Field Trip Special (Part one)

“You are sure this is perfectly safe, yes?” Sapphire questioned, feeling rightfully worried.

“Oh yeah, I tested it already. Where do you think I got the bag of chips from?” Tom replied, seemingly not worried in the slightest.

“You left me not knowing if you were ever coming back!?” Jacky let out, clearly horrified at the realization.

“No, of course not, I sent the probe first.”

“You mean the thing that could push a button after the timer ran out?” Sapphire had to question. She had seen what humans normally referred to as probes, and that thing seemed rather inadequate in comparison.

“It’s automated and it was sent on an exploration mission to collect data, that makes it a probe,” Tom dismissed her, turning back to the odd device he had cobbled together.

“Okay then this should be quite something,” Esmeralda went, sounding like she had given up trying to understand what was going on a while ago.

“If you ever leave like that again I’m going with,” Jacky protested again, seemingly annoyed at being ignored.

“Well, you are coming this time. I’ll buy you a new gun to say sorry. Gather around. It will be your turn soon enough, and do tell Jarix I’m sorry. We’ll get him through one day,” Tom went, gesturing for them to grab on.

“I can’t wait to see it. It must be amazing,” Fengi let out, nearly tripping with excitement.

“More chips,” Kiran let out in triumph, brandishing the empty bag

“What kind of gun?”

Jacky didn't get her reply as Sapphire began wondering why Dakota’s eyes sounded green, then the shock hit her and she suddenly felt really cold, as in fatally cold, her vision going white. ‘Does he live in a damn snowstorm?!’ She cursed to herself, curling up into a ball. Her sense of time left her completely as she pondered just why she had agreed to this. Then with a crack of thunder, she found herself suspended about half a meter in the air, falling into familiar-looking grass with a thunk.

“Seems we missed a bit. Oh well, it’s not too far. Welcome, ladies and gentle boy, to Earth”

Sapphire didn’t really feel his enthusiasm as she raised her head to look around, still shivering with cold. Many of the others looked equally miserable.

“You could have told us not to curl up,” she let out, trying to convey her displeasure as she got to her feet. It seemed like a very normal forest at first, only when she looked up did she realize there was no heaven oak here.

“Huh, your trees are tiny,” Dakota went, beating Sapphire to it.

“No, you have freakishly big ones. But yeah let’s get inside where it’s warmer. Follow me.”

“I’m cold!” Kiran protested loudly from Dakota’s arms. It had been impossible to convince the little guy not to come along, and Tom’s reassurances that they were going to quite possibly the safest place any of them had ever heard of had won out in the end.

“God, I feel weak,” Esmeralda went, as she held up her arms as if to test. Sapphire had to agree; she felt heavy. Tom had told them about this, but it was still a really odd sensation. It also meant they were setting off on foot, much to their annoyance. Even if they might be able to get airborne there was no way even Jacky was getting Tom into the sky here.

Tom hadn't lied though, and after a few minute's walk the little funny house came into view.

“I’m guessing that’s it?” Sapphire let out, looking ahead.

“Yup, just like I left it.”

“Why did you pee on your house?” Kiran questioned, looking at the strange squat building.

“I didn't pee on it. It was painted yellow when I got it. Haven't gotten around to changing it.”

“CAR!” Jacky let out in excitement as she took off running. Tom though was seemingly unconcerned by the unfolding disaster as Dakota set off after her, shouting at her to not play with the giant mechanical dragon things.

“You're not worried she’s gonna hurt herself or you know... break it?” Sapphire questioned, stopping to look back at Tom.

“It might be safe here but we still put locks on everything,” Tom replied with a devious smile, calmly sauntering ahead.

“Is there anyone here?” Sapphire questioned following along.

“Nah, I tested that on my first visit, time doesn't move between the two places. So I’ve only been missing for a day thus far. No one's gonna blink an eye at that.”

“So then what about home?”

“Same thing, when we return we would only have been gone for a few seconds.”

