Chapter 16 - We Are Ready To Walk Again

[photonicfighter]

[Action A - 458 Stone Street, Morning]

[This morning's mail had a package in it for Dakki, and she greeted it with the usual enthusiasm that she greeted packages addressed to her.]

I've got something! It's here! I've got something!

[...which is to bring it to the kitchen table, tear off the packaging, and prepare to share it with everyone. Out comes a compressed blue item cube, that then immediately blips away in a flash of blue nano transformer light. And in the next instant there's a visor-like set of goggles upon Dakki's face.]

Oh!

[It's a bit disorienting at first. It's her own pair of goggles from home, but they're still configured for her previous audio and visual sensors. So there's some rapid blinking of her remaining active eye, and a hand comes up to start making some adjustments.]

Well there's something I didn't know I missed until it was gone....

[Action B - Neutron Diner, Lunchtime]

[Why not do something a bit different today? Rather than just fixing herself a sandwich at home, Dakki took it upon herself to have lunch out instead. Just a simple cheeseburger and fries, with a chocolate milkshake to drink... But it felt like a treat. Even if the most she could taste from the food was salty and greasy, the milkshake had a flavor profile more suited for her CAST senses. Sweet, creamy, a sense of vanilla, a sense of chocolate... She seems a bit lost in her own thoughts as she eats, but if she spies anyone that she recognizes? She'll be perking up and waving them over.]

Ah! Hello! Come on over, why don't you have a seat?

[Action C - 458 Stone Street, Afternoon/Early Evening]

[The "novelty" of wearing Mayfield clothing again is starting to wear off, and Dakki would much prefer to have her armor back on... if it weren't so dinged up and scorched and filthy. So that was this afternoon's project. Her armor was laid out in pieces on the front porch, and she was meticulously scrubbing out the dirt and buffing out scratches by hand. Every so often she stops and frowns and looks discouraged, but it's not long before she's back at it again.

Although there are also occasional periods of staring off into nothing and scrubbing very, very slowly. This is a CAST with a lot of things to process, it seems.]

Comments

[photonicfighter]

Gentarou! [She pulls her plate and her milkshake a bit closer so he has a spot on the opposite side of the booth, if he wants it.]

Things are alright. Better now that there's a friendly face here! How're you doing?

[cosmicbond]

[He'll take that seat gladly.]

A bit sore. I hadta get up early to get those newspapers out. And my bike ain't exactly great.

But I can forget about that because I've made a lot of friends here.

[photonicfighter]

Ohh... they've got you doing newspaper delivery, I see... do they have you covering every street? [She looks a bit concerned. That's a lot of work for a young man that may not have been used to that sort of thing.

The talk of friends widens her smile, though there's a hint of sadness to her eyes. Well, eye. She's only got a left eye at the moment. The right is glassy and blank.]

I think a lot of us have made a lot of friends. Although more and more people are being droned, lately... have you noticed? It's a pity....

[cosmicbond]

I think they've got a couple of others, though i ain't met them. So I'm not alone out there.

[Even though, he could totally take it.]

Yeah, I've seen it.

[He'll frown a little bit.]

But that just means I gotta work harder to figure out a way to help them. E-even though plannings not my forte.

[photonicfighter]

Lucas was doing newspaper delivery too, last time I checked. He has a... tea table that gallops like some sort of animal, though, so I think it's a bit less hard of a job. [It's funny to think about, and she laughs.

Gentarou's resolve is very encouraging.]

Planning's not what I'm good at, either. Give me some orders, and I'll do everything I can! But planning... [She shakes her head and picks up her milkshake.]

...I think we'll help everyone, in the end, by shutting this place down. Somehow.

[cosmicbond]

A tea table?! Wow, I hafta see that!

Sounds about right. Once my gear comes in the mail...I'm sure I can start thinking better.

[photonicfighter]

Keep an eye out around town! You never know when it'll go galloping by.

[She takes a sip of her milkshake, making an interested noise as she does.]

Mm! What kind of gear are you waiting for?

