"Alright, let me get this straight..." Koko had her cellphone on speakerphone, her faithful crew gathered around the table that it was placed on. "You want us to be part of the crew for the ship I delivered those huge cannons for, right?"
"That's right, Koko. Your knowledge, expertise, and charisma, as well as Jormungand's capabilities, would be a powerful asset for the Nightfall." Valentine's voice came through the device. "And of course, everyone's skills and military training would be just as valuable. I've thought long and hard about every single member of my ship's crew, and I can't think of anyone better suited to joining by my side."
"Would we be considered BSAA personnel?" Lehm asked, chewing some gum.
"Yes, and paid accordingly for your services during active duty. And since the ship sails both in air and water, you don't need to stay here in LA, which would be the ship's home port."
"Something about your crew including an arms dealer and nine mercenaries has me thinking there's more to your ship than you're admitting." Koko commented with a smirk. "I don't need details, just a yes or a no."
"That would be a very precise dah!" Valentine laughed. "I have plenty of surprises about my ship that you will absolutely love to see."
"You've piqued my interest, Valentine, I won't deny that... But, at the moment, I have to withhold my final decision; we're in South Africa right now on business. Once this deal's done, I'll call you back, then I'll make my final decision, sound fair?"
"I understand, it's a big choice to make. If I may, what's the local time for your deal? It's about a nine hour time difference." Valentine asked.
"It's in about two hours. I take it it's evening for you?" Koko understood his reasoning for asking.
"Yeah, but it's Friday, so I don't mind staying up late tonight. Godspeed and good fortune for your deal, Koko." Valentine bade them goodbye, which they chorused in reply before Koko hung up.
Motoko, Jake, Sherry, Natasha, and the entire Darkwood family, as well as Kuro and Shiro were smirking as Valentine ended the call on his end, while Stella's cybernetic jaw contorted into her usual mockery of a smile as she spoke first.
"Now I want to know about some of those surprises on the ship, what'cha planning?"
"Now now, Stella, that ruins the whole point of a surprise!" Natasha chuckled slightly. "You'll have to wait and see them with the rest of us."
"Fun police." Stella stuck out her tongue jokingly. "So I dunno what everyone else is gonna do while we wait for Koko, I'm gonna steal some of Yuuki's leftovers from the bar."
"I'm saving those for my dinner! HEY!" Yuuki was hot on her heels in pursuit. "GET YOUR FABULOUS ASS BACK HERE, YOU LITTLE SHIT!"
"BITE ME!" Stella countered from the kitchen, which was followed by a thud of Titanium-Polymer alloy augmentations hitting the stainless steel fridge.
"Where and how hard?" Yuuki clearly had Stella pinned, but her sultry taunt was audible for everyone in the living room.
"Please don't bite my wife... She takes after you, after all." Motoko rolled her eyes as she moved into the kitchen to defuse the heated exchange - whether it was heated by anger or passion was an open debate - while Rachael followed with her own unseeable six-eye roll.
"Hey, Val, once those two pry them apart, why don't we do a Family stream? Haven't done one with you yet." Rize could tell that Valentine was thinking hard about the possibility of Koko saying she couldn't join the Nightfall's crew.
"How many of us are here?" Val did a quick headcount, coming up with 17, which included Odin, Kuro and Shiro. "Seventeen, hmmm..."
"We'll let the stream chat decide on what we're doing, same as we always do." Odin commented from his seat beside Tobias, who was in the family's notorious armchair.
"Last time we played Cards Against Humanity." Tobias chuckled, idly tapping his left hand's ring finger against his coffee cup, clinking his Titanium wedding ring against the side. "Some of those damn cards made me question too many things about the world and humour."
"It's kinda the point of the game." Sherry chuckled. "So what do you think, Val? Want to join us for the stream while we wait for Koko?"
"Alright, alright, I'll do it." He sighed as Yuuki and Rachael returned with Motoko and Stella, all four of them clearly pleased by their sneaky make out in the kitchen to appease the fire that had risen up between Yuuki and Stella.
"Alright, we'll fire it up, you guys grab drinks and whatever you're gonna need. Give us five minutes and we'll get the chat to make up their mind for what they want us to do." Yuuki and Rachael whisked away to get their cameras and computers prepared, leaving Odin chuckling slightly.
"Something tells me this is going to be a fun one."
"Thank you very much, Miss Heckmatyar, you're a lifesaver!" Her client for the deal shook her hand firmly. "If I may, I've heard through associates that you sometimes have extra cargo. They've told me that you'd add the cargo to your delivery for an added fee."
"Oh? What do you have in mind?" Koko was more than pleased by the request to expand the order of small arms and accommodating munitions. "I admit, yes, I do have extra available."
"I was wondering if you had this weapon I've been hearing rumours about, something called a T-103 Tyrant? I've heard it's a powerful artillery asset on the available market..."
Koko felt a bead of sweat forming on her forehead at the name of the weapon. "I'm sorry, could I have a moment to confirm that with my team?"
