AN: Spoilers to Chapter 5 (plus some affinity missions, very minor). Few swears, if any. Lin and Tatsu just cannot stay out of trouble, even when they are trying to stay on the right side of the law. And yeah! My OC Lila showed up. She's not Cross, not even close. More of a NPC with a helpful blue speech bubble: "You don't use fuel during overdrive, so save your heavy attacks until then." Lila, her station, and her crew are non-canon. The rest belongs to the geniuses of MONOLITHSOFT. Advice on managing xeno dialogue appreciated.


Club of fools, what can you expect with Tatsu as president.

"Booring. Bored bored bored."

Tatsu was rolling about one of the barrack's couch. This was a particularly effective motion, since he was so nearly spherical. Actually, more onion shaped. But definitely built to roll in exaggerated agony.

Lin looked over at her unofficial sidekick. Lin Lee Koo was almost to the end of her 2 weeks of punishment, grounded in New Los Angeles. Almost, but not quite. Tatsu hadn't been officially grounded, at least, she didn't think he had been. Whatever his mamapon had said to him, however, had left him strangely quiet and helpful for several days. Clearly, the effect was wearing off.

Lin was bored, but in a different way. Not only had her team commander, Elma, declared that Lin was not allowed on any missions for two whole weeks, she had also decided that Lin did not have enough classwork. Foreign language had been added, Spanish 1. A random choice, based mainly on the name of their Habitat Unit. Lin wasn't unhappy about it. Turned out, New LA's #1 skellhead, Alexa, was pretty fluent in the language, and had been happy to help out. Learning basic vocabulary wasn't so bad when you used skells as teaching tools. The day they played Hokey Pokey ("mete una mano, saca una mano") had been a blast, until somebody got a bit complainy about it. Lin clicked her teeth about that. What was the big deal? There hadn't literally been any blasting, except just once when they shook it all about.

She'd also gotten a PE schedule. PE! It made no sense. Sit-ups and push-ups and jogging. If they'd let her go back out on missions, she'd get plenty of exercise, especially if she was teamed up with Rookie "Let's see if we can swim to Sylvalum" Cross. Let's rock climb into Cauldros. Let's see if we can run past this tyrant, now THAT would increase her heart rate. Jogging seemed pretty pitiful by comparison, even if it had meant she'd been allowed outside for a few hours that first week when she was completely restricted to barracks.

So now she had all this pointless homework, bordering on busy work. And the sad thing was, she'd blasted through it in record time, leaving her itchy and, well, bored. Too tired of reading to read. Too tired of memorizing to learn. Too tired of anything that involved thinking.

She didn't even feel like teasing Tatsu about cooking him. She'd cooked so much that first week, and now that was boring too. Granted, her crème brûlée was to die for now, but enough was enough.

"Booooored. Tatsu is dying of boooring. Too young for this. All Nopon cry when Tatsu die. Of BOOOOOOREDOM!"

"Well, you think of something. If I make a suggestion, you'll just complain that it will get us into trouble."

"Tatsu will not. Tatsu's lips are sealed about how Linly almost get Tatsu killed by spider ape and piggie gang."

"Yeah, silent as the grave, that's you."

"Tatsu die and return to Great Tree, soooooooo boooooooooorrrrrrrreeeeeeeddddddd!"

Lin sighed and stood up from the couch opposite him. "Come on, tater tot. Let's go."

Tatsu froze. "Linly will not get us in trouble?"

"See? See?! That's why I didn't want to help you. That was literally the first thing you said, and here I am, only trying to keep you alive!"

"Tatsu is sorry. Very humbly sorry."

He had never been humble since she met him, but she just shrugged. "We are not going to get in any trouble. I've done my stinking homework, you've done whatever your mom told you to do, we get to go out as long as we don't leave New L.A." She grimaced. "Or go into the hangar area." That small addendum to her restrictions had hurt almost as much as being refused permission to go on missions. She missed messing around with skells so bad.

On the other hand, she did not look forward to seeing Doug again. Elma had been bad enough, tough and angry and disappointed. Lin wasn't ready to face Doug's freak out – it would be louder, and longer, and somehow she suspected he was even unhappier about the whole thing than Elma had been.

"Let's go see L."

"Okey dokey." Now where had he learned that phrase? Of all the weirdnesses that formed Tatsu, there was always something new.

L was a tall, distinctively blue alien that Elma's team had met not long after acquiring Tatsu. Definitely more elegant, but almost as weird. Lin wasn't always sure she trusted him, especially after he had requested permission to eat the barrack's cat. But he was polite and imaginative, and might have a suggestion for curing the (pardon the pun) blues.

