Chapter 6: Comin' Together
"Ahem... Hello One and All!" Old Man Cid spoke into the contraption on the stage, and suddenly his voice also came out over the other contraptions on the stage producing an effect that made me feel it was perhap erroneous to have attempted to get as close to the stage as possible. "Esteemed Adventurers and citizens of BastoK! It is my great pleasure to call you hear today to fullfill perhaps the greatest mission undertaken by any nation in all of time!" Geez, talk about super over-dramatic power. What the hell kinda job could he possibly be announcing that it required this much theatrics?
"As you well know, Bastok is the center of technological revolutions. From this nation were born the wonders that allowed us to conquer the lands, to master the seas, and to rule the skies. In effect, the four great nations now have power over three of the great frontiers." What WAS this guy goin on about? werent those three frontiers the ONLY three? What else was there, excpet perhaps in the old codgers own messed up head?
"However... There is one frontier we have never conquered, but we have grazed it, ever so lightly." Suddenly, he bent back, perhaps a little farhter then a man of his age should have, and held his arms up in the air. "The frontier I speak of is of course... SPACE!" If he was expecting a big reaction for this, he didn't get one. Well, not at first, suddenly there was a lot of muttering among the crowd, most of it either confused, or angry(perhaps bcause they thought they'd wasted their time?). Whatever the case, Old Man Cid sure semed to have amazed himself... He didn't seem all to anxious to get out of the position he'd assumed...
"Err...yes... if one of you fellows could please..." One of the engineer workers stepped forward from behind him and pushed him forward so he was standing upright again and could lean on his cane. "oooh oooh owwww... thas gunna crick in the mornring... hwoo hwoooo..." One of the engineers stepped forward and whispered in Old Man Cid's ear. "Oooh, Oooh, yes, the speech! Ahem!" He brought the sound amplifying device forward to himself again.
"This mission, should you so choose to accept it. Is to clear out, once and for all, the regions of South Gustaberg, North Gustaberg and Dangruf Wadi. These areas must be cleared of the Beastman menace in order to establish the Port which will serve as the testing ground for new space faring technology. Your reward will be based on nthe number and type of Beastmen you defeat, SO DON"T HOLD BACK! The time has come for Bastok to stake it's claim as the mightiest nation, and the success of this mission shall determine who controls the final frontier for long to come!" He went on for a little while longer, going on about how glorious this would be for the nation of Bastok, but I had stopped paying attention after he described mission success requirements and rewards.
I had read somewhere that at one point the three areas that Old Man Cid described were home to some of the weakest monsters around, but in the past five years the relative might of the creatures there had increased signifigantly, in terms of raw numbers, it was estimated that the average creature was at level 20 or above. No problem for me of course, but considering what it had been 30 years ago, it was a helluva big turn-over. Anyway, I looked over at Silvie to see what she thought, if her face was any indication, she was all out for this.
She looked at me with eyes aglittter. "OOOOH OOOH OHH THIS IS AWESOME! IT'S A GOOD THING NO ONE ELSE NEEDED A JOB DONE ORRR WE'DUV MISSED OUT ON THIS" I laughed, my own sentiments were the same. And since there were just two of us, that meant more loot between the two. Well it might've if not for what happenned mere moments adfter we began to set out to leave.
"Heyyyyy it's you guys!" A familar plus-chested waitress, decked out in Black mage gear, came bouncing toward us. With her was a giant mountain of Galka, decked out in basic Paladin gear. Needless to say, the pair had my full attentions, much to Silvie's increasingly familiar irritation. Considering the way our last encounter went, I was a little trepidatious about this encounter.
"Err... heya. Howsit goin?" I said nonchalantly, trying my best to sound sorta like I didn't remember who she was. Unfortunatly, any chance of that was destroyed by Silive's next comment.
"HMPH, How can you great so nice and sweet like after the last time youy two met his 'eye-conotact' didn't extend above you'r shoulders?" She sounded quite angry, as though Lauria's sudden appearance was an intrusion of some sort, a rahter rude one. Lauria, as far as I could tell, thought nothing of it.
"Oh pshaw! Ye get used to that when yera waitress, nuthin to be all strung up about, sides'" she struck a pose. "I AM a rather fine model of femininity, if I do say so myself." It sounded like a joke, but I was more then certain that Lauria didn't mean it as such. Silvie at this point looked like her head might explode with rage. Thinking I knew the reason I decided to try to defuse the situation before it got out of hand.
"Aw c'mon Silvie, chill out alright? Yer not in any way lacking in the feminine department either, if I do say so myself." Remember how I suggest earlier that my intention was to defuse ther situation? Well, to put it simply, it didn't work.
"HWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" I was set upon by a feral female demon of destruction formerly known as Silvie. In the scuffle I was too slow to defend myself. And thus by the time it was over. I was very much in need of medical attention. Which Lauria more the readily gave. Apparently she had had some White Mage training along with her Black Magic skills.