“That’s kinda neat.”

“Right,” Tom replied, sounding rather excited, before turning his attention to the others at the car. “Any way… Listen up everyone let’s...”

“I wanna go for a drive!” Jacky interrupted excitedly, standing next to the car, jumping in place. Dakota was busy inspecting the handles on the door while Fengi was marveling at the shiny paint. Sapphire had to admit that was extremely pretty to look at, in fact, it nearly matched their horns.

“I’m sure you do. We will get to that, don't worry. First, let me show you around.”

“Urgh fine,” Jacky replied, following along with the others in tow.

“I like the gravel,” Esmeralda let out, clawing at the ground. “It’s a little cold, but on a warm day I think it would feel nice.” Sapphire had to agree on that.

As Tom opened up the door Sapphire was right behind him to try and get the first glimpse inside. She did get her head inside first, though Fengi managed to squeeze between them running inside.

“Wipe your feet first, Fengi,” Tom ordered with a chuckle as he started undoing his boots, setting them aside. Sapphire made a good showing of wiping her feet thoroughly on the mat before stepping inside. “Jacky, mind hitting the light switch?” Tom went, pointing at a white thing on the wall.

“Sure,” came the reply as Jacky punched the wall, at least doing it fairly delicately.

“No not like that,” Tom let out laughing, “just push it.”

“Why didn’t you say so then… wow!”

“Now that is fancy,” Fengi let out, looking at the glowing spots in the ceiling.

“On, off, on, off, on, off,” Jacky went as she began playing with the switch.

“Can I do the rest of them?” Fengi questioned excitedly.

“Sure go ahead, let there be light,” Tom replied, Fengi rushing off into the next room.

“We need that at home,” Dakota stated, Sapphire nodding in agreement.

“Yeah yeah, I’ll get around to it eventually. Come on, I’ll show you around,” Tom replied, leading the way inside, even if it quickly became more a matter of him going into a room and beginning to talk while they all scampered about finding anything that looked interesting. He didn't seem to mind either, even if he needed a minute to stop laughing after Fengi ran into the patio door, luckily not breaking it.

“Who makes a door out of glass? That’s not fair!”

“It looks good though,” Esmeralda stated, looking over the door for damage. “Not sure the imprint of your face improved it though.”

“Very funny, you got any more hidden doors?”

“Nah just that one… Or do I?” Tom replied with a chuckle, moving on to what he called the office.

“Oh, I know that one, it’s like a big version of the laptops you brought,” Sapphire let out, looking at the desktop computer on the medium-sized desk.

“Yup, and here we have internet. We might be having some fun with that later. Come on, I’ll show you the bathrooms.” Sapphire needed to see that. Tom had said they didn’t use outhouses or the like, but how exactly that worked was still a mystery to her.

“Oh my god,” Sapphire let out in astonishment as he opened the door to the stark white room, covered floor to ceiling in white tiles. “That’s something else… Wait... the floor is warm?”

“Oh yeah it’s heated, I can turn it up if you want.”

Sapphire got down onto her knees to feel the heat radiating off the perfectly white tiles. “Don’t tell me this is normal… this was already here or something. No one could afford this.”

“Oh come on, don’t be so narrow-minded. It’s perfectly normal. Hell, the floors in the kitchen are heated too, it’s just not turned on.”

“You're shitting me,” Sapphire replied as Esmeralda strode over her to get inside the not terribly large room.

“Nope. I don’t have a sauna, though I’m guessing you would fucking love that.”

“Oh we have those at like fancy bathhouses and the like,” Essy replied as she went about inspecting herself in the mirror. “What’s that?” she went, pointing at the square box made of glass in the corner.

“Oh that’s a shower, it’s for bathing. It pours nice hot water over you.”

“But you already have a tub? Also, where does the water come from?”

“You guys have hot water in here… holy shit. Fengi, Dakota, get in here?” Jacky let out as she stuck her head inside.

