Selenity owns Fire Blossom, Annabellina, and Frank. Nyneve owns Saxen Maverick and Moksha. All other characters belong to the people who owned them.
Chapter 2:
Exploration. Shuttleport. First Target.
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Can I drive?"
"No."
"Do you wanna-"
"No." Fire Blossom scowled and tipped her seat back as far as it would go.
"No fun. That's what you are," she picked her feet up quickly and the seat bounced back and forth. Maverick winced.
"This is a delicate piece of technology. Not playground equipment." Effie rolled her eyes and shoved another handful of pretzels into her mouth. They flew in silence until Maverick spoke again.
"Lay off the snacks…Washu said this thing was only equipped with a century's worth of food." Effie leaned forward, full mouth hanging open quite unattractively, eyes wide.
"Was that joke?"
"Yes…"
"You make jokes?"
"Yes…"
"Hmmm…" Effie leaned back in her seat again, suddenly pensive. After a few moments, Frank came to hover next to her armrest and she reached in, producing Annabellina. She flipped it open and began to read. Maverick glanced at her a few times, remembering Washu's words about not killing her. It seemed to fulfill that promise, some steps would have to be taken.
"So," she began, uneasy, "you're a pacifist."
"Yup." The other girl did not even look up.
"Why?" Effie's head jerked up and she searched Maverick's tone for any mockery, or patronization….there was none. Just simple curiosity. She shrugged.
"I dunno. I guess because if I wasn't, some serious damage could be done."
"Oh?" Maverick glanced back, arching her eyebrows. The rather skinny girl did not look like she posed a threat to anything stronger than a few bugs.
"Well, yeah. I mean, telekinesis and pyrokinesis…not the most peace-friendly combination. It like, combines the two most horrible things you can do. Play with matches and throw things inside the house." Maverick laughed and smiled. That did explain both the fire from the hands and Frank's atypical movement.
"What's up with Annabellina?"
"What's not up with her?" Maverick frowned at Effie, and the younger girl blushed, "Sorry. Habit." But she did not put forth any other information, so Maverick let it drop. It seemed the best motto in this relationship would be, 'ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies'. Besides, if she respected Effie's privacy, it would give Effie more reason to respect hers.
"You wanna go snooping?" Maverick glanced back at Effie.
"Snooping?"
"Yeah, you know…looking, discovering, exploring…"
"I know what it means," a small half-smile formed on the bounty hunter's face, "I just wasn't aware anyone actually used it in serious conversation."
"Ha. Very funny."
"I thought so," Maverick rose and turned to the wolf who was seated next to her, "Moksha, watch the controls." With what looked like a quick nod, Moksha jumped into the seat. Fire Blossom watched, first amazement, then indignant.
"The wolf gets to drive? You let the wolf drive, but not me?"
"Yes." She crossed her arms and pouted.
"So not fair."
"Now that's impressive." Maverick murmured, staring dazedly at a large wall filled with various guns, swords, daggers, shuriken, and other implements of pain and destruction. Fire Blossom snorted derisively.
"Not as impressive as the movies."
"How can you even fathom comparing movies to…this." She was at a loss for words.
"That database had well over a thousand movies. That is what I call impressive."
"You really are insane, aren't you?" Maverick said distractedly, not taking her eyes off the marvelous wall.
"Okay, that's enough weapony fun for you," Effie grabbed her arm and yanked as hard as she could. Not that it made a visible difference, "I wanna check out the bath."
Maverick shook her head silently, basking in the glory. Effie tugged again, putting her full weight into it. Not a budge. Finally she scowled and lifted Maverick off the ground telekinetically and floated her along behind her. The bounty hunter's furious curses echoed throughout the large corridors.
"Tell me again why we have to stay in the spaceport?" Fire Blossom crossed her arms and planted her feet, "Especially right after I got all nice and warm and clean. And the Tsunami is only, like, big enough to fit us and several thousand of our clones." Maverick rolled her own eyes.
"I don't know how Washu plans to contact us. I thought it would be best for us to get out." She clasped Effie's wrist and dragged her along, frequently glancing back. They had left Tsunami at one of the more expensive docks, but she was still worried. Even though no one seemed to pay it any attention.
"Bleh," was Effie's comment, but she brightened up considerably with the promise of pizza.
They had stopped at the first large spaceport they had reached after leaving Mars. This one was extremely busy. People pushed past the women, some more obviously alien than the others. Of course, Effie thought, glancing at a young woman whose skin had a decidedly violet cast, we are all alien to somebody. That thought made her smile. She was getting some soul-searching in on this trip after all.
They passed various shops, some advertising foods that Effie had never heard of, and some she now wished she hadn't. There were many souvenir stands for the tourists, and many travel agencies.
"I hope we get to go there," Effie smiled at a poster advertising 'Cassiopeia Gamma: Describe the Indescribable'. Maverick glanced at it and snorted.
"It's not that special, trust me."
"You've been there?"
"Yeah."
"That's not fair," Effie pouted, "I never get to go anywhere fun."
"Well…" Maverick scanned the rotating menu of one of the restaurants for any mention of pizza, "You never pay to go anywhere." Effie opened her mouth to retort, then realized there was not arguing with that statement and closed it. Finally, Maverick spotted their chosen entrée and the two entered.
It was a cozy little restaurant, with only a few tables and bright lamps. The waiter gave Moksha a worried look. Maybe not coincidentally, they were quickly seated and the pizza was brought after only a few minutes of waiting. Effie took a bite from her 'Hawaiian ham and pineapple' half, while Maverick offered Moksha a slice of sausage.
"Hello people!" Both women looked madly around at the familiar voice, but couldn't find the source, "Down here, girls." They both looked, eyes wide at the face of Washu that had appeared in the remaining pizza.
"'Lil Washu!" Effie cheered. She got a few very odd looks from fellow patrons and lowered her voice, "Why are you a pizza?" She wrinkled her nose. "How are you a pizza?" Washu opened her mouth happily but Maverick cut her off.
"Never mind. Do you have our target?" Washu looked put out for a second at the loss of an opportunity to praise her own genius, but recovered quickly.
"I sure do!" Her Cheshire Cat grin returned in full force.
"Well? Who?" Effie pressed, fingers twitching in excitement. Maverick couldn't help but notice there were some sparks coming off of them. Hopefully she wouldn't set anything important on fire. The last thing they needed was to draw vast amounts of attention to themselves.
"The God of the Hunt. Once you get back on Tsunami, I'll transport you to his dimension."
"Can't you give us any more details?" Maverick asked. Washu laughed just a tad nervously.
"Well, no. You see, I really haven't been keeping the closest tabs on the Nine, so I'm not really sure what he looks like at the moment or where exactly he is." Maverick sighed. She would never go after a bounty with such vague information. Male. Not a lot to work with.
"But then, how do we know? We can't really go around killing everybody in the dimension and seeing which guy comes back," Fire Blossom piped up.
"I'll be able to transport the ship within a certain radius of him. Besides, at the risk of sounding cliché…when you find him, you'll know. Well, see you two lovely ladies after you've found the first target!" The image of Washu vanished from the pizza, but Fire Blossom still prodded it several times before selecting another slice. Just in case.