Next I had him go over the heavy weaponry along the walls. Mounted turrets similar to the ones witnessed in action during the monster raid and several different types sat lined up. Kei no longer treated me as a child or at least one with a decent sized moneybag. He kept recommending every item that we came across even if it didn’t seem like the most suitable.
“Mia, any thoughts?” I figured this was Mia’s expertise since she ought to know more about military-grade equipment.
“Yeah, ...annnd done. Everything’s on the list, Kei.” I stared between the two of them, confused at what was going on.
“That’s…, going to take a while to gather up. Are you sure?” Kei scrunched his brows at the amount of work to do.
“Yeah, and I’ll be sending more as I think of it.” I finally realized that she was sending over a list of information digitally to his holographic device.
Mia expanded a holographic display that showed a huge list of weapons, ammo, thermal and infrared cameras. The list went on and on as she swiped her finger across the air. It’s as if she had done this before and was ready to create a damn near impenetrable fortress for us.
“And this can be used for high speed flying objects or monsters.” She enthusiastically covered each item on the list down to the different ammo types and their best-case uses. She paused when she saw my overwhelmed complexion.
“If you let me come over whenever I want, I’ll train everyone on how to operate and maintain the new equipment.” Mia giggled as she deactivated the display.
“Deal!” I didn’t care if she was joking or serious and accepted the offer immediately. I saw it as free labor and we needed all the help possible, and who better than her to be in charge.
“Are you sure? You were very adamant about not interacting with each other.” Mia returned eye contact after becoming a bit more serious.
“Yeah, it’s not like you being in the military makes you untrustworthy. You even came to our aid at the outpost.” Then a question struck me, why didn’t she help out beforehand.
“Wait, if you were there the whole time how come you didn’t help against the monsters!” It didn’t cross my mind before, but now that I think about it she only appeared the moment the other Monster Corp members appeared.
“That…, I can explain.” Mia said how her hands were tired during that moment and only when the others acted, was it possible for her to as well. Something to do with the status and priority of orders given from higher-ups. The main reason I let it slide was the fact that she was being very sincere and not at all defensive against my hostile inquiry.
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“I’ve got an added condition then…,” I paused until she gave a questioning cue with her hands.
“Teach me how to ride the bike and you can call our place home.” The suspense on her face turned into a delightful laugh.
All in all the total came out to fifty-eight ruby coins which included delivery and installation as a bonus. So much for our savings Lily prepared, we were down to two ruby coins leftover.
“No, if you do it that way you’ll…,” Mia sat behind trying to teach me how to shift gears as I had difficulty timing the release of the clutch, causing us to stall many more times than hoped.
Mia made this look so simple whenever she raced through the city. I was beginning to rethink my aptitude for learning manual transmission.
“Finally!” It took what felt forever, but I finally found the sweet spot for the clutch and throttle. Mia joined in with my cheering and patted my shoulders in praise.
I concluded the humvees inside the city were a huge no-no but as for the bike, it shouldn’t be too big of a deal. Ethan and the government already know my true identity and I’ve been flagged as a special case instance. Or maybe Ethan is covering for me and they don’t know all the facts, to further delay the unwanted attention of a reforcer. I decided to take the risk and use the new bike as my personal travel vehicle from now on.
Mia drove back with me insisting to come along to the hotel to help just in case I had issues driving the bike all the way here. It was nice of her to offer the support and also slightly embarrassing having her by my side coaching whenever I stalled or shifted gears too late. A drive that only took her twenty minutes turned into double that to reach the hotel building.
I found a spot to park the bike inside the underground parking lot, beside an untethered carriage. The magical beast that pulled it was most likely in the stables located on the far end of the garage. Only a small percentage of transportation was motorized from what I could see throughout the lot. I didn’t see much of a difference other than status and even then, some people preferred having exotic beasts instead of government-issued vehicles.
“Thank you for everything. Feel free to come on by tomorrow I’ll give you the address later.” Mia handed an extra set of helmets from her bike’s storage.
“Of course, and take these! You’ll need them for Eris and the others. I’m sure you know how to use the bike’s storage device.” I really doubted Eris needed a helmet for protection and made sure to offer appreciation, opposite to my thoughts.
I actually didn’t know how to use the bike's storage unit and grabbed both helmets, imitating her prior hand placement on top of the chassis. It worked the same way my ring did as both helmets disappeared and entered into the internal storage device. I thought about storing it in my ring but decided it wasn’t necessarily a bad idea to keep things separate.
Mia waved goodbye followed by the sound of screeching tires reverberating as she drifted around corners to exit the garage. She gave me the motivation to reach her level of skill, though it was best not to get ahead of myself. The first step was to master driving up inclines without going in the reverse direction on a consistent basis.