“Wow that’s white,” Kiran let out still safely in the arms of Dakota as they all squeezed into the room, which was a little tight by now.

“Oh yeah all the faucets have hot and cold water then you just mix as you please,” Tom went, moving to what Sapphire assumed was the washbasin. Then as if by magic water came pouring out of a shiny metal tap.

“Yeah, add that one to the list of things we need,” Sapphire concluded, as she held her hand under the water. It took a bit, but true to his word it was indeed nice and warm. Dakota came over, setting Kiran down at the edge of the basin to let him play a bit with the water.

“Splash, splash, splash,” he went, happy as could be, before turning to the myriad of different things strewn about on the shelves. Dakota only just managed to keep him from eating the strange white stuff that came out of a tube. Tom didn’t intervene though, just having a bit of a chuckle at the situation.

It didn’t take long before Esmeralda figured out how to use the controls for the bath as she began filling it up. “That is astonishing,” she let out as the water just kept pouring in.

“There is only a shower in the other bathroom, but if you want to heat up then go ahead,” Tom replied. “There's only so much hot water though, then the heater needs some time to heat some more.”

Esmeralda was already stripping before he finished, shooing the others out the room. They left her to enjoy a nice hot bath. Sapphire wasn’t jealous at all; perhaps she would try this shower thing instead. There was still more to see though.

“This is my bedroom… sorry our bedroom,” Tom corrected, looking at the slightly annoyed Jacky and gesturing for her to lead the way. Her demeanor didn't last long though as she sat on the bed, looking a tad surprised before she started bouncing up and down on the edge of it.

“Fuck, that’s soft!” she let out, gesturing for the others to come over and try. Sapphire had taken a run-up before throwing herself onto the bed, being rather surprised by just how fast she fell, thus not making it quite as far onto the bed as she had hoped. There was nothing wrong with the landing though as she bounced off the soft mattress coming to rest. She managed to get up before she took an equally soft pillow to the face being knocked back down.

“Pillow fight!” Jacky shouted out, going for another swing, this time being blocked by Sapphire’s right arm as she got up onto her knees. Fengi took advantage of the distracted Jacky’s focus on Sapphire; her pillow hit Jacky in the back with little effect as she fluttered her wings to keep her balance.

With the two main pillows gone Sapphire was left without a weapon and thus relegated to the defensive as she brought up the duvet to defend herself. Jacky promptly declared that cheating as she and Fengi began backing Sapphire into a corner, though failing to push her off the bed. Then Sapphire was tackled from behind by forced to the ground.

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“Get down!” Dakota shouted out, Sapphire getting her head up in time to see Jacky take another pillow to the face from behind Sapphire.

“Keep shooting!” Kiran ordered as another pillow came sailing over Sapphire’s head, that one getting knocked aside by Jacky as she laughed out in triumph. Her celebrations came to an end when Fengi decked her in the face, sending her stumbling backward with a shout of “Betrayal!”

“That’s what you get,” Sapphire laughed out as Fengi ate another pillow from Sapphire’s rescuers, she stood her ground though. Dakota got off Sapphire's back, rising to her full height and standing in front of Sapphire, facing down Fengi.

“Weapon,” she went, holding a hand out behind her, receiving a pillow from Tom who was standing in the doorway, Kiran now perched on his head, ordering him about.

The resulting duel was long and hard-fought, Fengi doing her level best, employing daring maneuvers and ducking and diving for all that she was worth in an attempt to compensate for Dakota’s superior swordsmanship. The outcome was inevitable though, as the now heavily painting Fengi’s defenses grew too slow and she started taking hits, eventually being driven to the edge of the bed. Where Dakota sent her flying back into Jackalope with an expertly delivered uppercut.

“No fair! You're three against two,” Jacky protested after she had stopped complaining about Fengi landing on her tail.

“You attempted to defeat the enemy in detail. Yet you failed to do so before the reinforcements could arrive. A daring strategy, general Jackalope, but a foolish one,” Tom let out before he broke out laughing.

