She had many expectations. Locked in a prison cell, tortured, interrogated, even execution creeped into her mind at one point. Dinner at a noodle stall in an underground plaza wasn't one of them. Her and her three kidnappers took the four seats at the counter while the cook continued to flip the chicken. He added a healthy amount of soy sauce and other ingredients to the wok, as he prepared their meal. The other three didn't seem to have a care in the world as they talked amongst themselves, leaving her mind to wander where it pleased; namely the magical box with the moving pictures in the upper corner. She had no idea what it was called, so opted to name it a "television," she didn't know where the word came from, but for some reason it fit perfectly.
"You sure you only want a little? We've got plenty of money if you want more." Ruby asked, nudging their "captive" in the side to get her attention.
"Should I just make more, for you to take with you?" The man behind the counter asked, interested in the prospect of more money.
"Sure, might as well." Yang suggested, taking off her helmet. She ran her hand through her hair, pulling it from underneath her armor, then giving her head a small shake. She placed her helmet on the counter next to Ruby's.
The three started removing their armor. Aurora broke her gaze with the television that had captivated her till then to inspect their appearance. Their armor carapace came off at the forearms first, revealing somewhat blocky metal limbs similar to hers. Their upper arms came off next, revealing flesh rather than steel, save the one who introduced herself as "Yang."
They messed with the sides of their armor for a moment, a few snaps and pops later and it came open at the bottom along the sides, letting them pull it over their heads. "Ruby," as she called herself, was wearing a black shirt with short sleeves, while Yang wore a bright orange sleeveless top. Blake wore a white jacket, with a black bow on her head.
With their helmets on the table and armor at their feet next to their chairs, they went back to talking about random things. 'Men' was one of the only subjects she could partly understand. She turned her gaze back to the television she let it recaptivate her as the pictures moved and changed like they were alive.
"Police and Lone Star investigators are searching for three Runners who attacked Architect Company Headquarters tonight at 11:50 PM, just three hours ago." Pictures flashed on the screen, showing stills of the three 'Runners' she was currently sitting next to. "Architect and their parent company Argonaut Enterprises, are offering a reward for any known information about them, or their target, a woman who has yet to be identified, but is believed to have been kidnapped by the suspects." Another image, this time of her, came on the screen.
The screen turned black for a moment before lighting up again with a close up view of an insect of some kind.
"I hate commercials." The cook commented holding some long device in his hand, pointed at the box. The sound of Yang placing a small "credstick," as it was called on the counter, followed after. Instead of putting it under the counter like when they paid for the food, the cook dropped it in his pocket then returned to his work.
"Ruby, was it?" She asked looking to the smallest member of their team.
"Yeah. What do you need, Weiss Queen?" She asked with a smug look, knowing she'd get the reaction she wanted.
"Stop calling me that!" Aurora flared up, her fist slamming on the wood countertop.
"Hey! You break it you buy it!" The cook shouted, as he finished preparing their food.
She hated that name. She had a rather immature spat while they were in the van, and misheard Ruby when she mumbled "Ice Queen" to herself. When she repeated what she thought she heard, all three of them were quick to jump on the opportunity to mock her.
"Alright, what did you want?" In a more serious tone this time.
"I wanted to know what you were going to do with me. So far, all my expectations have proven wrong and I honestly don't know what's going to happen." Her voice taking a softer tone as she spoke.
"We're eating." She said, just as the cook started placing their chicken and rice in front of them.
"I, mean after that." She corrected, not sure if the red haired girl was mocking her again.
"Well first we need to sell the van, there is an elf named Morvan who runs a chop shop that'll give us some pocket change and take care of the evidence for us. Then we're going to catch a plane to Hong Kong, then find our way to Jolly Ol' England. We drop you off in London City then get paid."
"What happens to me?" She asked, to deep in thought to actually eat her food. Ruby just shrugged, but seeing that wasn't a good enough answer she finished her bite, then elaborated.
"We're runners. We don't work for Mr. Johnson, we don't even know his actual name, we don't know anything about him. He's paying for us to come out here, break you out, and bring you to him. It's not our place to ask why. If you want a guess though, I'd say he's probably just going to have you work for his company. That's a regular part of the work place. You come in, find out your co-worker was kidnapped the night before and now works for your competitor, standard affair."
