"It feels a little quiet today."
"Because our newest recruit had been sent out for her very first solo assignment. Welcome back, Bladie," Kafka greeted her comrade with a smile on her face when she spotted him walking through the main door from where she was preparing a drink for herself in the kitchen. "Like a drink?"
"That would be nice. Thank you," Blade accepted her offer and looked around the place. Silver Wolf may have only just joined the Stellaron Hunters very recently but her annoying presence left quite an impression on him, such that it felt a little jarring when she's suddenly absent.
He also found himself a little worried about her. Will that girl really be okay on her own?
"Worried about her?" Kafka walked over carrying their drinks in her hands, passing over a glass over to Blade. His inner thoughts were completely written all over his face. No matter how hardened a warrior Bladie might be he has a very soft spot for the people who he cares about.
"You aren't?" Blade asked in return. "Where did Elio send her to?"
"The planet of Velura. Quite the backward place in terms of technological advancement if you asked me, but this is also why it will be the perfect test for Silver Wolf. How would she fare in a civilisation that cannot provide the technology she needs to bring out her full set of skills?" Kafka mimed a toasting gesture to Blade before sipping on her drink.
"Velura…" Blade trailed off in thought before finally remembering what that planet really is. He's having a bad premonition about this. Is it really okay to send Silver Wolf there alone?
Kafka observed the changes in the facial expressions of her partner and eventually let out a sigh.
"Fine, if you are so worried about her, how about we head over to Velura as well and watch over her from the sidelines? Of course, we are not to interfere in her assignment unless her life is really in mortal danger, but I doubt that will happen. Everything will happen according to the script, you know this as well as I do. Will this be better for you?"
Blade simply nodded and finally found some semblance of ease to start taking a sip out of his drink. Sam is not here at the moment and won't be back until quite some time later. It's just him and Kafka for now.
While being able to head to Velura to observe their newest recruit made him feel a little more at ease, he still found himself unable to cease worrying about the "gamer girl" entirely.
Will she really be fine on her own?
"Do you even know how to freaking drive?!"
There was an ear grating screech. The influence of inertia made their bodies swerve sideways just as the vehicle did. From above, it would look as if the jeep was slithering like a snake out in the wastelands.
He started to question himself just when everything started to go wrong. The ride didn't start out like this. Everything seemed fine in the first ten minutes until things started to get progressively worse and by the time half an hour had passed, he suddenly found himself riding a ride to final destination.
"Of course I do!" Silver Wolf hollered back, seated at the driver's seat and holding tightly onto the steering wheel. She made another sharp turn, the sudden swerve causing her local guide to lose balance and his head painfully crashed against the front door glass from where he was seated in the passenger seat beside her.
"I shouldn't have listened to you and let you take the steering wheel. We are all going to freaking die," her passenger hissed in pain and clutched onto his head where he had a painful encounter with the glass. "You call this driving? Where and how did you learn how to drive?"
"Hey don't look down on me! I always finish first in all the racing games that I play!"
"Wait, you are telling me that your only experience in driving was through video games?!"
The jeep accelerated dangerously and briefly flew through the air when it sped across a bump on the wasteland that acted like a ramp. Screams from both the jeep's occupants resonated within the vehicle as the vehicle made a beautiful spin as its trajectory in the air drew a perfect arch in the air. The jeep somehow managed to miraculously land on its wheels before shakily making its way to its intended destination under the control of its current driver and was accelerating even faster, much to both their horror.
"Just stop the jeep! Stop it!" Zind yelled, his insanity on the brink of destruction after the tortuous ride that he was forced to experience for the past hour. He should have been the one driving. He shouldn't have let the girl touch the driver seat within a ten foot pole!
"I don't know how to stop it!"
"Just hit the brakes dammit! The brakes!"
"Where is the brake?! What is a brake?!"
"What do you mean you don't know what's a brake?!"
"I never needed to use the brake in video games! I couldn't beat the game if I used the brake! Some of the racing games don't even have a brake function! It's essentially useless!"
"This is not a fucking game dammit! We are all gonna die at this rate! Hit! The! Brakes!"
"WHERE?!"
"There! At your feet! Beside the accelerator pedal- GAAAH!" The jeep sped up in a burst of speed instead of slowing down when Silver Wolf slammed her foot onto the pedal and fearful screams ensued. "NOT THE ACCELERATOR PEDAL! THE ONE BESIDE THE ACCELERATOR PEDAL!"
The jeep finally screeched to a rough halt and both occupants had their body thrown forward violently but painfully held back from flying through the windscreen thanks to the seatbelts. Both driver and passenger slouched tiredly on their seats, breathing heavily in silence and simply thankful that they were still alive after the entire ordeal.
"I'm starting to regret taking up on this job."
"... I'm sorry." Silver Wolf whimpered and both of them released another scream when the jeep suddenly jerked forward again before Silver Wolf slammed onto the brakes once more. Zind quickly pulled on the handbrake and changed the gear to parking gear. Dammit, it felt like he just lost ten years of his life in this one hour ride to hell.
"Why the hell did you let go of the brakes?"
"I… I didn't know…" Silver Wolf looked to be on the brink of tears with her eyes watering and her voice quivering slightly and most of his rage evaporated after seeing it.
"Never mind," he heaved. "You still okay? If you are, let's switch. I'm driving this time."
