Part 2/ " New Friends…And A Rival"

Rin's sister had left her in the care of Sei and her group while she took the state-of-the-art tractor trailer to get a proper tune up. The thirteen year old had not been very happy with the idea of being left with total strangers, and fought for at least five whole minutes demanding that Ryoko take her along. But her sister thought it would be a good idea for her to stay behind and get to know the people they would be working with. After Ryoko had left, Rin returned to the strange trailer and confined herself in the kitchen area, staring out the window at nothing. She didn't even notice when Jo sat down and set up her tv. Rin was distracted long enough to inspect the short-haired bounty hunter out of the corner of her eye. She was about the same build as her sister, though Ryoko was a little tanner and taller. There was a mysterious aura about this girl…something almost inhuman. Yet, there was nothing physically wrong or indifferent about her. Rin relaxed a bit as her gaze traveled to Jo's eyes; her crimson eyes showed nothing dangerous or suspicious. They seemed to express a certain calmness…

"…is there a problem, kid?" Rin jumped and almost fell off the seat, startled and flustered that Jo had caught her staring. She recovered herself quickly and shook her head vigorously in response. Jo shrugged her shoulders and adjusted the tv before turning it on.

"S-Sorry…", Rin whispered in a shy soft-spoken voice.

"Forget it. How.. old are you?"

"Thirteen". Jo stared emotionlessly at Rin for a second. She could tell that the girl was trying to be social.

"You like horror movies…? Cause' I'm going to watch one. I'll go somewhere else if you…"

"No no, that's okay. I don't care, really. Sis likes that kinda stuff too. I'm not scared of scary movies, I know they're not real", Rin boasted. A small grin appeared on Jo's face.

"Oh, yeah?" As Rin shifted her position to get a better view of the tv, Jo noticed the holster she wore on her hip.

"Aren't you a little young to be carrying that?"

"You mean this?', Rin questioned as she opened the clasp to the small pocket. She pulled out the weapon and lay it on the table, ' It's not even a real gun, just an air pistol. Ryoko won't let me have a real one yet, but she promises she'll get me one for my sixteenth birthday. I want a Beretta, just like the two sis wields". At that moment, Kyohei entered the trailer along with Meg and Sei, all were carrying bags of food.

"Well, it looks like you're getting to know our Jo, huh Rin? You must be hungry now since you didn't eat anything at lunch', Sei replied with a friendly smile, ' Kyohei, you wouldn't mind fixing a little snack for our young guest now would you?" The student cook grinned and placed the shopping bags he was carrying into the kitchen.

"Sure…What would you like Rin-chan? I can fix anything you want". Rin blushed pink and glanced over at Jo.

"Ummm…t-that's okay. I don't want anything…I-I'm not hungry". But as soon as she finished her sentence, Rin's stomach grumbled loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. She groaned and sank deeper in her seat, overwhelmed with embarrassment.

"I think your stomach disagrees with you, kid. Just bring over anything, Kyohei, she'll eat it", Jo stated without budging. Meg put the bags down she was carrying and joined Jo and Rin at the table. After a few moments hesitation, Rin slid out from behind the table and headed towards the door, and only stopped when Sei cleared her throat and blocked her way.

"Where are you going? You know you shouldn't go out by yourself, Rin. Your sister left us in charge of you and I think she would be upset if anything happened to you", Sei replied in a motherly tone. Rin shifted uneasily and backed away, avoiding eye contact.

"I…I just wanna go for a walk! Please let me go," the young cybot pilot pleaded. Sei put a hand on her hip and looked over at the others.

"Meg, how about you accompany young Rin here on her little walk. Make sure she stays out of trouble".

"Huh!? Why do I have to do it? Besides, she's a big girl, let her walk by herself,' Meg growled. She turned back around and propped her head up on the table, closing her eyes, '…and I don't feel like it anyway. It's obvious she doesn't like any of us. Just let her go". Rin stared at the back of Meg's head, then pushed roughly passed Sei and out the door running, not looking back.

"Rin, come back here! Sigh That's just great, just what we need right now," Sei huffed as she ran her fingers through her hair.

"Nice one, Meg. I think you hurt her feelings," Jo said as her movie was ending. As if things couldn't possibly get any worse, Ryoko returned in her fire red trailer; this time she was trailing behind an extension, taller and wider than the primary trailer. Ryoko parked and turned off the engine, soon climbing out of the driver's seat carrying a knapsack. When she saw Sei standing in the door to her trailer, she waved and trotted to meet her.

"Is my sis around? Her cybot was finished today…a lot faster than I figured. I thought that she should take it out for a test run to recalibrate it to her likings", Ryoko informed.

"Well, the thing is she just ran out…literally". Sei waited for the flame haired singer to get angry, but instead she sighed heavily and dropped the bag she had slung over one shoulder to the ground. After rummaging around a bit, Ryoko pulled out a small portable computer and handed it to Sei.

"This is Rin's computer…It's got her cybot's operating system on it. You told me that that Amy girl of yours was a computer hacker as well? She can use this to remote control Byakko. I'll search from the sky with my cybot." Sei hesitated before taking the small computer and opening it.

"I must say that you're taking things awfully well…and you seem to have everything thought out". Ryoko pulled off her trench coat and scarf, and adjusted her gloves. She tied back her waist length hair into a ponytail and headed back towards her trailer.

"This isn't the first time she's run off. I think part of her likes the idea of having people running after her, giving them a good run-around. Like I said before, Rin's not stupid. She knows how to avoid being caught, so this might take a little while".