"Why would they want me?" She asked, confused as to why someone would want her specifically.
Ruby Shrugged, while she took a bite of food "He mentioned that you were used as a test subject and that you were highly valued because of your unique set of talents. We didn't ask for more details."
Weiss sat in thought for a moment. She had been planning to ditch the group the moment she saw an opening, but now she wasn't so sure. If she was being used as a test subject, she doubted she would want to go back. The police in this city were apparently highly corrupt, and very powerful people paid them lots of money to keep them that way.
"What did that other man want?" He was fighting to take her too, there had to be a third group that also wanted her.
"He was one of Ashita Tactical's infamous 'Phantom Blades.' An elite unit of soldiers they deploy to protect their corporate interest. They are propagated as noble warriors that protect the company and its employees, but they're not. They're some of the most ruthless soldiers out there."
"So what would he want from me?"
"As you saw on the TV, you were an Argonaut asset. Ashita and Argonaut are direct competitors with each other. Both are mainly weapon manufacturers, and whenever one of them expands into a different market, the other follows just to keep them in check. Ashita works more with high tech weaponry, and military commissions. Argonaut are mostly make service weapons and provide to nations around the world. Though as members of the 'Big Nine,' they have stakes in just about everything, and the few pies they don't have their fingers in are just so small they haven't found it yet."
"What are the 'Big Nine?" The question seemed innocent enough, yet immediately all three girls stopped eating to look at her. Even the cook had his mouth open slightly in shock.
"What rock have you been living under?" He asked scratching his head in bewilderment.
"Well that's a two part question." Ruby butted in, taking a guess she honestly didn't know.
"First, you need to know what the Big Nine are, before you can understand what they are. So corporations are broken down into four rankings. First is the unranked, these are the small mom and pop shops, or your local grocer. Our friend James here, is an unranked." Ruby gesturing to the now named cook.
"Next you have A ranked corporations, these would be a fast food chain or something. The first and honestly biggest requirement to becoming an A ranked company is you have to be international. AA comes in after that, these are normally large companies that are strong enough to avoid being puppeted by the Big Nine, and normally work in several industries, control the line of production, or have monopolies on whatever good they sell. Then you have AAA, so far there are only nine that hold this rank, hence their name. And to get the sense of scale they are is hard. I guess you could describe them as nations, they might control seventeen different mining companies, dozens of factories across the globe, have their own entertainment production houses, a few banks, a personal military-" She cut herself off, rethinking what she was going to say.
"Actually, describing them as nations is very accurate. They practically are, they have their own laws that are completely independent of whatever nation they are in. They are completely autonomous. Their building might be inside whatever nation, but the soil it is built on fully belongs to them, and they'll fight anyone who cares to dispute it."
"How did they manage to become auto-" Ruby put her hand her her face to silence her, "That would literally take all night, just know that they got it, and it took them a couple years to actually recover from the massive orgasm they had over the news."
She had so many questions still, but when Ruby ordered her to eat, her stomach turned against her. Spearing a piece on her fork, she found it to be coated in a thick layer of sauce, a little more then she prefered, but the smell was certainly something she remembered.
"I gave it that little tang that you like." The voice of a familiar wise man breaking her focus from the chicken.
"Oako?" She asked, looking up to see the old noodle maker, stroking his long grey fu manchu.
He "hmmed," at the sound of his name, before snapping to attention. He reached into the large sleeves of his green robe, before pulling out a small vial, no bigger than the palm of his hand.
"Ah yes, the drip of western honey I promised after you got Po out of that tree last week." He commented, leaning forward to apply the extra flavor. Suddenly everything became distorted a myriad of colors and shapes consumed her vision. Everything but her and the piece of food she was holding became an indistinguishable mass.
"Hey! Weiss Queen, you ok?" The sound of snapping straightened everything out. She looked around slightly phased to find everyone looking at her, and Ruby with her metal hand infront of her face.
"Who's Oako?" She asked, everyone's face showing they were wondering the same thing.
She stumbled on her words for a moment, trying to explain, before giving up. She doubted it would matter much. Ruby told her to eat again, because she wanted to leave soon. Weiss took her first bite of the food, and found it tasted nothing like chicken. She gagged, the unexpected taste throwing her for a loop. She needed to cover her mouth to stop from spitting it out.
