After half an hour circling around dead space, we realised not only had Charlotte landed all of our patrol members, but we had no clue where on Atmos we were. This caused a bit of fury from Charlotte, some complaining from me, and Sam stuck in the middle trying to stop the anger, as per usual. Eventually, we came to the conclusion attacking each other was not going to get us anywhere, so we calmed down and started off in a random direction, did a 180, then headed in another random direction.
"I don't know about you, but the fact we have Talon skimmers is bad enough, but we're also wearing Talon uniforms", Sam commented after a while.
"Crag", I muttered as I looked down, realising the same thing as her. "Should we land somewhere and change?"
"Into what?", Charlotte asked.
"We snagged our old stuff", Sam explained.
"I dunno about you, but I'm not going to be flying through Atmos wearing a goddamn pencil skirt, no matter how cute and black it is."
"Point taken."
"Oh, wait. I had jeans in my psychology bag."
"Got it!", I yelled, holding it up. Charlotte did an abrupt double-take.
"What the fuck?"
"Sam said we snagged our old stuff. That meant everything", I explained with a grin.
"Still, it would be better to have stuff that would be better for flying. 'Cause, this probably sounds weird, but-"
"These uniforms are really fucking comfy when we're flying", Sam interrupted Charlotte, who paused, turned to glare at Sam, then finished off, "Yeah, basically."
"Fine. How about we find a terra that sells uniforms or flying outfits?"
"And how we gonna pay for it?", Charlotte asked.
"Wait! Hold up, hold up." Sam was digging around in her pouches.
"Don't tell us. Money crystal?", I chuckled, mostly out of amazement.
"Nope. Money." She held up a bag that jingled, and became the centre of attention for a good minute as Charlotte and I goggled.
"They use proper money?!", Charlotte said eventually.
"Different currency, same gold. I bet we could pass off a pound for something really expensive if we tried hard enough", Sam laughed as she pocketed the bag.
"How much is in there anyway?"
"No clue. But it was in a safe in the back of a locked store-room that had 'Do not enter' on it."
"You went snooping without me. I am disappointed", Charlotte tutted, as she pulled off ahead of Sam, all the while giving her a disgusted look.
"I have money! Be happy dammit!"
We were.
Landing on a small terra, we stripped off the Talon uniforms and switched for our Earth clothes, in preparation for actually landing in the next populated terra. Everyone went through their pockets, and pulled out any loose change. Just in case. Charlotte had a pound and two twentys, Sam had a handful of ten pences, and I came up with a ton of ten and twenty pennies.
"Where the hell did you get those?", Charlotte asked.
"Bus fare change", I replied with a shrug.
From there, it was another twenty minute flight before a terra with houses and streets rose into view. It was no Atmosia, but it wasn't a Gale either. By asking around, we found out the name of the place was Terra Bellasarie. It had a distinct Belgian-theme, with small stone and wood houses dotted in a circle around a single main street, that started at a tall building which was probably
the city hall or courts, and ended at a series of small landing strips for skimmers and airships. We parked up there, and headed down the main street. My ears were killing me, numbed by the air as we'd flown. Charlotte was grimacing, and when I asked what she'd gotten frozen she replied, "My knees." In fact, everyone's joints were aching in one way or another. Sam was not a happy bunny of us three, being the only one who didn't have trousers to cover up legs, and insisted on buying legwarmers as soon as possible.
"You know, I think the whole uniform or Atmosian outfit buying spree is the whole point of actually staying warm up there", I reminded her.
"I know. But can't I get legwarmers anyway?"
"Yeah, why not."
One set of helpful directions later, and we pushed open the door to a uniforms store. The shop-owner, a round lady who for all her bustling us over to a stove in the back and cooing over Charlotte's frost-bitten cheeks could have been a female Junko.
"Oh, jste ubozi drazi", she muttered, handing us a mug of…something warm and brown. Sam took a tentative sip and nodded to us two eagerly. It was good apparently.
"Promin, ale mluvite cesky?", I spoke up, one eyebrow arching. The lady laughed.
"Ne, ne, mluvim bellasery."
"I have absolutely no idea what you two are saying", Sam muttered.
"She's speaking Czech, but in this reality it's Bellaserian. I think." I shrugged, and returned to the conversation. It was an absolute 1-1000 chance that we'd landed on a terra that spoke this language, and it made me wonder if there were other terras out there. I mean, there was Gale, which seemed pretty French. What about a German terra? Or even a Mexican terra?
After a length of talking between us, since Mrs Drachova switched between Bellaserian and English with ease, we got around to asking what we needed. She smiled and nodded in understanding.
