Ack, it's been a while, so here's what I got... On my profile it explains what's been going on... Even when I post short bits, I usually try and make sure there's at least some action or development in that bit, so it's not that bad...right?
SPLIT this story into two... HERE is where the Epilogue of By The Roadway leads into...
But YES! BY THE ROADWAY new material WILL BE HAPPENING! The rest of this is CH coming along soon, but eh... sorry I tried... looks like "sectional posting" is just a better way to get things done. Trying to tackle more then one or two scenes at a time is a big stretch with everything else I have going on. If anyone actually has issue with it, do talk to me cuz maybe you can help me figure out a better way...
Cops And Robbers... Part 1
Wait. Hold that thought from the end of last chapter...
...Actually: It's before the robbery at the Medical Center early the spring of AC197... We'll be getting right back to that soon enough after a few details are taken care of...
The proposal had been finished and approved in time. The primary Preventors task force was gathering at the Earth HQ for a debriefing from the Police Investigative Bureau.
Trieze Khushrenada stood at rigid attention behind and to the side of Lady Une's desk as she was signing a stack of forms on her desk. Finishing and tapping the file square on it's edges, she handed it off to him.
"Is there anything else I can get you, my dearest sweet?" he asked bending to give her a quick kiss on her cheek before heading to the door.
"Just make sure those get where they need to be and I'll see you at the briefing... dearest." she gave a disdainful wave to dismiss her 'new' pet, though a smile did creep onto her lips. She really never did give Milliardo the credit he deserved either as a Pilot or a Commander during the war, but knew now she was lucky to have him on her side.
"Oh one other thing my lady..." Trieze stopped nearly out the door, "... Nitro's father was interested in coming down for a visit. Might you be able to see about the flight clearance to the airstrip at our estate?"
"Of course, just have him let me know when he'd like to travel, I'll be sure to notify customs to send out a detail for his arrival..." Une was busy checking her messages online. Trieze coughed, and came back in the office closing the door mostly behind him.
"Oh, Une... that really isn't necessary. He'll be arriving in his own inter-atmospheric shuttle, I don't think we need to go searching his personal property." he ended with one of those disarming chuckles that never worked on her.
"Trieze, I thought we agreed we were going to play by the rules like every one else? You don't want to start getting into scandals with the populace still raw from the war, do you?" Une was giving him a sour, tight lipped, look.
"Scandals? Une your reading a little too much into this, I think. Shiko has had to deal with the Alliance security hassles for a long time, I figured it a thoughtful gesture to ease his travels for once. The airstrip and Castle grounds are both within the Vianden Dukedom after all..."
Une tapped the end of her pen on the desk causing him to trail off at her perturbed aura,
"Yes, and since you're mentioning it... does that mean now would be a good time to discuss the Legislature's concerns about your decline to sign your properties under the ESUN's treaty?"
"The Khushrenada Estate has always been autonomous; Its tradition." He gave a blue blooded scoff continuing to blow off the matter.
"Trieze..." Her eyes narrowed as she lined up her words to fire, "You sound like your Uncle."
There was a satisfying hit as the projectiles found their mark and Trieze was left squirming for an escape,
"I...but..." he let out a exasperated sigh, "Fine, Customs agents it is..." Trieze gave a curt bow, and went out the door pausing to stick his head back in the office, "...But only at the gate, they aren't allowed on the property; As you said, I still haven't signed it." Then left to complete his errand shutting the door on her objections.
"Shiko Mudo..." Lady Une said aloud to herself now that she was alone. A frown crossed her features, "...what would make a Lunar Prince want to come down to Earth all the sudden?"
She checked the clock to make sure she still had time before she started searching for some sort of clues... (((Read ch2 of 'A Fan For Shiko' for more clues!)))
...A little bit extra AC175 you couldn't go without...
...The Soldier's Apprentice...
It was his first mission, at face it seemed very easy: Go to Vianden, wait on the streets, snatch a certain purse, bring its contains back.
Vicious never asked why or who or how... those weren't questions worth asking if the answers weren't given; but even when he first spotted the overly dressed target strolling down the dark cobblestone road, with an ornate silver-headed cane swinging along with his stride, he had a feeling (the very same feeling he would get countless times throughout his life) that he'd been set up for more of an adventure then he was told to expect.
