There were two days left until the race, and Namika Koch couldn't help but wonder if this was all a waste of time. The four days since she had registered for the race had been filled with nothing but waiting and harassment from some of the male racers. The latter, thankfully, had greatly lessened since the first days. Her disheveled looks were apparently enough to turn most men away, and those few who persisted ended up with bruised prides and broken noses. The latter was usually her mother's doing.
Hanan had seemed really annoyed today, probably because one of her eyes had stopped working out of the blue. Namika didn't want to hear another rant about how her mother deserved better–those had become increasingly frequent over the past two months–so she took the first opportunity to escape. Caroline wanted someone to keep an eye on the registration booth and take note of any new racers, so Namika quickly volunteered. Five hours later, and she was beginning to think that her mother's rant would have been the lesser evil. The only really interesting person she'd seen was some German noble named Stroheim. This wasn't some job she could just slack off on, at least if she didn't want to be the object of Hanan's ire. She just couldn't help it, this job was so—
"I'm calling the sheriff right now! That man stole your money!"
Oh. It seems that she missed something. Probably nothing, but Caroline had given her this job. Half-assing it, as much as she so sorely wanted to, would inevitably bite her in the ass when it turned out that the one guy she dismissed was a major contender in the race.
The teal-haired girl watched dispassionately as a pair of race officials dragged a vagrant away from the registration booth. The apparent victim–a wealthy man, judging from his deep purple outfit and golden teeth–barely spared the proceedings a single glance before picking up his coins and turning back to the booth.
"I can deal with that later," he said to the registrar, a heavy Italian accent evident in his voice, "If you've counted up the money, give me my receipt. Put today's date on it, and don't address it to 'sir' either."
Seeing that the excitement was over, Namika began to settle back down. The Italian was certainly distinctive, but aside from bringing to mind one of those armored units IOP had been turning out recently, he didn't seem all that important. Ah, well. She would just mention him to Caroline later. Nothing to worry about.
However, the vagrant didn't seem to be done.
Almost as if he wanted to prove that he still had some control of the situation, the vagrant began to shout threats at the Italian. The blond man challenged him to a duel.
Namika frowned as a crowd quickly formed around the two men, blocking her view of the duel. She supposed she could have moved to secure a better spot, but that would take work at this point. After all, how was she to know that an impromptu duel in the middle of the wild west would draw such a crowd so quickly? It wasn't even high noon yet!
Regardless, such a large number of witnesses meant that word of the duel would spread across the camp within minutes of it ending, which meant that she didn't have to pay attention. Satisfied with her logic, Namika leaned against a pole and closed her eyes. Luck seemed to finally be on her side. While her sleeping bag had been damaged beyond recovery months ago, Namika had acquired the perfect substitute: a stetson. She was in the Wild West, after all. Sleeping against a wall with a hat covering your face was such a strong symbol that every western she had ever seen had tried to fit it in somewhere. Her hat finally arranged to perfection, Namika smiled as she felt the warm embrace of sleep consume her.
Barely a second later–though her internal clock informed her that she had been asleep for about three minutes–Namika was rudely brought back to the land of the living by a kick to the head.
Why? Just why?
The first opportunity she had found to catch some sleep, some jackass decided to kick her in the face. She wasn't in pain–T-Doll bodies were built tougher than that–but she was more than a little irritated by the rude awakening. Namika slowly opened her eyes. She wasn't committing to telling off whoever woke her up – not yet, at least. However, she did want to make sure she wasn't about to get hit again.
A man in blue lay face down on the ground, struggling to get up. Served him right. He had knocked off her hat, though. And since she really couldn't sleep without it, Namika moved to pick it up.
The man noticed her movement, "I don't need your help!"
"I wasn't going to give it," Namika replied, picking up her hat, "I was just getting my hat."
Namika returned her Stetson to its proper place and leaned against the wall once more. The man was quiet for a moment, evidently a little stunned by her voice.
"Well you don't have to sound so excited about it," he muttered under his breath.
The blue-clad man spent about two minutes getting back in his wheelchair. Despite her best efforts, sleep managed to elude Namika, despite how easily it had come mere minutes earlier. It did seem a little strange that a man without the use of his legs could kick her in the face, but unless he bothered her again, it wasn't her problem.
"Hey!" the man in blue said, "Sorry for kicking you earlier. Do you know where I could get a horse?"
Namika didn't respond. Maybe he'd go away if she acted like she was asleep.
"Hey!" he said again, raising his voice, "It's rude to ignore a guy when he asks you a question!"
Namika grimaced, it looked like the man wasn't going to leave her alone. "What now?" she asked, her voice sounding just as dead as it did earlier.
"I asked if you knew where I could find a horse," he said, irritation evident in his voice.
"I wouldn't know, I don't live around here," Namika said, letting a little emotion leak into her voice as she opened her eyes, "Besides, you're disabled. How do you expect to ride a horse when you can't even stand? Trust me, even with functioning legs it's exhausting."
"So what if I can't walk?" the man spat back, "I'm not going to let some disability stop me from chasing the 'light of hope' I saw on this beach!"
"You're insane," Namika stated, yawning loudly, "You'd probably get along well with my mother."
The man's expression darkened. "Am I really so boring that you can't seem to keep yourself awake? Besides, I'm not into older women."
"Mom would kill you if you called her that to her face," Namika replied, just as fed up with her partner, "Also, you kicked me in the face. I don't consider you worth my time right now."
The man snorted, "Go die, little girl."
Namika's mouth curled downward, "I'm sure death would be more pleasant than this conversation."
"Suit yourself, little girl," the man shot back before wheeling off.
Now that she was finally alone, maybe—
"Namika! What the hell are you doing?"
Guess not.
