[A/N: Thank you for the reviews; I apologize for the time it takes between updates. I don't own the setting or the original characters, or anything else for that matter. Please note- any Al Bhed will be translated in brackets for the convenience of those who don't speak it.]
Chapter 3: Breakfast
The following morning was quiet and tranquil as the sun rose into a cloudless sky. The Chocobos stirred and ruffled their feathers as the sunlight played across their paddock, and several Agency attendants began their early morning rounds, blinking and yawning as they did so. Shadows fell away from the airship which sat docked near the Agency like a beached whale, its contours reminiscent of the airship Celsius but with several distinct differences. Its hover turbines were set midway along its length within concealed wing mounts, rather than at the front and back of the ship. The wings protruded just enough away from the main body of the ship to give it an aerodynamic appearance, and the entire structure was painted matte steel gray with the name Excalibur II emblazoned on the side.
In the cabin nearest to the ship, several of its occupants were beginning to stir- one more so than the others.
"C'mon you sleepyheads, up and at 'em!" said Vidina as he hopped out of bed in his red shirt and boxer shorts and began to stretch. He was greeted by a chorus of irritated groans, two of which came from the other side of a privacy screen that divided the cabin. "Can't just lie in bed all morning, ya?"
"Oh, buzz off, Red," Maya grumbled, pulling the sheets over her head.
"Do you have to do all that at the crack of dawn?" Krys yawned, sitting up in his bunk and rubbing his face.
"No, he just does it to annoy us," came Elsa's voice from the other side of the screen. "Red, if you'd kindly keep down the noise I might reconsider coming over there and using your back as a trampoline."
"Geez, why so grumpy in the morning?" said Vidina as he began doing push-ups. "I hit the sack the same time as you guys last night, an' I feel great!"
"You would if you'd had a good night's sleep and didn't have to listen to that racket," Maya's voice wafted over the screen.
"What's that s'posed to mean?"
"It means you snore like a steam engine, Red!" Krys said as he grabbed a towel off the floor and hocked it in Vidina's direction, hitting him in the face with a muffled slap.
"Excuse me?" Vidina replied, getting up and yanking the towel off his face. "You gotta be thinking of somebody in the next cabin over, because I don't snore!"
"How would you know, you always miss out on it because you're asleep!" Elsa shot back; there was a rustling sound and two thuds as she planted her feet on the floor.
"C'mon, even if I do it can't be as bad as all that!"
"No, it isn't as bad as all that, it's even worse," Krys said as he pushed the covers off and shoved out of bed in a gray t-shirt and boxers. "I call dibs on the shower," he added as he stumbled towards the cabin's only bathroom.
"I'm next, bro," said Elsa as she stepped, half asleep, around the privacy screen in a white tank top and matching boxers of her own. She stretched and yawned, blinking a few times before realizing she was standing in front of Vidina in her skivvies, and his eyes had expanded to the size of grapefruits. She rolled her eyes and ducked back around the screen, more irritated than embarrassed. "You can blink now, Red, I didn't do that for your entertainment," she growled from the other side.
"Huh? Oh... oh, sorry Ellie, I just never expected... uh..." He trailed off.
"Men," said Elsa and Maya at the same time. Just then the front door burst open, knocking part of the privacy screen to one side.
"Hey guys, I got a start on the... rumo csuga..." Derrik stood in the doorway with his mouth open, his eyes glued to the girls' side of the cabin.
[Translation: holy smoke...]
"DERRIK!!" Maya shrieked, grabbing her staff. "Get away and keep your eyes to yourself!!!" she shouted as a low-grade Thunder spell arced across the cabin. Derrik yelped and scurried over to his bunk, twitching and clutching his backside in agony.
"YEEOOUCH!! Ow ow ow, E's cunno Maya! I didn't mean it!!"
[I'm sorry Maya]
"Just watch it, buster!" she retorted as the sounds of bathrobes being pulled on came from behind the screen.
"Oh boy, this isn't lookin' good ya? Better try and stay clear of their bad sides today," Vidina whispered.
"You can say that again," Derrik groaned. "She didn't have to try and burn my butt off though..."
"What's all the hoo-ha out there?" Krys hollered from the bathroom.
"It's nothing, bro, Derrik's just being a pain in the ass again," Elsa called back.
"And Maya just GAVE me one!!" Derrik added in an irritated tone. He scowled as the clear sounds of laughter emanated over the sound of running water. "It wasn't funny, cuz!" he whined.
"That's your opinion," was Krys' bemused reply.
