Radecross was the trade capital of the world.
Because of its close proximity to several of the world’s nations, it was the perfect breeding grounds for multicultural exchange. The streets were constantly lined with civilians, vendors, and entertainers who brought with them food and products from all over the world.
While the city officially belonged to The Kingdom of Leotera, there was no dominant influential culture, really, to the point that its connection to Leotera wasn’t even common knowledge — if you were to ask ten people in the street which nation they were a part of, they’d probably give you nine different answers, (one person would likely have no idea and just copy someone else).
It was a city that was ever-changing in just about every facet. Nobody really lived in the city for very long for whatever reason, businesses were constantly moving in and out, and constant construction and renovation changed the city’s layout frequently. Tourists who made it a tradition to visit once a year were essentially able to experience a completely new vacation destination each time, and it became something of a trend to take photos in the same location each trip and showcase a new background of the city each time.
This time around, it seemed that Radecross’s new phase skewed towards steam-powered machinery. The city was the central hub of the Intercontinental Railroad, but with the appearance of the ultrapulse mountains, many of those trains were no longer able to function properly, and they seemed to have been repurposed for whatever they possibly could be.
In fact, it almost felt like a creative challenge had been issued in the city to shove the damn things anywhere and everywhere you could, practicality be damned. The streets had been closed off to traditional cars and bikes, and instead, individual train cars had been repurposed into makeshift buses to shuttle people around. For those who didn’t like the idea of having to take public transportation, there were smaller railway tracks reserved for steam-powered bikes that you could take instead. For those who were a little more daring, there were mechanical gliders up for rent on the rooftops of various apartment buildings and skyscrapers, with the steam engines providing the machines with enough lift and direction-shifting to get from one roof to the next.
Market Street, the hub for small vendors from all over the world, was no longer composed entirely of small stalls and tents. Instead, trains had been parked to form a general pathway, and the insides of the cars had been repurposed into little stores and restaurants.
The abundance of steam-powered and train-recycled machinery provided Radecross’s color palette with lots of bronze, copper, brown, orange, and a touch of gray. Thankfully, due to the city’s excellent implementation of ventilation systems and air purifiers, the steam never lingered in the air for long, keeping the skies and lungs nice and clear.
While the look and structure of the city had absolutely changed in recent times, what hadn’t changed was the business of the place. In stark contrast to the ultrapulse’s quiet, empty corridors, the streets of Radecross were full of people moving every which way. For some members of Class G (mostly Kiria, Cain, and Tyger), this was quite the annoyance, especially after a long day of travel, whereas for others (mostly just Reina), it was a stimulus shot of social interaction.
The two groups of Class G had, of course, arrived in Radecross at different times and under different circumstances, but had taken similar approaches once they had: locate their hotel rooms, drop off their things, and meet up for dinner. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to go to the restaurant that Reina had wanted to, as it was jam-packed, but they were able to find a nice, cozy little diner with not much in the way of activity and noise.
As Kiria and Reina entered the diner together and located the booth the group would be occupying, they noticed that only Tyger and Cain were there, sitting across from one another (not speaking). While Kiria wasn’t surprised to see Cain already present, given that she felt confident his group hadn’t been slowed down by having to fight a giant robot, she was surprised that Tyger was there. He’d taken the worst beating during the fight to the point that she half expected him to skip out on dinner to rest up. Plus, while Kiria and Reina’s hotel was quite close to the diner, Tyger had apparently reserved a room on the far end of the city for whatever reason, so even if he did come to dinner, Kiria figured he’d be late.
“Wow, you got here quick,” Kiria commented. After Reina slid into the booth beside Tyger, she followed suit, closing off that half of the table.
“A hero’s….always on time,” Tyger responded, just like he had stated when the group first arrived at the ultrapulse. However, rather than loud and enthusiastic, his words were a lot more tired this time around. “Bein’ late’s for….ugh, villains and….shit….”
“You okay?” Kiria said, taking a look over at him. While he was clearly worn out, he didn’t appear to be falling apart or bleeding out, which was good.
“Yeah I’m fine….Just starvin’.”
“Me too!” Reina chipped in, scooping up the menu. “Do they have pasta here? I want pasta!”