"Hello, Mom," Namika said, turning to address the new arrival.
Hanan walked over to Namika. Her calm demeanor seemed rather at odds with the way she was acting the last time Namika had seen her.
"Where have you been, Namika?" Hanan continued, "Didn't Caroline tell you to be back before lunch?"
"No? I'm pretty sure I was paying attention when she explained things to me. She didn't say anything about when to return."
Hanan snorted, "Of course you didn't. You took off before she could finish!"
"Eh, fine," Namika said, conceding the point, "I'll head back."
"What did I say about talking to strange men?"
"Huh?" Namika looked at her mother in confusion.
"The man in the wheelchair," Hanan snapped, "What were you talking about?"
The teal-haired girl's continence morphed into an expression of annoyance. "We weren't talking."
"It didn't look that way to me."
"Fine. We 'talked' in the same way you and Caroline 'talked' when she decided to take that mission to bail out Anti-Rain."
Hanan chuckled, "What did he do? Wake you up?"
"Kicked me in the face."
"The man was paraplegic. I doubt he was able to kick you in the face."
"He was on the ground when I woke up. Maybe he threw himself at me."
Hanan nodded, "I heard there was a duel. Did you see anything?"
"No. It ended before I could get there."
Silence followed Namika's reply. Hanan audibly clenched her teeth together and swung her arm at the teal-haired girl, striking her on the cheek.
"WHY YOU LITTLE OXYGEN THIEF!" she yelled, clenching her fist hard enough for her artificial muscles to audibly strain, "What could you have been doing for a drawn-out standoff to occur in the time it took you to walk twenty paces!?"
Hanan wound up for another blow, but a porcelain white hand caught her arm.
"Ma'am?" the pale man said in a serene voice, "Would you please refrain from disciplining your daughter in public? It doesn't reflect well on you."
{:+:}
Hanan Koch was not having a good day. After all, how could one be happy when one's day started off with one's eye deciding to just quit?
Sure, their current situation meant that it was a much easier repair than it would have been otherwise, but the principle of the matter remained. It had been nearly two weeks since she had received proper maintenance, and even longer since the facilities provided had been anywhere near acceptable. It was equal parts humiliating and infuriating for her to have an important part break down only for Caroline to replace it with glorified scrap rather than the precisely machined components Griffon had access to. Hell, if given the choice between the two, she would gladly let Seele and Deele root around in her internals rather than allow Caroline perform another field repair.
Still, that all paled in comparison to her current situation.
The pale man hadn't given them his name. No, like the perfect gentleman he was, he neatly sidestepped her question with a polite request to "meet with the rest of her team." The fact that he knew she was part of a team wasn't surprising, several racers had already formed groups with family members and close friends, so it wouldn't be too much of a leap in logic to assume that the Koches and the Meyers were planning on working together. However, his question didn't feel quite so innocent.
Well, she might as well ask. "What do you want?"
The man's melancholy expression barely twitched. "I wish to discuss terms. I'd prefer if your leader were present, less chance for intermediaries to twist my words."
Hanan frowned then walked away, trusting that Namika and the man would follow her.
The man was sharp if he had managed to deduce their identities, or at least the part he had context for. Still, it rankled her to know that some random person who had never even heard of their group before had discounted her as the leader. Still, Hanan supposed he could have just guessed and—
Hanan's Digimind came to a screeching halt as she realized what just happened. He had tricked her into confirming his suspicions.
The silver-haired woman snarled as she resumed her walk back to camp. As much as it galled her to admit, Caroline was far better equipped to deal with this man.
{:+:}
Eleanor Meyer was bored.
She wasn't exactly thrilled to be participating in a horse race, but Namika seemed excited about it. Besides, her sister wouldn't have agreed to join the race if she didn't see some benefit in it.
Regardless, she wasn't Namika. She needed to do something that wasn't running diagnostics for the eighty-seventh time or she'd go mad. Well, she did have Big Sky.
Finally deciding on a course of action, Eleanor stood and extended her arm out in front of her. With a flutter of metallic feathers, a falcon – the aforementioned Big Sky – came to perch on the brunette's arm.
"Hey, buddy," Eleanor said, stroking the falcon's head, "Sorry to call on you so suddenly."
The bird shook its head, clearly undisturbed by the summons.
"Good to hear that," the brunette smiled, "Would you mind flying about the camp for a bit?"
Big Sky cocked its head, as if asking what to look for.
"Oh, nothing in particular. Just tell me if you see anything interesting."
The falcon bobbed its head and took flight, causing Eleanor to smile. She always enjoyed her conversations with the bird.
Caroline lazily cradled her chin in her hands as she watched her sister's antics. "You do know that bird's just a dummy, right?"
Eleanor turned to her sister. "So? It's not like I'm talking to myself."
"If you say so," Caroline replied with a smile, "Just make sure it doesn't affect your decisions too much."
"Mmmm," Eleanor said, turning to face the general direction of the registration booth.
"What's on your mind, Eleanor?"
"Big Sky just spotted Namika and Hanan, but they're not alone."
" Oh? Do continue."
The younger woman frowned, "Were it not for his gender and lack of any visible weapons, he could easily pass for a Sangvis Ringleader. His clothing doesn't match their usual style either."
"Anything else?" Caroline asked, clearly intrigued.
"Hanan doesn't seem very pleased with the situation, though she can't seem to decide whether to direct her ire towards the man or Namika," Eleanor paused, closing her eyes for a brief moment, "He reeks of gunpowder. I can't confirm anything more without getting closer, but the skimpiness of his outfit inclines me to believe that he merely handled the stuff recently."
Caroline rose to her feet, smiling all the while, "Well.~ We better make sure out guest feels welcome."