"Of course, I'll be waiting right here." He nodded with a small smile as Koko turned back to speak quietly to Lehm and Wiley.
"I need you two to do some brain work. One of you search for our contact's details, the other run a search for the nearest BSAA base... He's asking to buy a B.O.W, thinking it's a piece of artillery... and I have to make him think he's in the clear with me. I sell bullets, not syringes."
"You do know we could arrest him if you accept Valentine's offer for the ship... He did say we'd be officially BSAA personnel." Lehm smirked slightly.
"Nearest BSAA base can send a team directly here in twenty five minutes, boss." Wiley replied. "They're asking for details, should I tell them?"
"Tell them that." Koko nodded, then added. "And tell them we're part of the North American Division of the BSAA if they ask who we are." Koko made up her mind, finally, and nodded to them to show she meant that she'd accepted Valentine's offer to join the Nightfall's crew.
Returning to her client, she gently clasped her hands together and kept her signature smile firmly in place. "Unfortunately I don't have T-103's for sale. Might I ask whom gave the recommendation to you for purchasing one?"
"A young gentleman by the name of Zenith Wesker, I believe he's from Germany."
Koko felt a chill go up her spine at that surname. "Thank you, now if you'll excuse me, I have a tight schedule to keep." She offered her hand one last time, and he shook it as warmly as before.
"Safe travels, Miss Heckmatyar."
With that, she returned to her loyal team of bodyguards, speaking in a low voice that barely moved her lips. "Syndicate's involved, and I think he slipped up by telling me that name."
"So where to next, Koko?" Jonah asked, able to see the stress through the chinks in her smile's mask.
"Tojo, are the girls streaming right now?"
Tojo tapped at his phone for several seconds, bringing up the Spiderweb's main page. "I'll need a stronger signal if we want it to play smoothly, but yeah, they're about an hour and a half into a full family broadcast, they're playing Titanfall 2."
"Including Valentine?" Koko asked, raising her eyebrows curiously.
"He's in the game, yeah. Keeps buffering so I can't tell you much more until we get back to the hotel and I can use my laptop." Tojo replied as he shut the device down. "I actually have the game, y'know."
"Imagine that... Dad's fuckin' using Legion and Mom's rocking Scorch." Yuuki threw up her hands jokingly, watching her parents deploying their Titans beside hers, since they were all playing Titanfall 2 with fans.
"Says the one using Tone." Rachael nudged her sister with a smirk, while she herself had Ronin. Nearby on the floor, Sheva and Valentine - using the twins' respective laptops - were using Ion and Northstar respectively.
"Because Tone is bae! Ronin's for scrubs that can't aim!"
"Yet Tone has auto-aim on her gun and her missiles!" Rize chipped in as the match began, a game of Last Titan Standing, the six of them versus six fans. "And your father and I both know how to counter Tone, so imagine if we cornered you together."
"How do you counter her?" Yuuki challenged cockily.
"With Legion? Get up in her face, use the short range Power Shot to get her away from her Particle Wall, deploy Gun Shield, then unload the gun into her to build up for Smart Core and finish her off with the Core's infinite ammo." Rize explained, already taking the lead to lock down the chokepoint at the center of the map with Scorch's gas canister traps. "For Scorch, you keep her away from the Wall by lighting the ground near it with a single gas trap and a shot from Scorch's gun, and then cut off her escape with Firewall, then corner her between the flames with the second gas trap, forcing her to engage you up close, during which you use Flame Shield to block her shots while also lighting her on fire. If Flame Core is ready by then, finish her off with that or an Execution if she's down to Critical."
"Enemy team has two Legions and a Scorch." Sheva reported over the clicks and tapping keys. "No Ronin that I can see..."
"Mom, Dad, keep the chokepoint busy. Val, Ray, go for the left lane. Sheva, come with me to the other one." Yuuki already knew that her parents, in the two Ogre class titans, could hold the center of the map with relative ease, and they both were using Turbo Engines on their Titans, so they could easily disengage if they were overrun.
"I see two Northstars in this lane, they're trying to flank you, Dad." Valentine reported as he charged his railgun to fire at one while Rachael charged in to counter-flank the two Strider class mechs that were busy trying to line up a shot of their own on their father's obnoxiously bright pink Titan keeping their team at bay from breaching past the literal supporting fire from their mother's bright green Scorch. Both had the chokepoint under complete control.
"Found their Ronin!" Yuuki turned a corner to be greeted by an Arc Wave from the sneaky sword-wielding mech. "Sheva, get one of your traps behind him while I distract him. I think he's also using a Nuke Core, so keep back a bit."
Isolating the single mech was relatively easy, and in moments their combined firepower Doomed the Titan, and they knew right away Yuuki's prediction was correct when the Ronin Phased out of sight and didn't set off Sheva's Laser Tripwire trap.
