.

Zeta smiled and took out her communicator typing a message.
She then sent a message and pocketed trusty communication machine back into her jacket.

Glancing down for a moment Ivan stuck his free hand's finger through one of many new shrapnel holes in his coat. The two small blade marks on his thigh armor weren't going to go away on their own either, at this point Ivan decided to play a mental game with the Origin ant next to him.

"Well as much as I'd like to pass on this little endevour into consumerism I find myself needing a few things, besides I haven't been here nearly long enough to see the sights." said Ivan still checking himself for any nicks or scratches.

Mr. Smith adjusted his glasses by pushing the frame up with the edge of his palm, eyes briefly shielded from the white glint that went across them. "Of course." He said icely. "Though, do mind your manners. There will be civilians present. Ones that I'm partly responsible for." the Origin Representative added on. 'And apparently, he thinks I'm going to pay for him. I never did say I would be paying though. I'll just let him think he's getting things for free then.' Smith thought.

Maybe there was a silver lining after all.

"Well, I'm coming, too." Enzo said abruptly, "If I gots to attends a reunion, I wanna looks real classy for my boys. I'll needs a suit an' a new coat, an' a hat, an' some nice cuff links withs somethin' shiny on 'em. Besides, I haven't got to hang out with my favorite little lady in a while!"

Enzo walked towards Naoko and stretched his hand out to tousle her hair. He stopped midway and frowned. His hand was higher than it usually was when he attempted this maneuver. He slowly mouthed the words, 'One-hundred and fifty point two centimeters' and withdrew his hand. A scowl hit his lips and his cigarette dropped from his mouth. Without looking down he stamped it out with his foot. He kept his eyes locked on Naoko. A second of silence passed before he broke into a smirk.

"I wanna picks out yous outfit, Naoko! I gots the perfect idea-- you looks so pretty in black with all that pale skin. And, yous gots to get a new comb. Your hair is growing so fast!"

The smuggler outstretched his hand again and brushed down the side Naoko's hair one time, all the while cackling like a child.

Arin received Zeta's message just before she was about to enter the room, a brief look at it told her what the current topic was about.

"Wait for me!" She yelped, entering the already overcrowded room. She was wearing her only set of non-NAM clothes, an off-white sundress that sat on her lightly toned figure, a pair of brown ballet-flats and a light gray cotton slingbag. She tried to figure out how to best conduct herself in her NAM uniform while she was here, but decided to not take the risk and play it incognito. She knew there would be new people in the room from the radio someone charitably left behind on her sickbed so she quickly located these (Smith and Ivan) and gave a rehearsed curtsey with a trained smile after giving a customary nod to Zeta and the Captain.

"I'm Arin Berelai, the ship's mechanic. Pleased to meet you!"

"Excellent!" John said, nodding and rubbing his hands together, "So, let's pack up our crap and get going."

"Yeah, but before we go, we should take a look at the new ship," Luca said, "Dad says he hasn't taken his eyes off it - it looks ready to raise a few pulses."

"Alright, we'll see if we can park the Big Bird in there," John suggested as he snapped his fingers, "And then I'll see if I can learn to fly it in a hurry with Echelon helping us - and then it'll only be two days until we get to Nepleslia Prime, and start our search."

"Good plan," Luca nodded in agreement as he was pounding his suitcase shut as the contents kept it open, eventually mashing it shut, "However, first..."

-

"...we need armaments."

After the crew gathered their stuff and left the hotel as quietly as they can with their new member in tow, they found themselves outside an Origin outlet, focused mainly on weapons, armour and equipment - although it did have a toiletries section, and spiffy clothing, including a very limited supply of new orders from Godfrey and Morrison.

"Alright, I already feel like I'm prepared to go," Luca said as he nodded with a smile, "So you guys can spend what you need while I check up on the ship. You'll know where to find me - try not to kill eachother during the meanwhilst!"
And with a wave and a smile, Luca left his crew to their own devices, and genuinely hoped that they didn't kill each other in the store.

-

"Well," Sebastian said as he looked at the now completed Courier 2A, which only needed a name, "What shall we call this?"

"Hrm," Luca scratched his chin as he looked at it in all of its glory, "Not sure yet. I'll ask the crew when they get here - how much hangar space do we have?"

"About a third of our current cargo bay was cut down, so," Sebastian paused for a moment to do some mathematics, "From 140 metres of space, the modifcation took 50 metres of space," He nodded.