“I’ll take it as a compliment,” Jacky replied with a chuckle, leaning up against the wall.

“Aw shit, I ripped the pillow… I’ll fix it back up, don't worry,” Fengi let out. She sounded genuinely sorry for breaking the silky smooth pillow.

“Nah, don’t bother. I’ll just get another case for it. They don’t cost anything. Not that we really care anyway, we aren't staying long. I think that concludes the tour of the house. We can go take a look at the outside stuff in a bit. I think Essy would like the garden.”

“You have an actual garden?” Sapphire had to ask. She knew about people having market gardens and the like, hell they had a rather sizable one at the keep in addition to the small fields, to supply the kitchen. From what Tom had told, though, he didn't grow anything for his kitchen here. So it had to be for looking at.

“Yeah, it’s not much though. I haven't exactly been diligent in its maintenance,” Tom replied, scratching the back of his neck. “Anywho make yourself at home. I’ll find some things for Kiran. I still have a lot of all my old toys up in the attic, that should be right up your alley.”

“Whoa, Tom’s toys,” Kiran replied, sounding completely enamored by the idea. The girls had a quick staredown followed by a dash towards the second bathroom which, much to her delight, Sapphire won. The victory was made even sweeter by the door having a lock just like every other door in the house for some reason. Sapphire guessed it might be some sort of staggered defense, despite Tom having made it quite clear there was no safer place in any world that he knew of than here.

The building was sorely lacking in the defense department though, so having a little wouldn’t hurt. The flimsy door didn’t feel like it would stop much, but you never knew. It might be the strongest door she had ever touched. Right now, though, Sapphire had other priorities as she began stripping off the robes she had been wearing. Tom had insisted that armor and especially weapons would be a bad idea since they were apparently not allowed to have weapons here. Sapphire had still snuck her dagger along just in case.

She had stepped into the small rectangle and set about figuring out how this thing worked. Tom had just twisted a nob and then the water started. Looking at the finely polished metal thing, there were two dots, a red and a blue. ‘Huh, warm blooded cold blooded like a human and a dragonette, that’s handy. That must be temperature, we like it warm so blue must be hot and that must be the amount then.’

To say she was surprised when the hose above her spat out ice-cold water at her was an understatement. She shrieked out in alarm, quickly turning it off again, leaving her standing there shivering with misery.

“You okay in there?” Tom went from outside the door, sounding rather worried.

“Yeah, don’t worry… why is it cold?” She tried not to let the misery shine through, it was doubtful that she had succeeded.

“Turn it to red and let it run for a bit,” Tom replied, not quite mockingly but the hint was there. “There are towels under the sink to dry yourself off with too."

“I… Thanks,” Sapphire replied reluctantly. ‘Honestly... blue for dragonette, they don’t have dragonettes, stupid girl… right then, red for fire and let it run.’

That turned out a lot better, as she marveled for a second at the many tiny streams of water coming down from above. She had learned her lesson though, and tested the water with her hand this time.

“Aw fuck yeah,” she went as the water became warmer and warmer, stepping in under the little indoor waterfall. The cold from before was washed away in an instant, and she even ended up having to turn down the heat a bit before it got painful.

She felt almost like a hot summer's day, bathing in the sun. Yet at the same time she could rinse herself off with ease. ‘Hang on… I wonder what those are?’ she questioned to herself, looking towards some of all the strange bottles lining the shelves, turning off the water again. She had picked up a bit of English, but next to nothing made sense of what was written on them. though the pictures were very pretty.

“Them and their stupid languages...Ahr... Soap. Sure why not,” she said to herself as she got the cap off the plastic bottle. She wasn’t quite sure what to expect but a metallic green liquid certainly wasn’t it. “Fuck even their soap is beautiful... and runny? Smells wonderful too,” she concluded, as she spilled a bit on the floor as it went between her fingers. The taste test didn’t go so well. Then again it was soap. You could never know though.