"What is this?" She demanded, finally forcing it down.
"It's chicken." everyone present stated.
"The sauce tastes like it should, but that is not chicken."
"It's soy chicken." Yang spoke up this time, "Sorry princes, but we don't have the kind of money to buy actual chicken, even if we felt like blowing that much on you."
She looked down at her food again, able to tell no one cared for her complaints as they continued to eat. Her stomach growled, again, tempting her to another bite. It wasn't bad, the sauce was really good, and certainly helped it go down. It just wasn't chicken.
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"Wow princess, you can pack it away can't you?" Yang commented from the spot across from her. Ruby sat in the passenger seat acting as navigator for Blake as they traveled through the city's back roads and underpasses.
"I don't know what came over me. Once I started eating I suddenly felt like I hadn't eaten in years." demonstrating the point by finishing off what would have equated to her fifth bowl. Tossing the takeout box onto the pile she looked around for more, but found nothing. Her hunger was gone, though she still felt like she could eat another small bite.
"Maybe it's better you don't stuff yourself. Wouldn't want something exciting to happen while you were full."
The thought hadn't entered her mind. There were still two parties looking for her, and though she wasn't a fan of this group either, they at least seemed to mind if she was comfortable or not.
"Alright a left here." Ruby commented from the front, lowering her fold-out map to point at an upcoming turn.
"That's a one way street." Blake responded, ignoring the red themed girl.
"You need to take a left here!" She said with more urgency as they drove by.
"I can't turn that way!" She spat back, "It's a one way alley."
"So? No one else is driving down it." Ruby pointed out, before holding up the map and pointing at their destination. "The fastest way there was down that alley, now we need to go all the way around."
"Well, when you can drive you can take any route you want." She retorted.
"You guys know I can drive," She stated with confidence "But you never let me, just because I don't have my license."
"Stuff like that is the reason you don't have your license." Blake pointed out.
"No, it's because you guys never take me to the DMV so I can get my permit."
"YANG!" Blake called, summoning their third member forward.
Yang was between them in an instant. Her hand came around and snagged Ruby's far ear, giving it a painful tug. Ruby started whining in pain as Yang explained what was wrong with her attitude and behavior. Eventually Ruby started spouting "I'm sorry," over and over again till Yang finished her lecture and released the girl.
She rubbed the side of her face and blew out her cheeks in a pout, clearly not happy with how the situation played out.
Finally Blake made a left turn, and listened to the new instructions Ruby gave her from the map. The van pulled up into a building with two open doors big enough to fit their transport. Once they pulled inside a short man with fire red hair and a large mustache came up to the window to greet them.
"Hey there, what can I get you for today?" The dwarf asked, a cheerful smile on his face.
"Our ride is broken. Can you take care of it?" Blake asked, rolling down the window so they could have a proper conversation.
"Sure, when will you be back for it?"
"Don't know, we were thinking of getting some cash and walking around for a bit."
The man's response was a sequence of small nods, before ending off with a "Cool." He stepped off the box and kicked it away, so Blake would have room to climb out. Ruby slammed the other door close, while Yang let Weiss out the back.
"So I just need to look over the vehicle for a second to see how much it will cost. Would you like some soykaf in the lobby while you wait." Hold out his hand towards a door in what could be assumed was an office area.
Yang's hand came up behind Weiss to nudge her forwards as they walked towards the door. A large man sat in a tiny fold chair sat with both arms and legs crossed while he just sat and glared at them.
Weiss was taken aback as she looked him over. He had a long black coat on, with several studs on his gloves and chains wrapped around his arms. His face was the size of Ruby's torso, with a low jaw line, two tusk like teeth sprouting from his bottom jaw, and a tuft of black hair on his chin. His ears were long and pointed with a number of different piercings decorating them, as well as a few rings in his right eyebrow. The thing that stood out most to Weiss though, was the two large horns sprouting from his forehead.
"Beast. Monster. Troll." were the three stand out words that came to mind as she took in his appearance.
"Ruby." Flicking his head up for a moment, not moving from his position.
"Duke." Ruby returned the gesture before walking forward.