"NUKE!" Yuuki and Sheva immediately retreated as the Ronin was already halfway through the eject animation when it re-Phased in front of Yuuki's Particle Wall. It detonated, damaging them both a bit, but neither were Critical as they continued back towards the enemy team's vulnerable right lane.
"Northstar down!" Val and Rachael, on the other flank, were powering their way towards the last Northstar, who was using cover and peeking out to fire at them as they advanced. "Rachael, it's baiting you! Legion on the right!"
"I got this, snipe the Legion in the legs, he's popped his shield!" Rachael smirked as she Phase Shifted past the Northstar and got it down to Critical with her Ronin's normal sword strikes, promptly Executing it as the Legion turned towards her and began firing from behind the Gun Shield, only for Valentine to fire a fully charged shot from his railgun and removed the whole shield instead of going for the direct damage to the exposed legs.
"Scorch on my end, Dad, Mom, can you two assist after you deal with that last Legion?" Yuuki reported, noticing that the Scorch was aiming too high for direct shots at her Particle Wall. They knew how to counter Tone... "Fuck fuck fuck! Sheva, he's got me beat, back up!"
"Legion down, on my way." Rize smirked, Executing the first Legion as Tobias moved to flank the other Legion while she went the other way to assist them.
"Rachael, use your Core, I just got mine." Valentine reported as he unleashed his Flight Core to bombard the Legion with missiles from the side while Rachael rushed in with her Sword Core ready, decimating the unshielded Legion in seconds. "Sheva, Laser Core the Scorch!"
With a gleam in her eye, Sheva unleashed Ion's Laser Core on the final Titan, briefly hearing Rico's voice in her head, saying "Laser Core engaged!" as the Scorch was quick to defend with Flame Shield while moving out of her line of fire for some cover, only to suddenly light Rize's nearby gas canister under his feet with the Shield.
"SALVO CORE, BITCHES!" Yuuki grinned in triumph as she let her own Core loose just as her father dashed into view and deployed his own Smart Core to melt the Scorch's remaining health so fast that it didn't even get a chance to deploy it's Nuclear Core as a final attempt to eliminate their close range positions. "GET FUCKED!"
Victorious in their match, Yuuki glanced at everyone gathered around them in the living room, realizing that they'd been laughing and cheering during the match on the other side of her headphones, hanging them on her neck as she checked the livestream's chat and went red from embarrassment at Koko's cheeky comment, "I would hate to see the price tag of that many missiles, Yuuki."
"Hi Koko!" Rachael laughed at Yuuki's red face, and that instantly made Valentine look up. "What's up lady?"
"I just so happen to have access to the game, care to play a Colesium match with me, Valentine?" Koko, despite her limited appearances in the streams, was a Widow, and all of her crew had their own normal accounts as well.
Everyone turned to see Valentine's surprised expression, then he smirked and nodded his head once. "Bring it on, Koko."
A few moments later, the stream was focused entirely on Valentine's screen as he and Koko loaded into the flat circular area as Pilots, each armed for the duel with shotguns, ironically. Likewise, Koko had called Valentine's phone directly so she could talk to him during the multi-round match while she played on Tojo's laptop, surrounded by her crew.
"So, I've decided to accept your offer, Valentine. I'm sure the rest of my guys would be more than pleased to join me by your side too." Koko was surprisingly skilled at the game, her voice utterly relaxed as they traded alternately winning and losing until they both had two victories each, leaving the final match to decide the victor. "My my, that Mastiff of yours is brutal. Shall we go for a pistol duel to finish the match?"
"Which pistol do you have?" Valentine, likewise at ease, was already grinning at his chosen Boost, the Smart Pistol, that was ready to use immediately.
"Wingman. You?"
"Wingman as well."
"Shall we? Just turn around and wait for the final ten seconds before we turn and fire. Sound good?" Koko smirked at Tojo's nearby phone showing Valentine's screen, including his little trick with his Smart Pistol Boost. Thankfully she had the A-Wall Pilot, so she could protect herself from the auto-aiming sidearm when he fired it at her.
As the timer ticked down, Val spotted Tojo's name in the viewer list on Yuuki's nearby monitor, but none of the other crew members seemed to be signed in... and he knew she was using Tojo's laptop to play...
She knew.
"Cute maneuver, Koko... Using Tojo's phone to spy on my screen like that." Valentine waited until the ten second warning popped up as he launched his Grapple at Koko and dragged her towards him, deploying his Smart Pistol Boost as he slid away and spun around to lock on to her Pilot, firing as soon as it was locked. "A-Wall to block the Smart Pistol and oneshot me with the Wingman when I got close to flank it?"
"That was my plan! Ha ha ha!" Koko applauded along with their respective groups. "You saw the viewer list on another computer, didn't you?"
"Yuuki's." Valentine smiled. "Well, I'll see you soon for the launch of the Nightfall... Unless you want to go for another match, that is..." His smile turned into a cocky smirk as she chuckled.
"No tricks this time... and no Smart Pistols. Deal?" Koko teased as they started a fresh match.
"Deal."