A short while later the five of them had each had their turns in the shower, gotten dressed and were sitting around the cramped cabin table eating. Maya had gotten over her irritation enough to cook up an old favorite of hers, pancakes, and fortunately there were enough to go around. Some fruit from the North end of the Highroad complimented the meal, and for the first minute all anyone did at the table was eat.
"So what exactly gave you the idea for that corny team name, Krys?" asked Elsa with her mouth full.
"What're you talking about, Night Hawks isn't that corny!"
"Bro, it sounds almost as bad as Kinderguardians; remember what Mom used to tell us about them?" At the mention of the now long-defunct group of kiddie Sphere Hunters, Derrik started laughing and almost choked on the pear he was eating.
"Kinderguardians?" he sputtered. "That was a real group? I thought that was just a joke Dad made up!"
"Yeah, well from the way our mom tells it most of the time that group was a joke," Elsa replied with a snicker.
"Look, the only reason I came up with that name was to give us some sort of validity," Krys piped up. "I mean, we'd been talking about doing something like this for the last couple of days, we just hadn't figured out what yet. Now we at least have a starting point to work from, don't you think?"
"I will admit, it did feel good to help those people out," said Maya as she sipped a glass of juice. "But I don't know how comfortable I feel about becoming 'heroes for hire' or something like that."
"I didn't say that's what we had to do," said Krys. "We can do whatever the hell we feel like, and if something comes up that happens to be heroic, then that's just the luck of the draw, right?"
Elsa sighed. "Frankly I wouldn't mind the odd bit of heroics, maybe a bit of fiend clobbering, but I still don't know about that name."
Vidina looked up from stuffing his face. "Well I for one think it's a pretty cool name. Sounds kinda imposing and majestic at the same time, ya?"
"Yeah, me too!" said Derrik as he finished his breakfast. "I was afraid we were gonna wind up calling ourselves the 'New Gullwings,' or even 'Gullwings 2.0' for a while." The second he finished, everyone at the table stared at Derrik for a moment before busting out laughing. Derrik smirked.
"Okay, I guess there could be worse names," Elsa finally said through her chuckles. "So what do we do now, 'Night Hawks'?"
"Well, I've been looking over a few of the machina that failed last night, but I only got a chance to look at one or two so far," said Derrik. "If we spread out, maybe we can get them looked at faster. The Agency manager said she'd even pay us if we get them running again."
"Sounds like an idea to me," said Krys as he rose from the table and straightened the lapels of his jacket. "But let's not get too far apart from each other; we don't want anyone to be a sitting duck if fiends rush us."
"I'm not too good with machina aside from the airship; what are we supposed to be looking for?" Maya asked as she stood up and smoothed out her long green vest.
"Anything that looks out of place- blown access panels, rusted or greasy joints, anything that catches your eye," Derrik replied, already halfway out the door.
"Yeah, what he said," Vidina added, throwing on his leather jacket. "Let's go lookin' for wrecked mechs!"
The next half hour was spent outside as the five of them traipsed slowly down the North Highroad, examining each Scout and Ranger model they came across. Just about every one of them was lolling aimlessly, their arms scraping the ground. Except for metal-on-metal, there were no noises coming from them, no servo whines or engine growls, nothing. Derrik hopped around each model he came to like a flea on a hot griddle, flipping bizarre tools and a scanner from concealed panels on his claw bracers. Vidina would often crouch along next to him, taking in all the sights and not understanding much of anything Derrik said. The other three kept a constant watch on the Highroad at all times, relaxed but alert. Krys' eyes darted across the horizon as he rested a hand on one of his guns.
"This isn't making much sense, guys," Derrik finally said, wiping grime from his forehead as they finished up on one model and proceeded to the next one. "They all look more or less okay- granted they haven't been maintained very well, but the hardware doesn't look so bad that they'd all just die on the spot."
"And even if the circuits were rusted or dirty, what's the chances of all of them failing at the same time?" Elsa asked, balancing her glaive on her right shoulder.
"Ah, who knows what's goin' on in their brains?" piped up Vidina, stretching his arms behind his head. "Maybe they all decided it was time to take a nap!"
Krys slowed. "You know, that might just be it."
"What, machina taking naps? What's next, coffee breaks? Or in their case, hot oil breaks?" Elsa chortled.
"No, I mean them deciding one thing for all of them. Derrik, what sort of program setup are these mechs running on? Is each one autonomous, or..."