"A trio of wish-to-be Sky Knights then? Ah, ever since those Bouře Jestřábi started fighting against the Cyclonians, our old squadron has been looking to your kind of youngsters as well. Mind you, it's only fair that the ladies get their hand into this business." With a chuckle, she added, "Shouldn't stop you from looking good while you bring down Cyclonis, ne?"
We all nodded in unison, Charlotte's face growing a large and happy grin.
Mrs Drachova stood back to let us to browse the shop. There was some arguments about having a general colour scheme, but since our tastes were so vastly different, we just split up to find outfits we liked and fitted. The cool part was that everything was stitched together out of a range of colours and materials, making it more interesting in finding the 'right thing', and done so well you'd have thought they were designed to be in such a steampunk-patchwork manner.
I was trying on a uniform that combined purple and blue when Mrs Drachova reappeared, carrying several curved metal plates.
"There's a reason this place sells to you flying folk", she said with a wry smile, holding up one of the metal plates that actually were pieces of armour. She helped me fix on shoulder- and knee-guards, during which I asked, "Your terra, it's fairly close to Cyclonia, right? Don't you ever find it worrying, or troublesome?"
Mrs Drachova scowled angrily, turning to glare out toward the street. "Filthy Cyclonians. I hate it whenever they darken my doorstep. But customers are customers, and if they want to shop here, we let them." She sighed. "It's better than having them raze our homes to the ground, take it over for factories and other sorts of zlo hovno." Expression switching from anger to apologetic, she added, "Promiňte, I didn't meant to speak so rudely."
"Je to v pořádku. We feel the same way." I smiled widely. "We're really grateful for all your help Pani Drachova."
She beamed, and gave me a pat on the shoulder. "Now, I must go help your friends with these as well. Make sure the armour stays in good condition, otherwise it will not be so good in protection."
"I will", I agreed, nodding my head in a part-bow, as the lady bustled away.
As I waited at the counter to pay, Charlotte strode over, extra sass in her hip-sway.
"I look badass", she sang, pirouetting to a stop. Her combination choice had been red and black, accompanied with black fingerless gloves that went up to her elbows. She threw me another pair, these in dark blue and with shorter sleeves. Her armour choice apparently had only been one shoulder guard, but with an extra back-guard and a pair of short gauntlets. She'd also managed some time to tap up her mascara, somehow.
"Uh. Wow", I said, grinning.
"I know right!" She flashed a smile back, looking over my outfit. "You look…um."
My shoulders slumped, a puppy-look starting up. Charlotte grimaced.
"You look fine Han, don't do that, it's..it's weird."
"Thanks", I deadpanned. The redhead rolled her eyes, then patted my head. Which was awkward, considering she was shorter than me, even with a new pair of high-heeled biker boots.
Sam walked over then with Mrs Drachova, the teen dressed up in a fab combination of blue and green, with the lightest colours out of our trio. Her gloves were short and not fingerless, but the length was hidden under the medival-like wide sleeves of her top. She'd found her legwarmers, and wrapped them around her new knee-highs. I was starting to feel left out, having chosen combat boots that ended just above my ankle. Like Charlotte, she'd opted for a single shoulder guard, alongside thigh-guards and a belt with several pouches.
"You think those are magical hammerspacey?", I asked, pointing at said pouches. Sam gave them a look, then stuck a hand in one and pulled out the bag of money.
"That'll be a yup", she replied. As Mrs Drachova shuffled around behind the counter, we started counting out money to pay.
"Don't look so worried. You get discount, half-price."
"Um, why?", said Charlotte, with a confused look as Sam handed over the coins necessary.
"Protože jste roztomilý drazí." And as she said this, she pinched Charlotte's cheeks. Again. Sam and I held back sniggers as Charlotte went very much pink, and as we were walking back out I got smacked over the back of the head.
"What did she say?"
"Not saying."
"Tell!"
"Nope." Charlotte grunted, smacked me again, then stormed off. Sam watched her go, then said, "You know Mrs Drachova was ginger?"
"Yep."
"Do you think she had a daughter?"
"…Holy crap." We looked over our shoulders back at the shop, my stomach doing a strange flip as ideas bubbled up my head. Then we raced after Charlotte, joining her at our skimmers.
From Terra Bellasarie, we flew in a roughly Easternly direction. We figured this because the sun was starting to dip behind our backs. Unfortunately, we flew for a very long time through empty skies. And I got bored very, very quickly.
"Are we nearly-"
"NO."
"Are we-"
"NO."
"I see the Condor!"
"NO wait, what?"