[cosmicbond]

I'll make sure ta do that then.

My Fourze Driver. And hopefully some of my Astroswitches.

[photonicfighter]

Aah. What do those do, if you don't mind me asking?

[cosmicbond]

No problem!

[No Kengo to make him be secretive. Heheheheh.]

They'll let me transform into Kamen Rider Fourze.

[photonicfighter]

[She gasped a gasp of delighted recognition.]

Oh! Just like Date! ...Akira Date, he's in town here, too! He's Kamen Rider...Birth, I think. [There's a slight pause.] How many of you are there? He's mentioned someone named OOOs, too.

[cosmicbond]

Ah! Date-sempai!

[He'll grin, thinking about the wacky field medic.]

Yep. Birth is right.

[He'll have to take a second for that question.]

Umm...last count was....ummm...'bout 50 or somethin' close to that?

[photonicfighter]

Mmhmm! Are there any other Kamen Riders in town, that you know of?

[And then he drops the bomb, and she looks quite surprised.]

50! That sounds like you're quite the organization. And you fight for... just about anything, is what Date said. Is that right?

[cosmicbond]

Let's see...there's Decade-sempai, Chalice-sempai, W-sempai...at least half of him anyway. And that's all I can think of.

Usually against monsters and terrorists. But, we're all buds and allies of justice!

And if you think THAT'S a lot, you should hear about the Super Sentai. They've got like 4 times as many members.

[photonicfighter]

...half of him? [She looks concerned. She is picturing some poor fellow with, like, his legs missing. This Kamen Rider business is fascinating and concerning all at once.]

That sounds a bit like my own line of work... monsters and terrorists especially. And... there are other teams with even more members...? Well, it would take a lot of specialists to keep a planet safe, I imagine...

[She's leaning in, listening with obvious fascination.]

[cosmicbond]

Yeah. It's confusing until you realize that they kinda fuse bodies with each other to make W.

[He's still iffy on the details.]

Well...the Sentai are in a parallel dimension. I only got to meet them when Decade-sempai and that Marvelous guy got duped into fighting each other.

[photonicfighter]

Oh! That's... a lot better than what I was imagining.

[Although this was all still sort of complicated.]

...who's 'marvelous', exactly? What's so marvelous about him?

[cosmicbond]

I think it's actually his name. 'Captain Marvelous'.

Come ta think of it...I think I've seen his ship in the town. But I might be imagining things.

[photonicfighter]

[She blinks.] Would you believe I've heard of stranger names? [Then she blinks again, tilts her head, and stares down at her plate.] Although if you're going around calling yourself "Captain Marvelous", you'd better have some serious skills to back the name up...

Hmm? And he has a ship?

[This is... just getting kind of silly, now.]

[cosmicbond]

Well, he is pretty tough. I'm sure he'd make a great spar.

Yeah. Its a space ship in the shape of a galleon. He is a space pirate after all.

[photonicfighter]

Really? [Her head lifts, and there's a glint of excitement in her eye. Ooh, it would be nice to have a spar with someone other than Dy...]

Space pirate. It takes all sorts, I suppose... I'll have to keep an eye out for him!

[cosmicbond]

Well, he may be a space pirate, but he's apparently a pretty decent hero at the same time. He just...does things differently.

[photonicfighter]

Pirates and rogues aren't necessarily bad people... but I've gotten in the habit of being cautious. I'm a Guardian! I'm generally running missions to capture people like that.

[There's a bit of a laugh, and she has another sip of her milkshake.]

He sounds like a few people I've known.

[cosmicbond]

Well, he and his crew DID stop an invasion of their version of Earth, despite not bein' from it, so that's one thing in their cap.

[Hiromu did give him a bit of information thankfully.]

But then, I can be pretty forgiving. It's hard to keep friends if you get hung up on the bad stuff.

[photonicfighter]

That's good, then! That's very selfless of them. It sounds like they have a strong sense of justice.

Mm, I suppose you're right. Maybe I need to work on being a little more forgiving, too.