"Juavez, we haven't known each other for long, but it was a pleasure." I said my farewells as we stood in front of the airbike.
"Yeah, man. Hey, gimme your number. I'd like to chat a bit more after all this." Freddy smiled.
"Who'd wanna waste their free time talking to this ass?" Issei rolled his Eyes, "But hey, if we cross paths again, don't you dare ignore me, got it?"
"Got it, amigo." Juavez nodded before getting on the bike without saying a word more.
"...Juavez?" We tilted our heads.
"I told you they wouldn't like the idea." Sandy sighed.
"What the hell is this, Sands?" Freddy popped a vein.
"Well, you guys took way too long up there, so Juavez and I had some time to talk and..." She gave her best pleading cat impression, "He said he was interested in coming along with us!"
"Oh, is that so?" Issei chuckled before dropping the edges of his mouth down into a frown, "Then no."
"Aww, come on!" She begged, "We've got space for one more if England here goes on his hoverboard!"
"You want Luneski to ride a hoverboard across the Atlantic ocean?" Freddy asked, "We're going to Rome next, you know!"
"Ah, I've never been." Juavez acted like he was already there, "What a nice country, I just can't wait to get there."
"Sorry Juavez, but you're gonna have to wait a while longer." Freddy put his hands in an X, "Fact of the matter is, we just can't take you with us."
"Why not, though?" I asked out of curiosity.
The moment I did, I was met with two differing reactions from the cast. Freddy and Issei threw nasty glares at me, whilst Sandy and Juavez grinned like a bunch of hopeful idiots. Seriously though, safe from Issei, everyone in the group seems to really like Juavez. He's cool, a good fighter, has a lively personality and debating with him is really fun. Besides, Sandy is right - I was planning on going with my hoverboard anyways, so there's definitely space for him to scooch in.
"Lune, don't complicate things further." Issei warned.
"Give me one good reason why he can't come with us and I'll shut up." I crossed my arms, "Otherwise, let's go already. I don't wanna waste any more time sitting around here like an idiot."
"......."
And so, here we are at the open sea. Yes, all five of us. It seems our group is steadily growing in size, but sadly we really can't take anyone else with us. We don't have that many open spots on the airbike, so either the next person that comes along will be a super sick hoverboarder, or they're gonna have to stay back where they came from. That being said, I don't at all envy the cramped airbike they're sitting on, even if it does feel kinda lonely down here.
"Hey, you sure having him just be a few inches off the water's surface is safe?" Sandy asked, "What if a shark or a whale come up and attack him?"
"Been there, done that." I yelled back, "Though I end up stuttering a lot, so I'd rather it doesn't happen again."
"Stutter?" Juavez raised an Eyebrow at that, "In any case, I'm surprised you're holding up so well, amigo. Warn us if you need to take a break."
"You really should be saying that to uncle more, y'know..." Issei grunted, "And seriously, I didn't mind it when it was Sandy for obvious reasons, but stop grinding your crotch on me!"
"Sorry amigo, but if I don't, then I am afraid our female friend here will fall off behind us." He shrugged before purposefully hugging him tighter, "I'll hold off from popping a boner, okay?"
"You better, jackass!"
Hours and hours of bickering later, and Rome still wasn't anywhere in sight. Actually, screw Rome, I haven't seen land ever since we left Brazil! Now, if were to go off Freddy's estimate he gave about 2 hours ago, we should be around about another half a day's worth of flying away from reaching our destination. Honestly, I'd usually curse the long flight time, but back home I couldn't even fathom going this far in just 17 hours. It'd take weeks by ship. Well, at least that's how long it takes to go from Cardina to Entropa, which is I guess a valid comparison of distance.
"Ah, ran out of gas again." Freddy commented on the rhythmic beeping that indicated he needed to change batteries, "Nephew, be a dear and gimme another one."
"Would it kill you to ask me normally?" Issei complained before checking the glove box, "Tch, we're all out of glove box batteries. Where'd you say you keep the rest of them?"
"...What?"
"The rest, y'know! The glove box is empty, so where are the rest of the batteries kept?"
"Nephew..." Freddy gulped, "The glove box is the one and only place we keep reserves."
"Then, what do we do?" Issei kind of shrugged, "Lune's down there, so how's he gonna manage to Materialize and combine all the parts while riding his hoverboad?"
"See, I think this would have been a mighty good reason to not bring Juavez along." Freddy then turned back, "No offense, man."
"None taken, amigo. If I knew coming along would have spelled our doom, I wouldn't have agreed to it either."
"You guys are being WAY too nonchalant about dying soon!" Sandy was, in a stark difference, panicking heavily, "And what does England have anything to do with us surviving!? The hell can he do down there without any batteries either!?"
"Hey uncle, how much do you think we'll get electrocuted when we fall into the water?" Issei asked, "Like, since the batteries are empty, do you think we'll survive?"
"Nah, definitely not." Freddy checked something on his airbike before slowing down, dropping closer to the water and pressing a button, "Thankfully I thought of this ahead of time and prepared accordingly. Pull back a bit, Luneski, we're gonna take a short break!"