They scooted along the main BLADE causeway, bustling with humans that actually still had a purpose in life. Several greeted her, or waved. Lin restrained a growl when a smirking H.B. asked her how she was enjoying her break from missions. Must. Not. Screech at him, she counseled herself. He knew exactly that this break was enforced. Everybody must know how she'd made a fool of herself, and maybe even almost gotten killed to boot.

She was glad to swerve down Armory Alley and away from him. L had a shop at the very end, a very curious affair compared its surroundings. Where every other galley and bay was awash in flickering floating screens, touch consoles, and what could only be politely described as military grade furniture (did they really need that much olive colored canvas?), L's shop was exquisite in its taste. A detailed rug in rich tones on the floor, native greenery all around, several glowing or glimmering metal objects that might be art or cooking utensils or deadly weapons, just going to visit his shop was a treat.

"Miss Koo, what a delight. We are so gratified that you are back on your pins and needles."

"Er, yeah, great to see you too, L."

"So, you are joining the crowd that comes for shopping. Such a delightful passing time, and so very useful for our own personal continued business health. What can your interest be today?"

"Oh, gee, sorry L, I'm sort of broke."

"Then we must fix you at once."

"No, I mean, since I haven't, well," Lin hesistated. "Well, I haven't been on any missions lately, so I am sort of out of credits."

"Linly and Tatsu flat broke. Flat, so very flat, broke."

"And yet you are still the picture of round Nopon health, my young friend," replied L cheerfully. "Well, if you are not in our market for shopping, perhaps we can offer you a little job. Not a mission, of course, merely a chance to help the other foot."

Lin blinked. "Sure, I guess, as long as it is in New Los Angeles."

"Exactly my thinking. We are so glad that our minds are harmonious. There is an augment in need of delivering, a special order that we hope will solve special problems. Well, we hope it will not cause more problems. Or injuries, that is also something not to be hoped. Or minor burns. Or major burns…"

L appeared to have several other things he hoped would not happen that he was ready to mention, so Lin cut him off. "As long as you think it is safe to transport, I'm game."

"Well played, my young sporting friends. Let me see." He turned to his Ma-non co-worker, who dove under a table and after much rustling came out with a small package, wrapped in what looked white tissue paper and candy cane striped pink string.

"So, this is it?"

"Precisely. If you would just trot this down to Lila at Auxiliary Skell Refueling Substation 1, please. We shall transfer you the credits, a paltry handful but full of gratitude."

"It's not necessary…" started Lin, but Tatsu was already shouting the address of his comm device.

Lin held the package in her hand. It seemed pretty normal, although perhaps a little warm. "Can I ask what it is?"

"You may both ask and receive an answer. No secrets are safe between friends! It is Resist Stagger XXI, newly created by this very shop."

"XXI?! But augments only go up to 20!"

"Why stop there? We have wondered, and now we hope to find out. Lila has very kindly agreed to test it, at least for safety. She funded it as well. She has bought it and may now break it. Although the merits of testing it near so many flammable combustibles may be worthy of debate. Shall we?"

"No, no, I'm sure it will be okay. Bye, L, and thanks. Let's scoot, Tatsu." This was said a bit sharply, as Tatsu was busy making goofy faces in the reflective surface of one of L's products.

There was one slight problem. The refueling station was located in the hangar section. Right on the edge, mind you, not exactly officially part of the BLADE area, if you thought about it. It certainly wasn't BLADE run. At least, no one running it was BLADE. Lila and two other reject humans, plus a chatty Ma-non, kept it going, and its presence was tolerated by the hangar staff, in not exactly respected.

Lin swerved around the front of BLADE tower, headed for the auxiliary elevator that also served the residential district. Nothing suspicious about that. The hangar bordered the housing area, and anyone could think Lin and Tatsu were off to play some tennis, or look at some trees, or something innocent.

Tatsu, however, was getting agitated. "Meh meh! We are not going where Tatsu think we are going!"

"We aren't going anywhere bad, Tatsu. We'll just pop by Lila's and then be on our way. It doesn't really count." Especially if no one noticed them. Luckily, it was on the other side of the hangar, across from where most of the action was, and tucked behind any number of shipping containers, almost to the walls of the city.

Official refueling was free, but could be slow, so teams in a rush (or with poor planning skills) were Lila's best customers. But there was more to it than that. Auxiliary Skell Refueling Substation 1 had a reputation for keeping skells in better condition than most of the rest of the hangar, in a very limited way. Lin didn't use it much, preferring to work on a skell herself whenever she had a chance, but even Alexa gave them the compliment of recommending them to her teams. "My best employee back in the day, no real genius for skells, no vision about them, but man can she clean your treads." They didn't do damage repairs, but they seemed to spot problems well in advance. If you left your skell with them, you were liable to receive a long list of things you better get seen to, as well as a shorter list of problems they had solved already. Overheating? Not after they'd redone your cooling fluid levels. Strange squeak? A quick re-balancing of hydraulics had seen to that as well.