Inspecting the bottle it seemed watertight, and there was a little shelf for it in the shower so she brought it with her, turning the water back on again for a bit to warm back up before going about covering herself in the soapy stuff. Again, it proved rather surprising in the sheer amount of foam it made, and she quite quickly found herself covered from head to toe in it.

“Oh, this is hilarious… Oh, how do I look in the mirror?” She didn’t quite make it to the mirror as she stepped in the spilled soap, discovering how slippery that made the tiles as she went over backward. “Shit! fuck!… Auuuuwww...” This time it was hard stone to greet her rather than the soft, bouncy bed and she felt the full force of the local gravity. “Don’t like that part,” she went, as she got back on her feet, rubbing her ass and checking in the mirror whether she had damaged her horns. Luckily nothing was to be seen, though the slightly miserable expression combined with a face full of white foam made her laugh quite a bit.

__________________________________________________________________________________

“Wait, you have toy guns!” Jacky let out excitedly. “That I can actually shoot you with?” She couldn’t think of a more awesome thing to play with than that… well okay she still needed to try the car… and he had promised her a new gun… maybe seeing a race of some kind… oh and she definitely needed to have a go at flying one of these fighter jets!

“It doesn’t even hurt,” Tom replied as he continued to show them how the ‘nerf’ gun worked.

“Are they for training purposes?” Dakota questioned, leading Tom to break out laughing.

“Hell no, these are kid’s toys. Now Kiran you see that one is to shoot.”

“Why couldn’t I have been a kid here?” Jacky let out wistfully as she went over her gun again; of course, she had gotten the big one. The ‘Darts’ seemed to be of limited effectiveness then again she was supposed to shoot Tom. But she had more shots than them and that was what mattered.

It was apparently supposed to be Tom and Kiran versus Jacky and Dakota since Fengi had managed to talk her way into the tub with Esmeralda.

Tom, in his overconfidence, had gone for a puny little thing with only ten shots in what he called a magazine. Kiran had what looked like a very big handgun with only six shots. She had a whole belt of rounds ready to go. Dakota got a kind of shotgun apparently which fired many at a time.

“Right, you two start in the living room. We have the kitchen,” Tom ordered, Jacky giving him a sly grin and attempting to blow a kiss his way. ‘You're going down, boy.’

After having lost three times in a row, Jacky had to reevaluate her opinion of Tom’s smaller gun. “Why can you shoot so far? That’s not fair, and you keep ducking away.”

“It’s a rifle, it shoots further.”

“I wanna try that thing.”

“Sure, go ahead,” Jackalope graciously exchanged her weapon for Tom’s less impressive-looking rifle. As before, Dakota insisted on planning out what to do against them once they made it to the living room. The word “living room” still didn’t make sense to Jacky. ‘Do they have a dying room too then?’

“... and pick them off, I bait them out, yeah?” Dakota questioned, as Jacky snapped back to attention.

“Sure, sounds good.”

“Right, here we go then,” Dakota set off low and slow, moving up on the doorway to the kitchen where Tom and Kiran were doubtlessly hiding behind the counter to gain cover. When Dakota stuck her head out though, she was met with a fusillade as darts that came pouring through the doorway, landing several hits. One dart rather damningly getting stuck behind her ear, not that she would ever lie about being hit… Jacky wouldn't either of course… she would never do such a thing.

“Hit.”

Jacky stepped out, this time confident in her weapon's ability to outrange Tom’s, unlike the last two times they had tried this. He still needed to reload after shooting too. As she stepped into view, she was faced with him lying down on the floor far closer to the doorway than expected. ‘Arh shit.’

To her surprise he continued shooting, though he only fired three shots, two of them hitting. She did get a shot off hitting him in reply though. To add insult to injury, Kiran stepped around the corner putting two shots into both Dakota and Jacky, declaring them both dead. Dakota did her best dying impression, as Jacky reluctantly also put on a bit of a show for the little guy lying down on the floor and refusing to get up in protest.