'Duke' moved his massive hand in front of her, stopping her progress. Ruby let out a groan as she reached behind her and pulled out her weapon. The troll took it from her and set it to lean on the wall next to him.
"Anything else?"
"No." She responded flat faced.
He leaned forward, and hunched down to look her in the eyes. He glared at her for a solid five seconds before Ruby's face started to melt under the pressure. Finally he let up and threw his head towards the door. Blake stepped forward and handed him her weapon without any protest. He let her through as Yang repeated the process.
"Who's the new girl?" Duke asked, before letting Yang go through.
"The Weiss Queen here," Pausing to size up her reaction, "Is part of Mr. Johnson's employee transfer program."
"They are kidnapping me." Weiss spat, not knowing why everyone would be so casual over the fact.
"I guessed that Ice Queen." The troll said, uninterested in her complaints.
"Don't call me that!"
"Sorry, 'Weiss Queen." he said, playing along with her nickname.
"Don't call me that either! My name is Aurora!"
"She's kind of a bitch isn't she?" He asked, turning to Yang.
"Kind of." Yang responded, Putting both hands on her hips as the two looked back to Weiss.
Weiss didn't even bother continuing, knowing her words were falling on deaf ears. Finally he let the two of them through, warning them about disrespecting the "boss."
"Come on!" Ruby whined from inside. Sitting in a chair next to a desk in the corner was a tall lean man. His face was what Weiss could only describe as elegant, everything from his chin to his cheeks and brow, even his long pointed ears seemed flawless in her eyes. Save the three scars over his right eye, his complexion was just as perfect.
"No, that van isn't worth even a thousand nuyen." The elf spat back as Ruby practically fell to her knees begging. A second man stepped out from the shadow in the corner of the room.
He wore high boots and black pants, with a simple grey shirt underneath a long, open evergreen colored coat, with the sleeves ripped off; or did it come like that? She had seen lots of people with cloths in a similar condition while at the plaza and was starting to think it was an intentional thing rather then them wearing old clothes.
The man's skin was a suspiciously dark color to her eyes, save his left arm, which was clearly smooth metal polished snow white. A flat, featureless visor covered his face, revealing only his hair, naturally black at the roots, but dyed silver.
Ruby started to approach the elf, but before she could grasp his ankles The man grabbed her with is artificial arm. Pulling her up, by the collar he held her in the air, despite her protest.
"You know Morvan doesn't like touching… or begging." He said to her in a calm voice.
"But we need cash to restock our equipment." She grumbled, letting her body go limp.
The man let out a breath before looking over at Morvan. The elf let his hand fall into his hand as he rubbed his temple for a moment before letting out a sigh himself.
"You're too soft at times, Luk." He commented to himself as he stood up.
"Ever heard, 'the customer is always right?" He returned as he watched his boss straighten out his void black formal wear, with a red collared shirt, and gold tie.
Luk, held Ruby up higher so she was looking the man in the eyes while he spoke.
"I will pay you six-hundred for the van, not a neyen more. I will be willing to forward pay you twelve-hundred provided you're willing to do some worth for me."
"Sure!" Ruby said, mood turning on a dime, "I mean, what kind of work?" forcing a more serious tone.
"Just a couple errands. Small scale sabotage, collecting 'insurance fees,' maybe roughing up a few punks or druggies. Nothing I couldn't send my normal people to do."
He held out his hand for her to take, a credstick already in his palm waiting for her to take it. With an almost excited "Deal," She took his hand and gave it a good shake before retracting it, credstick in hand.
Luk set her down gently While Morvan instructed he would call them later tonight with their "to-do list."
Without another word they left the office, then paused next to Duke.
"Duke." Ruby said, flicking her head up like she did the first time.
"Ruby." The troll repeating the action, before leaning over and handing her, her gun.
"So now what?" Yang asked as they followed their leader down the street outside the garage. Ruby was practically skipping ahead a smile bigger than a kid in a candy store.
"Simple." She stated, stopping on her heels to face them, "Who's up for some shopping!"
Yang and Blake stopped to share a look before grinning. "Yeah let's do it!" The blonde exclaimed, as Ruby grabbed Weiss's hand and started dragging her along despite her protest.
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Got a job about a month ago, so that's why this took so long. Still working on this, but don't know when next chapter will come out.
Till next time Review + Follow.