From the window, Meg and Jo watched intently as the extension to Ryoko's trailer separated from the primary trailer, the top and side panels opening out to reveal a cybot a little smaller than Jango shaped like a saber-tooth tiger. It was shiney white and silver with stripes that glowed a neon purple. It's front and back paws were heavily built to support the metric tons above it. The neck was equally strong and sturdy, lined with small exhaust vents. On the tops of its shoulders and legs were small pivoting wings attached to ion thrusters.

"Wow, would you look at that. I've never seen a cybot like that before. It's so pretty. Hey, you think Amy can really control something like that by remote control?" , Meg asked as she turned to look at Sei. But the young leader of the group was just as impressed by the cybot as Meg. But the most impressive thing appeared out of the rear of the red primary trailer.

Bright yellowed-orange wings exploded out from its hanger, followed by a small head, crimson-red streamlined body, taloned legs and tail complete with two long flexible cables ending in what looked like giant ninja throwing knives. The cybot phoenix was only slightly larger than Jango, but the giant bladed wings made it seem a lot bigger. The fire bird gleamed in the sun, giving it the appearance that its body was wrapped in a shield of flames. On its back were the two ion thrusters that propelled it at sub to supersonic speeds, and just underneath each wing were two gun turrets capable of firing twenty rounds per second – it was definitely a sight to behold…

"Amy, can you read me?," came Ryoko's voice. The young computer hacker had set up a small network connecting the trailer's master computer along with hers and Rin's portable ones. Amy adjusted the remoter visor that she wore over her eyes; it was Rin's own invention that connected the user to any cybot it was linked to…in this case, Byakko.

"Roger that! I'm ready when you are. I've already went through all the specs of yours and Rin's cybots, and I got to say they're really amazing. I can't wait to take this thing out for a test drive…"

"Don't get carried away, now. Try to focus on the task at hand…You can have fun later," Sei replied as she looked over Amy's shoulder.

"I know that!"

Ryoko hovered over the two trailers in her cybot, giving herself time to check over all her systems and helping Amy maneuver Byakko off of the platform. The metallic cat moved effortlessly onto the concrete, and from the trailer, Amy powered up its engines as Ryoko jetted off. In two or three giant leaps, the tiger cybot had caught up to its partner, zipping along the cleared mega-highway.

Meanwhile and some distance away, Rin wandered through the dark streets of downtown Ikebukuro. Usually more cautious about her surroundings, the pre-teen ignored everything that wasn't in her field of vision; the tough-looking vagabonds that hung out at almost every street corner and alleyway didn't seem to phase her, though she did keep a hand close to her air pistol. A sudden beeping from her pocket drew her attention and she dug around for a while before pulling out a metallic oval-shaped device – it was the homing beacon for her cybot Byakko.

"That's strange…I could have sworn I turned the thing off," Rin replied to herself. Then she remembered the mention of that young girl Amy being a computer hacker as well. Rin smirked and ran into the closest alley, finding the cleanest spot she could and sat down. She then pulled another device from her other pocket, something that looked much like a palm-pilot, and placed it on the ground before her. Tapping on several buttons, a small network of mini holograms appeared in mid-air, taking positions all around her head…If the people back in the trailer were going to look for her, she was going to make them work for it. Rin typed quickly on the holographic keyboard to find where Amy's signal was coming from, creating a mini virus to slow her down…

"…Ahhh! No way!"

Amy worked frantically to get around the blockade that had just popped up on her computer.

"What happened?," Jo asked. Amy growled and tried to find a way around the block.

"She's set up a firewall and sent a virus through the net! Grrr…She's good. But it's going to take more than that to beat me".

Up in the sky, Ryoko was having her own troubles; her own little sister was now fiddling around with Suzaku's mainframe, making it difficult for the singer to get a proper lock on her sister's location. Rin's skills on the computer had only improved since she started going to a prestigious technology school, and the usual methods that Ryoko used to debug her cybot's computer were now useless. Frustrated, the singer knew that the only way to find her sister now was to relay completely on Amy; this was now a battle of the brains.

For the next hour, Amy and Rin fought for supremacy over the network, sending blocks and viruses back and forth. Amy maneuvered Byakko down the busy streets among the traffic; little did she know that while Rin kept her busy through the net, she was also re-programming her cybot's main computer. She succeeded in slowing the mechanical cat down long enough to reset its memory.

" …What?! Oh, this girl's really starting to get on my nerves. She thinks she can pull a fast one over on me? Well think again…! Hah, take that!," Amy sneered, sending her most complex firewall yet after finally getting a fix on Rin's location.

Rin fell over backwards as her computer began to blink red. She panicked and tried to recover, working at full speed to create a quarantine. But before she could finish, a shadow loomed on the street just outside the alleyway. Her cybot Byakko pushed its giant head the futherest it could go into Rin's hiding place, and over its loud speaker came Amy's triumphant voice.

" Hah! I win this round, girl. But I got to say, you gave me a challenge. I think we'll be good friends," Amy replied. Rin hesitated before gathering up her things and dusting herself off. She sighed in defeat and proceeded to climb up Byakko's front leg to its cockpit. Once inside, she took over the controls, recovering all the data she had just recently reset. Her sister's image popped up on the screen to her right.

"I hope you enjoyed yourself today, making me worry about you. I think you owe me and all those people back at the trailer an apology, don't you think?"

"Fine, I'm sorry! Sheesh, all I wanted to do was go for a walk and they were making a big deal about it," Rin groaned. She fired up her cybot's engines and headed back towards the trailer, with her sister close behind in Suzaku.