The Galka guy spoke up at that moment. "Ahem, anyway, we came over to suggest a merging of sorts, two of us, two of you, a four member group has a higher likelyhood of survival in these regions then groups of just two each. I'm Murris, by the way"
I sat and pondered, me and Silvie had been THINKING it would be better to just be the two of us, but... we HAD been seeking addition group memebers earlier. Was there really much harm in accepting their offer? After all, it was more then could have been expected under normal circumstances. I figured what the hell. "Sure, why not.Th'more th'merrier, as they say." And so it was that our little group of two became four. In spite of Silve's grumblings to the contrary.
"Soooooo, uhhhhhhh, where do you guys wanna hit first?" I asked idly when the three of us had left Bastok.
"Whatdoo you mean, "where do we wanna hit first"? Your the team leader, you tell us." said Murris.Whoa whoa wait a minute, WHAT? When did THIS get deicded? And why wasn't -I- informed?
"W-what're you talkin' about? I thought we we're just...you know... a group." Murris shook his head and looked at Lauria with a look of annoyance.
"I toldya these two didn't look competent. WHy oh why must you ALWYAS contradict me in the worst ways?" He almost sounded like a little baby when he talked like that. Lauria's response was to cast stone on him. "HEY OW! WHAT THE H?" He rubbed himself where the rock had hit him.
"Doncha, go tryin to pass off all teh blame on ME YOUR the one who agreed to this." said Lauria with an annoyed tone. Boyoboy did I make a HUGE mistake inviting those two along. Silvie took the opportunity to grab me by the ear and redundantly inform me that she thought similarly.
"I don't BELIVE YOU! You we'rrre saying just a little while beforrrre that we didn't need any extrrras! Now you go and invite a coupla loons like them without a second thought? What's WRRRONG with you?" I might've been able to listen enough to come up with an addequate answer if she hand't spoken in such a shrill whisper of hiss that my ear was throbbing.
"Whatever with all yer gibberish lady, your the one who was all upset before when we couldn't find nobody, figured you'd feel better to have at least two additional members in our group. Her response was a simple Hmph and she looked away from me. That's when Murris decided to hold us up yet again with something else.
"This is no good, we have to decide on a leader if we're goin to work together. I say give it the old Bastok method. All those in favor of Red-boy as leader raise your hand and say I." Before I could say anything to the contrary, threee hands we're in the air. Lauria's, Silvie's and Murris's. A collective shout of "I" rang through the dreary landscape around us.
"Hey, hey whata minute thats not fair! I never got to vote! I DEMAND A RECOUNT" Okay, so demanding a recount wasn't exactly very pointful(yeah I know it aint a word eat me, I'm pissed.) But things like that never stopped me before. "AND MY NAME ISN"T RED-BOY IT'S CARLIN THE RED! Murris merely chuckled at my outburst.
"It's already three against one, red-boy, your vote's a moot point, your leader, deal with it." He chuckled some more. Luaira and Silvie, for what seemked like one brief moment, shared what seemed like a sisterhood. Then, remembering who eachother were, they hastily removed themselves from eachothers presence. And so it was, that I, Carlin the Red, became leader. There was just one more matter to be dealt with. Silvie was the one to bring it up.
"Hey, since we're a team and all we should like, think up a name for oursleves." They all loked between each other and started talking.
"How about, the Mage Knights?" Lauria suggested brightly. the other two shook their heads. Murris suggested the next one.
"What about... The Light Warriors?" The two of them stared in stunned silence at him for a moment, as though deep in thought about the prospect, I didn't know what to think...I guess it had a nice ring to it...
"MMM, nah, How about, the Radiant Adventuers?" Silvie suggested excitedly, I pointed out that part of the name was already taken, her response was to stick her tounge out at me. "Alright mister leader man why don't YOU try coming up with a name, then?" I shook my head but agreed, grudingly, to think of one, meanwhile the three of them kept spounting off more and more ridiculous ideas for a team name.
"Radical, Dreamers..." Lauria.
"Rave Masters" Silvie.
"Urameshi" Murris.
"How about the Red Wings?" I suggested finally. I had heard the term in a story book once, in reference to some sort of air force lead by a Dark Knight...The three of them stared at me for a long time. then...
"Heh, heheheh, hey that's pretty good, I like it, wings of blood, like birds of prey, good idea red-boy." Of course, that was Murris.
"Heyyy, yeah, I likey, nice one Carly." That was Lauria.
"Eh, I guess it's alrrright." Silvie.
Glad to have it over with, I stood up. "Right then, it's agreed, from now on We're the Red Wings. Now then, as leader, I say we shall head for Sotuhern Gustabarg. And so it was decided where would be the place where the Red Wings made their first decent.
A/N: This chapter was somewhat harder then the previous ones to write cuz there was a lot more dialouge then ever before. I hope You enjoyed, it. And as for the new name of our group? It took me awhile, but that's the one I decided to settle on, hope you liked it, and is usual, please be so kind as to grace me with your R&R's thnx!