As hard as he'd tried to stay hidden, move quietly and stay focused; that didn't stop Vicious ending up on his back with the blade that had been disguised in its cane-like sheath against his soft throat.
"That's a very interesting katana you have their boy... you wouldn't happen to be after this," Sir Godrick Khushrenada swept back one half of his full-length heavy cloak and unhooked the dangling pouch from his waist, it had sparkling gold thread embroidery and flashing gem accents, holding his own blade steady, "...Would you?"
The boy eyes were fixed on the object he'd been sent for as a light rain began to fall.
Tossing the bejeweled purse lightly and watching the boy's eyes track it with predatory intent Godrick smiled,
"Tell me boy... how would you like to learn how to use that blade of yours?"
The eyes behind the white veil of hair flicked briefly to the man's face before gluing back to his goal.
"I can use it just fine."
That made Godrick smile wider,
"So I've Heard," to Vicious' confusion he retracted his blade and re-sheathed it to opened the draw string on the ornate bag to reveal it to be empty, "...But I think you will find that if you truly want to be successful in life, you need to start looking beyond the pretense of the thing... to the real jewel you've been sent to retrieve."
"What is that?" Vicious' young eyes burned as hatefully as ever, ready to spring into action.
"...Your potential, of course..."
The wind whipped some of the strands that had escaped Sir Godrick's neatly tied blue ribbon across his grinning face...
...a little while later at the Khushrenada Estate...
Trieze (The 13th) had just sat himself in his chair for dinner; his mother was about to excuse herself to try and find out where her husband had disappeared to when...
That husband saved her the trouble by bursting through the heavy carved doors at one end of the dining room towing a young boy, maybe twice Trieze's age, by his shoulder length white hair along with him,
"Alicia! Darling! You'll never guess what I found!"
Alicia sunk in her seat covering her face in overwhelmed exasperation,
"Dear Lord Godrick, tell me not..." her prayer to the ancestral household spirit went unanswered.
"...An Apprentice!" He'd spanned most of the length of the dining room, and thrust the wincing boy ahead of him for inspection.
"I thought your son was to be your apprentice." Alicia did peak between the gaps in her fingers at the excessively skinny boy that had the quality of a bedraggled cat even with his neatly tailored black slacks and button up shirt with thin black tie – mostly from the way Godrick was insensitively parading him around like a homeless pet.
"Well he'll certainly be my other apprentice in time... but that's just the thing! We can never know if we will have the time! This is just a little extra assurance, besides haven't you been complaining about wanting more children?" Sir Godrick was in one of his impenetrability good moods as he brushed the dust off the boy's shoulders.
"Of my own, yes. Look, perhaps since you've dragged the poor thing in here you might as well sit him down and feed him, this is a matter we should have discussed first I think. Where on earth were you planning on keeping him anyways? Do you even know what his name is?"
"Not a clue!" Godrick practically shoved the kid into the seat directly across from Trieze before going back to his own chair at the head of the table, "I'm sure we can put him up in the central tower, he might even like it." Godrick began to work into his already laid out meal as the servants made up a place setting for the new guest. "...Get him a few tutors, maybe put him to work in the kitchens... it'll be nice."
"You've dragged this boy home with you and not even asked his name? Young Sir," Alicia addressed the mystery boy directly as the kid sniffed at the red wine that had just been poured for him, "Please forgive his Excellency's eccentricity but please if I may know, by what name are you called?"
"Vicious."
The simple answer gave Alicia cause for an even drier, less impressed look to be shot her husband's way.
A young Trieze knitted his brow in puzzlement regarding the first impromptu brother he would come to accept into his family...
(((I was gonna end last chapter with this section, before that I was gonna start the whole story with it... but I really liked the transition from the shower into Susan's work at the end of last one. Unless I do a whole 175 story, this is all you get of that...EXCEPT maybe there might be somethings, parts of another story, a PARTICULAR story, that might show more of a "younger" Vicious & the Khushrenada's. Anywho.. gonna try and get more up soon..er... basically the briefing that will explain whats been going on with the "Cops" then we get back to the "Robbers".)))