“That’s not fair either,” she let out, looking at the ceiling defeated for the fourth time.

“War isn't fair now, is it Kiran?”

“No, we fight to win!” the little guy let out excitedly, shooting Jacky again.

“I wanna win too,” Jacky protested, craning her head up to look at Kiran and bringing her gun up one-handed, shooting him once.

“You won ‘most hits taken,’ ” Tom replied with an annoying snicker as Kiran shot her again.

“Very funny. Got anything else to play with?” Jacky went, as she put another one into the frustrated kid, as he started looking for more darts to reload his little gun.

“Well, I was thinking we need to get some shopping done… I’m not quite sure what the results of taking you to the shops would be though.”

“You're a hunter, aren't you? Just go shoot something.”

“We need more than meat… you know what, fuck it, it’s gonna be hilarious, it’s not like anyone would believe it anyway. Come on, let's let the others soak a bit, and there are only five seats.”

“Wait, where is the shop? Aren't we in the countryside? And we can’t really fly here… CAR! I wanna drive, please please please!”

“Not on the roads you’re not, you need a license for that. I’m driving.”

“Aw come on, I’ve gotten really good on the quad bike.”

“Yes you have, we'll see about it later I promise. Though you are not learning to drive in my M3; we can buy an old scrap box for you to thrash until it breaks,”

Jacky wasn't quite sure if she should be insulted by the fact he wanted to give her a car that was a ‘scrap box’ or ecstatic that she would get to try and drive. She didn't want to break his nice car though, so it sounded smart. But for now, she would remain annoyed at the fact he wouldn’t let her drive anyway.

“Hold up, I wanna come too,” Sapphire went, sticking her head out of the second bathroom, a cloud of steam spilling out from inside.

“The hell have you been doing in there?” Jacky questioned, not quite understanding.

“You can try it later, it's amazing. Tom, it’s fine if I try some of the nice-smelling things, right?”

“Sure, just don’t overdo it. It’s a little tight in the car.”

Jacky needed to find out what this stuff was. As the others went out into the foyer, Jacky stuck her head inside the bathroom, finding Sapphire busy with a bunch of different bottles.

“What are those?”

“I have no idea, they smell nice though. This one is like flowers, I think.”

“Have they got gunpowder?”

“Uhm… I don’t think so. There are pictures of what it’s supposed to be. That one has a car on it.”

“Dibs!” she went, grabbing the metal can and fiddling with it. “How does this work?”

“This one you just press down on,” Sapphire replied as a stream of white stuff came out. It looked a bit like weird smoke, though it disappeared quickly. The smell though was the most incredible part, damn it was strong. “I have no idea what it’s supposed to be, the can is just blue.”

“I think this one is locked… Hang on, that’s a padlock. Oh and there it’s open, so I just twist and…” Jacky’s brilliance was rewarded by a spray of strange smoke straight to the face, causing her to sneeze and cough a bit as she blinked her eyes. “Okay that worked… now what?”

“I’m just gonna spray it all over a bit.”

“Good idea,” the application of the strange stuff was interrupted by the sound of what Jacky assumed to be Tom’s car, coming to life outside. “Last to the car gets the back seat.”

“Oh hell no!” Sapphire replied as they both scrambled for the door. Lucky, being the closest to it, Jacky was out in front. From there the narrow doors worked in her favor, denying Saph the opportunity to pass, being aided by some strategic use of her wings to block her off until they made it outside for the dash to the car.

“Too slow,” Jacky let out in triumph as she put a hand on the car, careful not to scratch it.

“You’re leaving without us! No way?!” Fengi shouted at them, sticking her head out the window.

“Well unless you get moving, yeah,” Fengi had dragged her head back inside, shutting the window as Esmeralda complained about the draft.