She silently unclipped her seat belt and they both swapped their seats. He took charge of the steering wheel and their journey became much smoother as they resumed their drive to Area 99. None of them said a word and their drive continued in silence.
"I'm sorry," Silver Wolf eventually whispered, her head hung low. He might have felt like strangling her earlier for her reckless behaviour that needlessly endangered both their lives but he couldn't find it within himself to continue blaming her after seeing her like this.
"If you really want, I could teach you how to drive after this is all over. Assuming that you will still be sticking around for a while," he offered. "In return, you can tell me stories about this huge universe and other galaxies or whatever things out there in the cosmos that you had already seen or visited. That said, what do I need to do to get a ticket to outer space?"
Her mood seemed to have lifted a little after hearing what he had to say.
"Umm, the organisation that I belong to is very picky in who gets included and stuff and I'm just a new recruit so… but I can ask around," she quickly added the last part. "I think Kafka might be able to advise how you can get around to travelling the galaxy on your own since I don't think Elio will be inviting you into our little gang. But hey, if it does come to that point, I will be sure to drop by and say hello every now and then!"
"Your little group, the Salary Hunter-"
"Stellaron Hunters."
"- sounds like it is quite a fishy group, doesn't it? Correct me if I'm wrong, but your group's the type to toe the line of the law between black and white?"
"You are not wrong to put it that way. My colleagues have large bounties on their heads and are wanted across the galaxy, but your planet is so backwards that news of their bounties didn't even reach here. You don't even have decent wifi." Silver Wolf elaborated.
"Not my fault that my planet is still living in the stone age."
"It's a boring place to live in. For me at least," Silver Wolf said with her arms loosely crossed and looking out of the window. "No games, no wifi… This is hell for me. Why did Elio send me here of all places? It's got to be intentional. What did I ever do to him?"
"Who's Elio?"
"My boss."
"Oh. And that Kafka which you mentioned in passing?"
"A scary woman to have as your enemy. I think she would easily put you down six feet under."
"Okay, cool," Zind acknowledged as he made a slight turn according to the GPS that the girl had magically installed into his jeep with her wonky aether editing power. "Any others?"
"There's Sam. Nice person overall. Always help me with clearing the bosses if I ask. Sam's a cool metal humanoid."
"Metal humanoid? What's that supposed to mean?"
"It's kinda hard to describe without seeing it for yourself. Sam can transform, which is pretty cool. I once shadowed Sam on a mission and Sam's like bang, bang… and then bang! Then it's over. Sam's like a cool final boss that you cannot beat without first grinding some levels."
"Bang bang you're dead. Metal guy with guns. Okay, I get that."
"There's also Blade. He's an immortal."
"Immortal?"
"In the literal sense. He cannot die. His wounds just heal in an instant. It's morbidly fascinating to watch him at work."
"I would like an ability like that. It would make my job so much easier."
"I think Blade will have many things to say if he hears that. He joined the Stellaron Hunters precisely because he wants to die."
"Must have had a tough life."
"Yeah, I think I'm like the most normal one out of all of them. Probably the only one without a tragic backstory, which would make me a boring side character and them, the protagonists."
"What's so bad about being a side character? Don't you think the protagonists in all these fictional stories have quite the tragic fates most of the time? I wouldn't want that."
"True," the edge of Silver Wolf's lips tugged upwards a little at the thought. "If this world is a game I guess I'm lucky to be a side character."
"I guess that would make me an npc just like you said," he chuckled. "Your guide for your tutorial quest? Didn't you say something similar when we first met?"
"Isn't being an npc more tragic than a side character? They die just so that the protagonists can have "character development". Boo, bad story writing. Booooo."
"Well I'm not the script writer of this game that is our universe. Only time will tell if I'm one of those short-lived npc or the immortal ones that's always there waving hello at you when the protagonists walk past the starting village."
"True, but we have Elio and Elio can see the script. He would know what kind of npc you are. Maybe I should try talking to Elio and see if he's willing to bring you along? You are a fun guy and I could use a player 2 to play co-op. Things will be so much more lively with someone like you around, at least you speak my lingo."
"You lost me at the first sentence. What script?"
"Eh, if you are fated to know you'll know," Silver Wolf lazily dismissed his question with a wave of her hand. "How much longer until we reach Area 99?"
"About another hour. Honestly speaking, it should actually take us at least six more hours to reach there under usual circumstances but you were speeding like mad and that actually helped to cut down the travel time so… Good job?"
"Yay." Silver Wolf celebrated emotionlessly. "Good job Silver Wolf. Achievement unlocked. Yay."
"I will park and hide the jeep about two kilometres away from the outer perimeter of Area 99 to avoid detection and we will have to make the remaining journey there on foot. This will be an infiltration job so… follow me very closely, alright? If we were discovered things would go bad very quickly."
"Okay."
"Anyway, the stellaron thing you guys are collecting, if that is what really is causing the monster problem here, will it really be alright if you guys just collect them like collating a sticker collection? I mean, putting all of your collection in one place got to be dangerous, ain't it?"
"Elio has a plan and he has the means to deal with the stellarons we collected."
"Hell lot of faith you have in your boss, don't you?"
A proud smirk adorned Silver Wolf's face after hearing what the self-proclaimed npc had to say.
"If you'd seen the things he had predicted, if you had seen the things we Stellaron Hunters can do, you wouldn't be saying that."
AN: Just don't expect this to be 100 percent lore accurate since I don't even know the full lore of HSR