Derrik blinked. "Krys, I think you're right! Now that I think about it, their circuits look to be hardwired into a loop relay mode, with a single mainframe controlling them all! Each one must feed signals back into the main system, which then analyzes the input and directs the machina how to react!"
"Like a puppeteer controlling several puppets at once," Maya mused. "And if the main control fails..."
"They'd all fail!" Elsa concluded.
"All right, so let's go check out the mainframe!" said Vidina. "I'll bet you anything the information console at the Agency might have something to do with it; that manager was makin' a fuss last night about checking on it, ya?"
"She mentioned it in passing, but yeah, you're right," Krys replied. "Let's go take a look." The five of them nodded and spun around, heading back towards the Agency. It didn't take very long to locate the terminal behind the Agency, and even less time to convince the manager to let them examine it. At first glance it appeared to be little more than an information kiosk, but the moment Derrik's fingers began to dance over it a myriad of function windows began to pop up on the screen. Vidina stared in awe as Derrik navigated through the menus, ignoring some and focusing on others. Krys and Elsa smiled as they watched their cousin work his magic. Maya leaned on her staff, gazing out at a random point in the sky.
"Hmm. Doesn't look like the program is messed up," Derrik muttered at length. "South Highroad mechs still appear to be functional... but according to this, the North end control net isn't responding. Says the signal is offline."
"Offline?" Vidina asked. "You mean the North end got cut out of the loop? How?"
"If the program isn't botched, it's got to be a hardware problem," Derrik replied. "Better check the antenna relay." His eyes darted up and down the console podium, finally focusing on a thick cable that ran along the ground behind the Chocobo paddock to a small metal pillar hidden by a thick grouping of trees. It was a tight squeeze, and they wound up breaking a few branches on their way, but eventually all five of them had tracked the cable behind the paddock and were examining the four-foot-high cylindrical device. Several broken branches were scattered around the area and the earth was scraped and trampled, giving the suggestion a beast had been there recently. Krys pushed a loose limb away from the antenna, revealing a battered access panel and several bad gouges in the metal. "Bingo."
Maya whistled. "That does not look good," she muttered. "Looks like a wild animal decided to use it as a punching bag."
"Animal nothing, that has to have been a fiend," Elsa remarked, crouching low. "A dog or a wolf wouldn't have claws that could gouge holes that deep."
"Can it be fixed?" Vidina asked as Derrik popped off the shredded panel. Derrik peered into the workings for a few long minutes before turning back and nodding.
"They're gonna have to jury-rig a new panel to keep out rain, but it looks like all that happened is a couple wires got severed. Gimme a second to power it down and I can get started." The Al Bhed pulled his goggles down over his eyes and began to work the magic he'd learned from years of watching his dad repair mechs for other members of the Machine Faction.
"Good to know the Agency won't have to replace all their equipment," Elsa said with a smile. Then she frowned. "It's still odd, though. Why would a fiend randomly attack a machina control unit? Wouldn't it head right for a Scout unit, or any machina that actually moves?"
"Some fiends do go crazy sometimes, ya?" Vidina said with a shrug. "I remember Dad telling me about that time fiends started pouring out of the temple and some jerk from the Youth League wanted to burn it down; that must've been some craziness right there."
"I know, my mom was there at the time too," said Maya. "Come to think of it, all our parents were. You don't suppose something like that could be happening again, do you?"
Krys shook his head. "That's something we definitely don't need right now. One fiend going bonkers and beating this up, that I could deal with. But if more of these incidents start happening..." Just then something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. Slowly he got out of his crouch and moved over to another section of treeline and shrubbery, towards a spot of tall grass where a glint of metal was shining in the morning light. He paused, putting a hand on his right holster as he leaned towards the sparkle. Pushing the grass aside, he suddenly froze, his eyes wide.
"Bro, what is it?" Elsa called.
Krys' eyes furrowed into a narrow glare as he reached down and picked up the source of the glint, a long curved knife with a black handle and silvered spiked hand guards on both sides. The blade itself looked like a fiend's tooth, but the edge bore several bad chips and cracks. Getting up, Krys marched over to the others and grabbed the access panel Derrik had thrown aside.
"Found this over there," he muttered as he examined the gouges in the metal. He ran his finger along one gouge, then slid the blade of the knife into the hole. The fit was perfect.
"Hey, that looks like a Thief Dagger," said Derrik as he stood up. "Mom has a pair like that, but with a red enamel on the blades..."
"What does it mean?" Maya asked in a low voice. Krys slid the blade out of the gouge and looked at the others with a grim look on his face.
"This was no fiend," he said. "This was sabotage."