"Therefore, we've only got about 90 metres of cargo space - more than enough for our armoury and whatever else we need."

"How wide and tall?" Luca inquired, thinking that the Vampire wouldn't fit.

"36 metres across, 10 metres tall," Sebastian nodded before realising something and swallowing a lump in his throat, "Bugger me, that Vampire Class cruiser of ours is going to be a tight fit! We've only got about a metre and a half either way of margin for error if we park it sideways!"

"Don't worry, I trust John to not scratch the paint," Luca smiled.

-

John, meanwhile, was left with the crew at the Origin weapon shop.
"So, what tools of destruction are we going to dress ourselves in today?" He asked nonchalantly as he looked over to the team's NAM representative.

"Arin, you seem remarkably quiet about the whole 'us not buying NAM' thing," He was very tempted to poke her to see if he'd get a response, even a pulse, "Not even a friendly rivalry or company to company paintball fight or drive-by shooting? Nothing?"

He then put his elbow on Ivan's shoulder, resting for a moment, "Boooring," He then blinked as he heard the sound of a clock ticking from Ivan's coat.

"Uh, dude, you appear to be ticking," He observed hastily before backing away, slowly and then took cover - and hoped to whatever powers might be that he didn't blow up the store, "DON'T GAWK - RUN!"

Arin quickly cupped John's mouth just as he mouthed the first few words of the sentence, she hadn't had a chance to explain to the old crew what her plan was in private, and she expected them to bring up the issue of her identity with regards to this location.

"Ahaha, what are you talking about? I just fix things on the ship thats all~!" She laughed it off nervously, and then discreetly scanned the corner of her eyes for those people in the green and blue uniforms, the late Melchior knows what they'll do to her if they found out.

... And maybe they did find out, because that new guy that came in with the Ori-Rep started ticking. Arin froze in abject fear.

Enzo kept mostly to himself both on the way and inside of the store. He was off to the side of the rest of the crew, looking at children's clothes. He had already tried on a pinstriped three-piece suit and was wearing it under his duster-- his cargo pants and crew shirt folded up on his arm. Adorning his head was a wide and flat-brimmed black fedora, pulled down low over his eyes. Smoke could be seen wavering and fondling the front edge of the brim before curling into the cold air of the store.

The sharp eyes of the thief peered over the racks and eventually found themselves stuck between two choices. One was a simple white dress with a sash at the hip and a matching straw hat. It was in the Nepleslian style: soft, a narrow cut which left shapes and details to the imagination. Perfect for children. The other was a silken black dress in the Yamataian style: longer than necessary with a low, sharp cut which left little at all to the imagination. It was a surprisingly sensual dress for a child to wear; yet its provocative nature, if combined with the appropriate outerwear could provide a demure and sophisticated look of refinement for even the most bratty child. Enzo hated this.

Naturally, he chose the white dress with the hat. He was surprised that the Nepleslian choice was the less-sexual one, but grateful to have found something that fit his eye. And soon, he would present it to Naoko. The freebooter hummed a cheerful tune as he approached the register with the dress in tow.

"I'll has these here items-- The ones I'm wearin' and the ones I'm holdin'." He said to the clerk with a smile. "Ring me up an' i'll be on my way. I gots business elsewheres."

Seiren rejoined the Origin Crew at the weapon shop, his pockets filled to the brim with various candies and his cookware set stored in a backpack conveniently located on his back. Completely oblivious to ticking noises of any sort, he rummaged through the G&M rack, searching for something with an abundance of pockets. There was one Rat King in stock, but it had nowhere near the absurd number of storage spaces he required to store candies, metal scraps, and Ketsurui knows what else he had. So, the young inventor just headed straight for the counter and asked for a OI-M1-W3106 Plasma Pistol/Saber and a Heavy Infantry Plasma Rifle with a charging base and an extra box of plasma caps. Oblivious inventor is oblivious.

Upon receiving the message about a shopping outing, Uriel politely refused. Instead, he returned to the ship after his breakfast only to be reminded that they had a new ship now. There was a faint, "Hmph," at the sight of it, a sort of would you look at that? to himself.

Once aboard, it wasn't terribly difficult to find Luca and his father preparing the cargo bay. "Luca, if I may have a moment of your time." Saying those words made the Elysian realize this would be the second time he addressed the Captain with his own personal concerns concerning a new crew member- and last time it had turned out far better than he could have possibly imagined.