Doing as I was told, I was lucky enough to not get blown off my ride from the impact of them landing in the water. Now, with such a heavy vehicle and 4 people sitting atop it, you'd assume it wouldn't float for all that long. And you'd be right, generally, but the moment Freddy pressed that button earlier just before landing, the propellers stopped spinning and a ton of black rubber airbags got deployed around them. Thus, the airbike had been seamlessly transformed into a raft in front of my very Eyes.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
"Uncle, remind me again what university you majored in?" Issei asked with his mouth agape.
"Mn? I never went to Uni, too expensive over here in the US." He replied nonchalantly, "But I did finish highschool going for a major in philosophy."
"A philosophy major made all this. Remember that, guys." Issei turned with his Eyes wide open at all of us.
"Duly noted." We replied in unison, equally as perplexed by this fact.
----------------------------------------
***
----------------------------------------
"So, stranded in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, huh?" Sandy asked sort of half-defeatedly, "What now?"
"Luneski, come on up here." Freddy called out to me, "It'll be easier for you to Focus."
"Focus?" Juavez asked.
Gah, that's right. These two don't know I have Iro Abilities, so I can't openly Materialize any new batteries for us. I mean, I can, but how will they react? For Freddy it was easy to understand, because he already heard from Asa and Itsuo that Issei and I came from another world, but these two don't even know that much. So, do I just come clean? I mean, it's kind of a matter of life and death, but it's not like we're completely out of options now."
"Y-Yeah, I'll come up there with you guys, so let's just oar the rest of the way to Rome." I suggested, trying to somehow find an alternative to having to Materialize in front of them.
"You want us to oar the rest of the way?" Freddy looked horrified, "That'll take weeks, we'll starve by then!"
"Well what else can we do?" Sandy looked at him, "It's either that or starving out here anyways, so come on, best get rowing!"
"With what? We have no oars." Issei sighed, "Look, Lune, just..."
"Hey, over here!" Juavez started shouting like a madman all of a sudden.
"Ack, you're not supposed to be seeing Wilson this early on, dude!" Freddy covered his ears, "What're you shouting at!?"
"That over there, amigos!" He pointed to an oncoming cruise ship, "Haha, lady luck is on our side!"
"A cruise ship? All the way out here?" Issei furrowed his brows.
"Why are you surprised even?" Freddy took out a flare gun from the glove box and shot it high into the sky, "You do realize we've been following the routes ships take this entire time for this exact situation."
He's thought this far ahead? Man, so this is what a real traveler looks like, he has everything covered! Compared to me, Freddy is an incredible specimen who always emphasized the safety of all of us as a whole, instead of just focusing on either us or himself. I see, so he was purposefully taking a route that regular ships take whenever we went across the ocean in case we got stranded. What a genius, it really reminds me of something Schnell would do. Ah, while I was complimenting his sense for safety, the giant cruise ship had made it to our airbike.
"This is the captain of the ship speaking, who are you?" A voice echoed from the ship's speakers.
"We're brave little boys who bit off more than we could chew." Freddy joked, "We thought we'd make it across the Atlantic with our airbike, but we sadly ran out of fuel real quick."
"What? Do you have a permit even?" The captain sounded more so confused than anything, "You guys realize it's illegal to cross country borders with an airbike, right?"
"It's illegal with today's airbike licenses, but I got mine day one." Freddy pulled out a small card from his wallet to show to whoever was peeking out of the ship at the time, "This is version one, baby! It allows for free travel wherever and whenever! Only a small dozen or so people have it in the world, cause the laws got changed about a month in."
"Whoa, lucky we have uncle here for everything." Issei remarked, "He's really reliable when it comes to traveling. I'm surprised no girl saw this part of him. They're seriously missing out."
Girls? Dude, he earned himself a billion trophies with all these feats! Hell, he earned a statue bigger than that one we just visited! But I think I get his main issue. Freddy looks plain on the outside, so one would have to get to know him for a while before they could tap into this cool and reliable side of his. It's a damn shame, but in the dating game, you kinda have to have something that pops out from the get-go in terms of your qualities. No one would be willing to travel halfway across the world in order to see the best part of Freddy, sadly.
"Alright, the cameras have scanned your license and have confirmed it to be legitimate." The captain said as some lifesavers got dropped off the sides, "Come on up, we'll take you with us. I hope you understand, but this cruiser's headed to Rome, so..."
"That's perfect!" Freddy interrupted him, "We were headed there anyways! Ah, but pull those lifesavers back up, I saved up just enough battery power to land the airbike on the ship. I ain't going anywhere without it, and I know you guys have a helipad!"
"You...! Sigh, we do, wait while we clear the field for you." The captain gave up on arguing with Freddy anymore after seeing how well prepared he was.
Seriously, get this man the best woman in the world. And a statue the size of Christ, like come on. Look, even while we were all panicking, the dude calmly calculated the remaining power to save up when we needed to relocate a short distance. Now I see why Itsuo insisted on having his brother go with us, cause Freddy just singlehandedly saved all our asses with a confident smile on his face. Gods, if this guy doesn't get a girlfriend before I leave this world, I'm seriously gonna have a bone to pick with you.