Cain snickered after taking a glance at Tyger. “We haven’t even explored the ultrapulse properly and this buffoon’s already halfway into the grave.”
“Piss off.”
Noticing the empty seats beside Cain, Kiria then asked, “Where’s Zeo and Annabelle?”
Cain shrugged his shoulders. “Since you three were taking so long to show up, they decided to go for a walk.”
“You didn’t want to go with them?”
Reina giggled. “And be the third wheel? Awkwaaaard!”
That made sense, Kiria thought to herself. While a part of her was worried about leaving Annabelle’s side, being a member of the Royal Guard, she counted herself somewhat fortunate that, rather than have to tag along with the lady and her crush, she got to spend time with Reina instead. “Did you guys run into any trouble in the pulse?”
Cain shook his head, taking a sip from his glass of PsychWater, which was said to stimulate the mental faculties and was a very beverage popular among mega nerds. “Of course not. The civilian pathways have been completely cleared out by the city. There’s nothing there to be troubled by.” He glanced across the table. “For most people, anyway.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Tyger let out a growl that was no doubt building up to an outburst, not unlike an engine revving up before kicking into high gear. Sensing this, Reina scooched in closer to him, pointing out several interesting bits on the menu to distract him and prevent him from making a scene. “Look, Tyger! They have Kaiju Burgers here! They’re freaking huuuuge! Wanna split one?”
“Huh….? Uh, yeah, sure.”
Not long afterwards, Zeo and Annabelle arrived to join the group. “Oh man, late again?” Zeo remarked as he took the spot next to Cain. “Sorry, guys. I’ve always been pretty bad with time.”
“How was your walk?” Kiria asked Annabelle as the elven girl took the final seat at the booth.
“It was fun!” came the reply. “There’s so many people here! And so many cute stores!”
Reina threw her hand up towards the ceiling. “Ooh! Let’s go shopping tomorrow!”
After the waitress came by on her train-themed skates, rattled off about the new steamshake promotional item which earned you a token that you could redeem at the city amusement park to ride on the guided tour train, and gathered everyone’s orders, Zeo looked across the table at Tyger, taking notice of his cuts and bruises for the first time. “Whoa, you okay, Tyger? You guys run into trouble in the pulse?”
Kiria nodded. “Yes. We found a group of miners on the outside of the mountains, and when we confronted them, they sent a piloted mech out to fight us.”
“What? Seriously?”
Cain’s brow furrowed at Kiria’s explanation. “You attacked miners? From the city? What kind of idiotic move was that?” His eyes immediately shot over to Tyger, who flipped him off.
“I don’t think they were from Radecross,” said Reina. “We overheard them talking about doing a lotta….bad stuff.”
Annabelle’s hands joined together over her chest, and worry crept across her face. “‘Bad stuff’? What do you mean?”
“Choo-choo!”
Class G’s attention was soon kidnapped from its conversation as the voice of a waitress who currently hated her job signalled the arrival of their food. As she pushed the food cart up beside the table, the two momentarily locked together mechanically. A railroad slid out and wormed its way around the table, smoothly avoiding the drink glasses peppered around the surface before coiling back around to the cart.
A miniature train came next, chugging its way along the railroad that had formed over the table. Atop each car sat a plate of food, and as the train maneuvered around the table, the plates all stopped right in front of the young man and/or woman who had ordered it.
Once all of the plates had been claimed, the train finished its route and tucked itself back into the food cart, which folded its part up, clearing the table of the railroad.
The waitress muttered some generic statement about enjoying the food, unable to make eye contact with any of the customers as she let out one last “Choo-choo!” and made her departure.
“They’re, uh….really committed to this train thing, huh?” Zeo asked to break through the awkward silence that had followed the display.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” Cain practically spat as he tucked his napkin into his shirt and unwrapped his utensils with the utmost care (not the utensils provided by the restaurant, mind you, but his own specially-crafted utensils that he brought with him whenever he ate out at a restaurant. Yes I am serious.) “Why base everything off of steam-powered trains? Draglevs are far superior. These fools are living in the stone ages.”
Annabelle pulled her phone out to take a picture of her dessert pancakes, which had been fashioned into the shape of unicorns. “I think it’s an aesthetic thing, you know? People like steam….stuff?”
