Parked upon one of the moorings at the Sky Side Shanty, the quintet's cruiser sat empty as its entire crew disembarked. Ravess took the lead, walking with her elbows close to her sides, and her hands placed behind her back. She was still dressed in her attire that she was dressed in from the morning. Behind her was Lester, wearing his musician's suit; and Stan, wearing a more casual off-white T-shirt and blue jeans. Closely behind them was Rez, who optioned a rugged set of denim overalls; and at the back of the pack, dazzled by the new sights, was Leila. She had changed into a light green summer dress, and tied her hair into a tail in three places, all lined in a row at the back of her head. The middle tail flowed out and down her back, whilst the two tails on either side both layed over her shoulders.
Leila had found herself enamoured by the folks around her. Humans were still common at the Sky Side Shanty, but they certainly weren't the only species there. Leila had only just realised this when she caught herself staring face to face with the natives. Aquinosians. They had a build similar to humans, but in the place of hair, they had fins. Gills ran down the sides of their necks. Their skin, instead of being elastic tissues, had innumerable small scales. Their dampness caused the sunlight bouncing off of them to diffuse and scatter much like a prism. The odd trail of the colour spectrum running from at least one place on them.
Leila was slowly falling behind the quintet, and eventually would be seperated. In the meantime, Ravess, Lester, Stan and Rez all moved to enter the building proper. Ravess slammed her hands into the saloon doors and burst them open. She stepped inside, and let both Stan and Lester catch the doors either side of the frame, letting Rez through. The commotion caused all of the patrons inside to turn and face the strangers with snarling grimaces of disgust. These faces were of Humans, Aquinosians, and a squadron of Blizzarians. Ravess paused for a moment before turning to her team with a smile. 'Well then. Drinks, anyone?' She asked, with a slight amount of jest.
Ravess, Lester, and Stan all took their seats around a round table. Rez turned up shortly after with metal kleins of drinks, he set down all five in seperate places around the table, and sat down himself. Ravess picked up a klein, and held it to the middle of the table. 'To us, and our new beginning' she said, with a content sense of success. 'May we keep our notes tuned, our timings precise-'
'-And ourselves out of trouble' Stan interrupted, causing chuckles amongst the four members of the quintet. Lester, sst opposite from Ravess, and with clear view of the bar, noticed three of the four strong squadron of Blizzarians start to whisper to each other, all looking on and off at Ravess in particular. He then noticed one of the three walked over to the female Blizzarian who was sat at the bar, and whispered into her ear. She, not noticing Ravess at first, looked over at her for a split second, before turning back at the Blizzarian who whispered to her. After a small back and forth, the female stood up, and with her squadron behind her, approached the quintet.
'Speaking of which, here comes trouble.' Lester warned. The entire premises fell silent from the growing tension, with everyone inside staring at the coming encounter.
'Ya got a lot of nerve stepping foot in the united Atmos, eh?' Said the female Blizzarian, looming over the still sitting Ravess.
'I was invited here, Suzy Lu. Until I leave Terra Aquinos' airspace, I can't be detained' Ravess replied. Unmoved, and not looking at the increasingly aggrevated Blizzarian.
'Oh, I'm not on about having ya detained...' Suzy Lu started, as she sat next to Ravess. 'The way I'm seeing it, we still have a score to settle'
'I'm a changed woman'
'So I've heard' Suzy Lu replied. 'I've also got memories burned into my head of what ya did to conquer our Terra when you were still a stooge for Cyclonia. What about you? Do ya even know what kind of pain that causes?' The verbal assault made Ravess grit her teeth a little, and scrunch her lips. The anger within her slowly began to boil again.
'I don't want to fight you, if that's what you're asking' Ravess politely, yet sternly asserted, behind gnashed teeth.