Tom had taken the extra time to show his car off a bit. It was very evident he was rather fond of it. When he got the metal plate up that was covering the engine, he got Jacky’s attention. It was definitely a lot bigger than even what the quad bike had. She had no clue what a turbo was, but she understood it was six times bigger and twelve times more powerful just fine. It apparently also had six cylinders as opposed to the one of both the chainsaw and the quad bike. It sounded awesome, though, as he gave it a bit of a rev, so she was all for six cylinders.

Fengi had come running out, still rather wet, pulling on clothes as she ran. “Essy’s not coming?”

“Nah, she wants to stay in the bath.”

“Right then girls, climb on in. I have no clue how this is going to work with wings tails and all that, so give it a go,” Tom went as he got into what Jacky assumed to be the driver’s seat. He wasn’t kidding either, the seats were nice and soft but leaning upon one's wings was never particularly comfortable, and she had to sit on her tail, begin careful not to get it caught in the door as she closed it. Kiran ended up sitting with her, since it was rather tight in the back already, not to mention the little guy wanted to look out the front window.

“It’s nice in here,” Sapphire let out from her seat in the back, seemingly not too bothered with losing yet at least, Jacky mused happily as she set about exploring the car. The seats were black leather, which was a very odd sensation to sit on, but they had become rather comfortable with Tom's more loose attitude towards black colors by now. Hell, gunpowder was black and that was awesome.

“Everyone sitting well?” Tom questioned looking around, “You need to have seatbelts on too, just in case.”

“Oh, it’s dangerous?” Sapphire let out as she mimicked Tom’s movements, putting on the belts.

“You smell weird?” Fengi questioned, “Is that flowers?”

“I think the word you are looking for is fabulous,” Sapphire replied. “And yes, I smell like a flower garden right now.”

“Jacky smells like Tom’s workshop,” Kiran let out, clawing at her arm slightly.

“Hell yeah, I do,” if that wasn’t a compliment she didn't know what was… maybe smelling like a princess… or a queen.

After confirming everyone was nice and secure he set off nice and slowly… Too slowly in fact.

“I thought this thing was fast?” Jacky let out, only slightly goading as they made it down the narrow dirt road.

“It just needs to warm up a little. That and this road is shit; we need pavement.”

“Oh, that’s the black stuff they race on, right?”

“Sure is.”

The first while driving had been slightly underwhelming, though the car did sound rather nice. It was very different from both the chainsaw and the quadbike. It reminded Jacky of some of the cars she had seen race.

“Is it warmed up yet? How fast are we going?”

“It’s getting there, we are doing 80 Kph right now.”

“I’m like 150 right?”

"On the level unloaded, I think so yeah, it’s a guess though."

“How fast is this thing then?”

“Don't know, speedo runs out at 300.”

“And you're doing 80… what are we too heavy or something?”

“There are rules. We are only allowed to do 80 here, and it’s not quite standard anymore, so it needs to be nice and warm before you thrash it too hard.”

“Why am I not surprised you fiddled with this thing?” Dakota snickered from behind, looking out the windows at the scenery moving past.

“Tom is a slowpoke. Tom is a slowpoke,” Sapphire started, immediately being joined by Jacky, and soon after Kiran and Fengi. Dakota just shook her head a bit. Tom didn’t seem affected as they carried on at their leisurely pace, pulling up at an intersection with another road and turning left. ‘Damn you and being so sensible.’

Jacky was caught a bit off guard when the car apparently decided it was time to go. It started screaming at them, Tom slamming it through the gears down the straight piece of road.

“Now that’s more like it,” Jacky cheered as they rocketed away, being joined by their rear passengers. Kiran held up his arms and let out a big, “Wheee!” As Jacky made sure he wasn’t going anywhere.

“100, 120, 140, 160, 180, 200,” Tom calmly stated as they kept going, eventually easing off and slowing back down again. “Sufficiently fast, Miss Furlong?”

“Oh, now you have to let me drive!”

“Not happening. You with 600 horsepower sounds like an incredibly bad idea,” Tom dismissed her with a chuckle, Jacky replying with an annoyed grump. She could handle that no problem, he was just pushing a pedal and holding the wheel straight.