“Definitely,” Zeo concurred, which splashed a veneer of bright pink across Annabelle’s face. “It’s a pretty cool look.”
On the other side of the table, Tyger and Reina’s eyes were on the verge of popping right out of their skulls, and the dams of their mouths were in danger of breaking and letting loose a flood of drool as they stared at the colossal Kaiju Burger they had ordered.
The burger was an absolute culinary titan. It damn near took up half of the table, much to the annoyance of Cain once he realized he mathematically did not have enough room to properly space everything out in front of him in ideal measurements for maximum meal efficiency. It was ridiculous to make it a readily-available item on a casual diner, really. There was no way to properly finish the thing. It was a waste of food.
Ordinarily, anyway.
But Tyger and Ryuna were no ordinary customers. They were Beasterizers, who were well-known to have incredible appetites. Now, I do not condone stereotyping major groups of people in such a way, but in this instance, it was true. It was damn true.
The two wordlessly met the other’s eyes for a brief moment, as if mentally communicating words of thanks to one another for agreeing to this partnership, praise to the gods in the heavens above for allowing this dish to exist, and motivation to each other to give it their all and overcome this massive monster, before they began to dig in.
“Be careful, Reina, don’t choke on your food,” said Kiria like a doting mother.
“You guys are nuts!” Zeo said with a laugh. “What is that thing, anyway?”
Reina tried to answer in between fistfulls of burger, but the sounds that came from her mouth didn’t even remotely resemble words, so I won’t even bother trying to transcribe it for you.
“I think it was a ‘Kaiju Burger’ or something like that,” Kiria answered as she scooped up a forkful of her salad.
Annabelle’s head tilted to the side. “Kaiju?”
“They’re big mon-” Zeo began, before he was sharply cut off by lecture-mode Cain.
“Kaiju are colossal-class monsters. They typically emerge from dense zones of wilderness. Some species’ meat is edible and turned into gimmick meals like this.”
“What do you mean by ‘gimmick meal?’” came Annabelle’s next question.
Cain dabbed at his lips with his napkin. “Kaiju flesh has no nutritional value. Eating it is a waste of time and energy. And money, if you’re a sucker.”
“Oh, I see.” The elven girl looked over at the Beasterizers devouring their gimmick meal. “Does it taste good?”
Tyger suddenly reached across the table and held his hand out towards Annabelle, gesturing to her plate. It seemed he was unable to speak due to the volume of food stuffed between his jaws, but she got the hint and handed the plate over to him.
He took out a knife and cut into an untouched edge of the Kaiju Burger, cutting a cute little slice for her before handing the plate back.
“Thank you, Tyger!”
Tyger’s violet eyes darted to the others in turn to see if any of them also wanted to try. Kiria politely held her hand up to decline, Zeo offered his plate to get a slice, and Cain shot out a glare that Tyger readily returned.
The rest of the dinner went swimmingly, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. The conversation was light and casual and flowed smoothly, given that two members of the group were physically unable to speak, and ended with plans being made for the next day to enjoy the city.
When it was time to return to the hotel for the night, Reina had long passed out, and Kiria had to carry her on her back, although she didn’t seem to mind. Tyger had offered to do it, but since the hotel he was staying at was on the other side of town, and he himself was barely hanging on to consciousness, Kiria sent him away instead, ordering him to rest up as soon as possible.
The other five had all reserved rooms at the same hotel, and were able to walk there together after dinner. The girls would all be sharing one room, while Cain and Zeo had their own separate rooms. It was a bit silly, since sharing a room would have been cheaper. It became even more ludicrous when the two realized the separate rooms they had rented were right next to each other.
As Zeo shut the door behind him, he stretched his arms up and slowly strolled over to the bed. He dropped down onto it face-first, enjoying the softness of the covers for a few moments before rolling over onto his back.
A bright smile appeared on his lips. So far, the Class G reunion had been going even better than he had wanted it to. It felt like they’d all picked up right where they left off, and dinner had been some of the most fun Zeo had had in a long while.
He held his palm up above his eyes.
This is where I belong….
He then closed his hand, tucked it against his chest, and dozed off for the night.