Relieved that Enzo was no longer paying attention to her, Nostrovia took another bite of her burger. "In a few words, you're off the hook for now," she replied to Makari, "Haven't you heard? We're an alliance now."
Luca sat down at the table and grabbed a burger, putting it down on his plate, followed by a tongs full of fries. This sounded like more rabbit-holey stuff that was a byproduct of the way time worked in the Phoenix - things important to Luca and his crew happened first, then the rest of the world happened when they weren't looking. "Explain..."
"The International Relations Conference has created the Alliance of Signatory States, or ASS."
"You said ass, heh," Luca snickered as he forked some of the nondescript meats onto his plate as sides.
Nostrovia's nostrils wrinkled, but she continued: "The Alliance of Signatory States comprises the Yamataians, the Nepleslians and the Lorath, all working towards further good and mutual goals, that sort of thing. As such, we are also required to pool intelligence if it affects the Galactic community as a whole."
She pointed at Luca, "And you and your team are a public file amongst all three nations. We have to manage you to a limited extent." Luca had sunk his teeth into a burger, but stopped halfway to look at Nostrovia, nose tickling the burger bun as he blinked at her. "On the bright side, you have more support wherever you go."
Luca bit into the rest of his burger and chewed on it as he considered the implications of this. The lump of burger mash went down his throat and he answered: "And the downside is all three of you are watching me together. I should start charging subscription fees."
"Scrutiny. You'll have more of it, but we're always fine with you taking on pirates and aggressive Mishhuvurthyar forces.
That number you did on that warehouse a couple of years ago was a pitch perfect performance." Luca raised his eyebrow. "With an entire team at your back, I expect better," she smirked.
"Funny. I am in violation of
so many laws right now," Luca chuckled. There were Freespacers, Nekovalkyrja, Rebeka, all the Lazarus goings-on, the enormous amount of weapons, use of restricted technology, trashing a hotel, blowing up a cafe (or being around a cafe blowing up, he insisted) - and jaywalking. "I mean, I'm probably banned in Albini."
"As long as you keep working for the common interest, there are things we can waive..." Nostrovia replied as she looked around the room, having finished her burger. One deserting Nekovalkyrja, one mutant Nekovalkyrja, a volatile Freespacer hacker who enjoyed Bubblestar Galaxites, and whatever that
being with the midget was. Pretty much everyone in this room could be pinned for something, even Seiren for being so damn cute and making something that smelt like diabetes from the kitchen.
"For now. I intend to make no moves for the moment and I have been told to give you notice if such an event does occur. Finally,"
Luca lowered his burger and tilted his head.
"The Handler's Reach case is the ASS' responsibility for now, as it concerns all three of the States," Nostrovia said. "We'll do the heavy lifting, we'll ensure all you have to do is pull the trigger at the deserving party. For now, you will have to hand Argyle to our care." She looked over to the Freespacer, still in the massage chair and not stirred by the smell of dinner. "We will give him a new identity and protect him from whoever was trying to kill him."
"Rrright," Luca nodded before taking another bite. "Just keep me in the loop about this Handler's Reach business if you discover anything new. You know, I know, Aiesu knows, the ASS knows," he looked around the room himself and shook his head at Nostrovia, "that's already way too many people."
As if on cue, a door could be heard opening in the quarters, and someone could be heard not walking, but slithering to the elevator. Beside them were some footsteps. Luca's and Nostrovia's heads swivelled towards the source of the noise. "...we have to that again some time," Allison, dressed in white pyjamas and wet hair wrapped in a towel could be heard saying to a female Separa'shan, dressed in the hotel's uniform as best as they could, iridescent scales glittering and getting the attention of everyone.
"Yeah, that was delicious," she winked back at the redhead as the elevator doors opened, tongue flicking at her before she went into the elevator. "You take care and save the world, you crazy bitch!" she cheered.
"Byeee!" Allison waved as her exotic masseuse left the penthouse. She then turned around and realised that the others were all there in the penthouse lounge. Her face went beet red as she looked at everyone assembled, including some new faces. "Oh! er," she stammered, feeling woefully underdressed. "Hi everyone, a-are we having a party?"
Luca kept his expression dour at her, and didn't say a word, taking another bite of his hamburger. He did not know what that girl got up to on her holiday time, but he not
want to know either.
"Professionals..." Nostrovia grinned at Luca. "I don't envy you sometimes."
He sighed through his nose, chewed and swallowed again. "Professional animals." Allison squirmed, he was onto her.
-
The rest of the evening went smoothly otherwise, with Seiren's Dessert following the burger meal, things rolled down to a merry evening and the resulting sugar rush and coma helped punctuate the evening and send everyone to sleep. Echelon, however, didn't need sleep and marathonned the first season of Bubblestar Galaxites with Tani. Soruk could hear all sorts of noise, sturm and drang from the penthouse as he did violin practice and went to bed when ready.
Nostrovia, however, as promised, took the Freespacer and left Luca a note for further details. He found it taped to his forehead when he woke up on the couch, face down into the pillow. The postscript of the note indicated that they had to get out of the penthouse by Noon or be kicked out by some very angry maids who knew kung fu.
"Bloody hell," Luca said as he looked at the clock on the wall. It was 11:12 AM. "Oh bloody
hell!" Luca scrambled for everything and found that neither Nostrovia or Argyle could be seen. He was fine with that, but he wondered what'd happened last night. At least he didn't lose his sideburns like last time. "Alright everyone we're going we have to-"
Allison, Zeta and Echelon had already organised everyone and their belongings, they were wide awake, fed, watered, orderly and ready to go whenever. "We were waiting on you," Echelon said. "Come on, let's go to the airport before the maids come along and charge us extra for the booze."
"Yeah Boss, you really went all out last night," Zeta sighed.
Luca deflated and sighed before gathering his stuff and falling in line with the others. Transport had already been booked and before they knew it they were at the...
Kyoto Spaceport, Departure Lounge
They were all leaning back in some plastic chairs with stiff padding with the sound of footsteps and trivial speech all around them. Floors polished to a mirror sheen and windows going out into the afternoon sun as space shuttles independent and chartered came and went, cargo crews moving around, more people moving. This was the last step for leaving the hive that was Yamatai and heading to greener pastures fertilised with blood and bone.
Luca arrived about an hour later with Zeta. The scar on his eye was gone, his skin was clean, he smelt kind of like hemosynth. He was anew. The procedure only took a forty minutes thanks to Zeta's preparation beforehand. Twenty five minutes to transfer bodies and fifteen to get a hang of the new one, doing basic motor rehab.
Jimmy never reckoned that reloading a pistol the usual way was part of the rehab, but he allowed it just to see in action. Everything felt just a little different, and Luca felt like he was made of jelly right now: He was no longer a Yamataian NH-22C. He was now an NH-31M Minkan Male with a Nepleslian brain.
"John should be here in a couple of minutes," Allison said as she checked her analogue chronometer, calibrated to Yamataian time, "I got him organised this morning, he's been worried sick since none of us called in."
"Very good," Luca said as he sat in the departure lounge, cup of tea in one hand and his thoughts in the other. It'd been a weird day out yesterday. "Say, what were you doing last night with that-"
"I thought you didn't wanna know!" she teased him, jabbing him in the shoulder playfully.
"Crazy crazy Allison!" Luca cooed back.
Echelon, meanwhile was looking at some Bubblestar Galaxites crossover fan fiction on her phone and snickering along with it. "You know it takes so much longer to read it the normal way rather than just streaming it into my brain back on the
Kestrel - how do you manage it?" she asked Tani. "It takes so - long."