Lin had once spent a little time there, waiting for a refueling for a surprise mission (she really had been meaning to do it herself, but things kept coming up, what with practically everyone asking Elma or Cross for help). The station team was loud and seemed super useless as a whole, except for the fact that they somehow got the job done, and done fast. Twyleth, the Ma-non, was the closest thing to a ditz that the Ma-non had to offer. Great with tools, better with talking, and constantly fluttering around the place, warbling ear piercing show tunes. Did she ever finish a job she started? Trailing her, spewing questions about just what it was that he was supposed to do, and eventually completing her unfinished jobs was Ricky-Bobby. He was tall, kind of freckly, and seemed to have only one true talent, a genius for sloshing things. Or dropping things. Every time there was a clash or clatter, the team yelled, in unison, "Ricky-Bobby!" And he'd yell back, "My bad!" Which happened at least three times during the hour or so she'd waited there. She wasn't sure what was up with Gino, older, quiet, angry, with eyes and hair only a little darker than his coffee colored skin. He'd worked quickly, but as soon as there was a pause he'd stop, slumping to the ground for a few seconds, before he was required to continue a job. And everyone knew about Lila, although most people pretended they didn't. Poor thing had mim-based agoraphobia that kept her hugging the walls, practically crawling under the edges of things. Except she'd be crawling under your skell, cleaning and prepping it like a fury, until the job was done before you knew it.

Lila had her back to them when they arrived, somewhat stealthily if you ignored Tatsu's worried squeaks. She was looking up at a regulation perfect, camo green skell, tapping her toe in annoyance. "And done, with 40 minutes to spare. Which gives me 2 minutes before he rolls in."

"Excuse me, Miss Lila," Lin spoke to get her attention.

The tech whirled around, her face shifting from sour to suspicious. "Good morning, Miss Koo," she said, politely. She tilted her head to one side. "I don't believe you are supposed to be here."

Lin huffed a protest, "This can't really count, and what do you know about it anyway?"

"Muscle man spill beans," suggested Tatsu helpfully.

"It did come up last week," Lila said, with a quick smile. Commander Vandham's Thursday coffee date with Lila was reliable as Mira's moons and not at all as romantic, mostly consisting of 5 minutes of fuel invoices and resource requests plus 2 minutes of hangar gossip. Done in 10, and one of the few reliable ways of finding the Commander. Lin had used the weekly event once to try and arrange a date for the Commander, which had ended in disaster, except not really. By the end of the day, the blind date (a rather statuesque Reclaimer) had gone off with Gino. A bit of a disappointment after all Lin's efforts to match Vandham with someone nice and eligible. The Commander hadn't exactly laughed at her for the rest of the week, but it had felt that way. Actually, he had absolutely laughed at her, quite loudly. Lin cringed at the memory a little.

"Anyway, we're here on a job, and then we're gone."

"Well, go fast, because this is Hector's skell and he's due any minute now. If he sees you, I'm going to have to, well, …"

"Turn us in? Tell Elma? Get Tatsu in trouble?" offered Tatsu.

"Protect you, on general principles. What's the job?"

"We brought you something. From L." Lin handed the woman the package and was rewarded with a true smile.

"Oh, thanks! I've been waiting for this. I knew it was due soon." Lila sounded very pleased indeed.

"Is it for, um, you know, your problem with, um, vision?" Lin wasn't sure she should mention it.

Lila's smile twisted but didn't disappear. "Well, it can't hurt, you know? I doubt it will actually do much, the accessory limit is pretty well reached, but the chance that…" She cut off her speech as she looked into the distance. Suddenly, she was shoving them towards the station office. "Inside, now, and do NOT make a sound!"

Tatsu bounced nervously inside the dim and tiny office, with Lin shushing him, waving her hands silently. Through the battered blinds, thankfully closed, she could just make out H.B. walking towards Lila. She held her breath, and listened through the not particularly sturdy door.

"Hector. So good to see you, and right on time. The job just finished." Lila sounded suspiciously bored.

H.B. was not bored. "I thought I saw Lin Lee and her, ah, associate here."

"No, I don't think so. I'd be sorry to have missed them."

"Let me into the office."

There was the fraction of a pause, then a sigh. "Sure. Go on ahead." They could hear Lila step aside. Lin held her breath, but after a series of electronic beeps, the door still hadn't opened.

"It's locked," H.B. said with restrained anger.