'Oh, I'm not asking' Suzy Lu coldy responded. She slammed her fist on the table and almost jumped to her feet. Suzy Lu gripped Ravess by the hair and firmly began to drag her off of her chair. The tavern erupted into raucous noises of chants, shouts and cheers. Lester, Stan, and Rez all froze in surprise and couldn't move for a couple of seconds. By the time they could move, Suzy Lu had reached the saloon doors, and the entire patronage of the tavern all crowded behind her.
Pushing the door open with one hand, Suzy Lu slung Ravess onto the boardwalk outside. Leila, who was occupied with talking to one of the Aquinosians, saw Ravess' situation, and hurried over, calling her name. Yet she was unable to reach Ravess before the crowd poured out of the tavern and gathered around her and Suzy Lu. The noise of the crowd echoed into the distance. Ravess, still on the floor, gave a severly angered expression on her face. Suzy Lu, meanwhile, held her hand out to her side. Her squadmate reacted by placing her ice staff into her hand. Suzy Lu held it blade side down, and pointed the blade at Ravess.
A loud, booming 'Oi!' resonated across the local sky. Silencing the crowd, and stopping Suzy Lu. She turned to see who stopped the crowd so quickly, and found herself staring at Aquinos' sky knight, Triton. He held his arms crossed across his chest as he shouted once more. 'You'll leave her be!'
'But Triton, this is Ravess! She lead the charge on my home Terra! She's still wanted in Atmos! You can't be serious about her taking refuge!' Suzy Lu protested.
'Aquinos is me home Terra, and I've invited Ravess as a personal guest! It would serve ye well to let her go! Else it'd be you in a cell, not her.' Triton insisted. Suzy Lu looked between Ravess and Triton. Her emotions growing more desperate as she did. Finally, she broke. Lifing the staff away from Ravess.
'She'll use you for her own gain. I can promise you that now' Suzy Lu warned. Seeing Triton still steadfast, she shrugged her shoulder, turning away from him. 'C'mon boys. Let's get away from these hosers'
The crowd dispersed, letting Triton and Leila approach. Triton held out his hand to help Ravess to her feet. She ignored the offer, and climbed to a stand herself. Once at her feet, Leila immediately jumped at her, initiating a tight hug. Ravess stayed stiff as a board, unsure as to how to respond to the hug. Triton pulled his arms back into as cross. 'Guess folks still have a bit of a grudge against ye'
'Let's hope Terra Aquinos proper is a bit more hospitible' Ravess replied, finally pulling Leila off of her. Behind them all, the rest of the quintet exited to tavern, and joined Ravess and Leila's side. 'Everyone, this is Trition. Aquinos' Sky knight, and, just off of the record, an old... acquaintance of mine'
'We shared a band many moons ago. She were only a junior then' Triton elaborated with a smile, only for it to change to a look of ponderance. 'Still, to this day, I've no idea why you suddenly ditched. Rumours say that ye found the-'
'Uhh, Terra Aquinos, then?' Ravess interrupted, suddenly being struck with a nervous spell.
'Oh, right! 'fraid you'll have to ride the Sky Quad with me. Yer cruiser is still using silicated crystals. The're banned from our Terra now' Triton explained. He motioned the quintet to follow him, and he walked to the Sky Quad. Lester made sure to follow close to Triton, whilst Leila hung back with Rez on their wander. Stan, meanwhile, rushed back to the cruiser.
Lester pulled in close to Triton on their walk to the Sky Quad. 'You say you played alongside Ravess?' He aaked, checking his memory.
'That be correct' Triton responded.
'You also mentioned about her finding something. What did she find?'
'Something dangerous' Triton bluntly replied.
'No details?' Lester probed.
'She's not told ye. So it's safer fer all of ye if I don't say either. There'll be no more of this talk about what Ravess used to boost her skill' Triton forcibly stated, his face growing a little annoyed.
'She found something that boosted her skill? Permanently?' Lester mused.
'That's enough. It made her better whilst in use, but it were a lie. A trick. Now leave it alone' Triton snapped. Lester stopped on the spot for a second, and commented under his breath about Triton's admittedly poor secrecy.