"Really. Then go get your key."

"Nonsense. I don't have a key, woman. You have it."

"Hector, really, you want me to help you break into someplace you don't have proper access to? I don't think that's very ethical."

"This isn't funny."

"It never is." Lila's voice had dropped to almost a mutter. Lin wondered just how much annoyance she was hiding. (Answer: no annoyance, 100% pure rage.)

"Just because you have protection…"

"Protection? I don't have any protection. This is my job and I do it fine. So back off." Lila's arm movements were casting wild shadows on the blinds, and Lin noticed that the station had grown quiet. No clanging, no whooshing, no high-pitched Ma-non singing.

"When the BLADE leadership changes, I guarantee that I will to start with this station."

"When that happens, IF that happens, I will join a Nopon caravan and be glad to," snapped the tech. Quickly, Lin clamped a hand over Tatsu's mouth, because she felt sure there was a protest bubbling out of him. She herself felt like raising a cheer. Like H.B. had a shot at replacing the Commander. Nyah nyah nyah. Lin silently stuck out her tongue in support.

"Look, Hector, your skell is ready and good to go. I'm sure that there are some Prone whose lives you could make miserable. Have at them, with my blessings."

"This isn't over."

"Oh, please. Now, go get 'em, flyboy."

Was this the end? Lin was still afraid that H.B. would demand Lila open the door. Would she really refuse a direct order from a BLADE? That was kind of dangerous territory.

But to her relief, H.B. stomped away. She risked a peek through a gap in the blinds, nose wrinkling at the dust. She could see him swinging into his skell, as Gino rushed to remove all the restraints. "Go go go get 'em, flyboy, you know?" squeaked the Ma-non, enthusiastically waving her hand in farewell. "Yeah, go get 'em, you the flyman, duuude!" shouted Ricky-Bobby, pumping his fist in the air. Lin thought Gino said about the same thing, although his gesture wasn't quite as civil, but it was covered by the sound of H.B. stomping away again, this time in massive mechanized form.

It was several minutes before there was a knock on the office door. "You can come out now."

"Lila, thank you thank you thank you!"

"Just get out of here. No, not that way!" Lila shouted as Lin headed out towards the main causeway between the lower administrative area and the residential area. She yanked them in the opposite direction, heading behind the office.

"Why not?"

"Because Hector is probably lurking just on the edge of the hangar area, waiting to pounce on you with his entire righteous skelled-up self. You're going to need to take the access walkway along the ring."

"What? No one uses that!"

"Except repair crews and maintenance staff, and you better hope you don't meet them until you hit the commercial section." She was shoving them again, this time back even further, towards the wall of the city.

Lin stopped at the small staircase, really a ladder, and turned to look at Lila. Strange, she was only a few centimeters shorter than the tech. It made her feel more grown up but no less grateful. "Lila, why do you dislike H.B. so much?"

Lila rolled her eyes. "If I said he was Eliot House, would that explain things?"

"No."

"Well, let's just say that the rivalries between schools are nothing compared to the rivalries between dorms …. Were nothing." Lila shut her eyes and took a deep breath. She looked deeply sad. "So stupid, like if we can somehow keep it going, maybe they aren't all lost." Her eyes snapped open, and she gave a small shake, followed by an even smaller grin. "Besides, he's a royal pain. I'm counting this one as a win, but DON'T COME BACK."

"Got it. Bye, Lila." Lin shouted as she clambered away.

"Bye scary short lady! You can join Dodonga Caravan when Tatsu is in charge," called Tatsu.

And that's how Lin and Tatsu earned enough credits to split a mango parfait at Rosemoss.


"So, I had a complaint about insubordination."

"Wait, wait, if this is from whom I think it's from, you know how I am going to respond."

"From whom. Cute. He'd like that."

Lila sighed, but she followed it with a grin. "Miss Koo and Friend Tatsu visited my place the other day. Hector took exception, especially when I wouldn't let him into my office. I believe I called him 'flyboy.'" She said the last word with a certain savor, like it tasted delicious if slightly bitter.

"Oh sweet Jesus, will your life of crime never end?" guffawed Vandham. But he was serious a second later. "You know they were restricted."

"Yeah, but not by me. I'm not BLADE, and I'll use what few privileges that brings me. They left as soon as I told them to, and they didn't whine."

"Think I should tell Elma about this?"

"Already done, sir. If she's ignoring it, I'd leave it be."

"You ratted the kids out?"

"Absolutely. I trust their commanding officer. I trust commanders generally." She fluttered her eyelashes at him.

"Nope. Flattery is not going to convince me to buy you a pastry next time."

"Worth a shot, sir, worth a shot."