Mayor Virilitas invited Class G to his personal suite.
Well, technically, he only invited the girls of Class G, along with Meifang, but the boys went along anyway. At first, the mayor seemed prepared to shoo them away, but all it took was one look at the resting bitch faces of both Tyger and Cain to make him abandon that suicidal idea.
“Welcome, welcome! My, what a beautiful lineup of faces we’ve got here!” Reina was the only one who seemed to enjoy the compliment.
The mayor’s suite was outrageously luxurious, and incredibly massive to boot. While the airship looked big, it turned out that there weren’t actually that many cabins for passengers, as the members of Class G noted when purchasing their tickets. And the reason for that was now clear; Mayor Virilitas’s suite took up enough floor space for ten of the regular cabins.
And to make matters even more absurd, the suite wasn’t making logical use of that massive amount of space; it wasn’t composed of multiple rooms or anything like that, nor did it store lots of furniture or support many guests.
The room was, I kid you not, a giant empty space with a hot tub in the center, and a bar in the far back corner. That was it. The rest was wool carpet, velvet wallpaper, and the empty space in between.
In contrast, the hot tub was quite full — Mayor Virilitas himself was, of course, seated in the center, and encircled around him was a collection of four beautiful women in little to no clothing.
Annabelle was the most visibly uncomfortable with the scene, although she couldn’t help but flicker her eyes in the direction of one of the mayor’s companions; the elven model nestled into his left side. She’d never met any other elves beside her own family; a part of her wanted to connect with this woman, but another part of her told her she shouldn’t get anywhere near that hot tub.
Zeo gently bumped his elbow into Cain’s arm, whispering, “This is the sleaziest guy I’ve ever seen….” Cain concurred with a nod of the head.
“I wanted to thank you all personally for helping with the incident at the stadium,” Mayor Virilitas continued, his hand tickling….something underneath the bubbling water. “You kept the people of this wonderful city safe, and for that, I am eternally grateful.”
His other hand pointed to the bar at the back of the room. “As thanks, I’ll let you have a bottle of whatever catches your fancy.”
Kiria sighed. “We’re not old enough to drink, sir.”
Meifang held up her hand as she sauntered on over to the bar. “I am!”
“What a crazy thing to happen though, huh?” the mayor continued, leaning over to his right side whereupon he planted a kiss on the neck of the woman who appeared to be made of water itself. “Monsters somehow infiltrating the city and climbing on top of the stadium. Hot damn!”
Now it was Tyger’s turn to tap his elbow against Zeo. “Is that chick made of water?”
“Yeah, she looks pretty cool, huh?”
Cain, sensing an opportunity to educate someone, chimed in next. “Some Energizers are born with bodies created entirely with their energy signatures.”
Tyger paused for a moment, then asked, “If she eats food, could we see it inside her? Also, does that mean she’s naked right now?”
Cain did not have an answer to those remaining questions, and all Zeo could do was let out a hushed chuckle.
Meanwhile, Kiria’s attention was focused on the mayor’s words. She hadn’t actually put much thought into how the pulseons had managed to get into the city undetected, and onto the roof of the stadium as well. It had almost assuredly been Mistral’s doing, but how did they manage to pull that off?
The mayor snapped his fingers. “Oh, right! One more thing! Which one of you was it that won the Crossroads of Combat tournament?” His eyes jumped from each Class G member’s face, until he settled on Zeo. “Was it you, son?”
“Me?”
“Yeah, you! You just got that look! The look of a handsome hero, ya know?” Annabelle smiled. Tyger growled. “That poor-farm-boy-turned-chosen-one kinda face!”
Zeo held his hands up. “Ah, no, sorry, I’m not your guy. I didn’t actually enter the tournament.”
“If you did,” Annabelle crooned, “I bet you would’ve won!” Zeo smiled. Tyger growled. Cain scowled.
“Thanks, Annabelle.”
Reina pointed over towards Meifang, who was returning from the bar with a fancy-looking champagne bottle in hand. “Meifang was the one who won! She kicked so much butt!”
“Well congratulations to you, Miss Meifang. I truly hope you enjoyed your time in my tournament.”
“I did,” Meifang said, stepping beside Tyger and Cain. “There were definitely some entertaining matches.”
“In addition to your monetary prize, I would also like to bestow upon you an invitation to the nobles’ gala when we arrive at the Chateau.”
“Wow!” Reina exclaimed. “What’s that?!”
The mayor grinned. While his mood had been dampened by the cold, intimidating presences of the group mom, the angry guy, and the well-dressed angry guy, the chameleon girl’s pep was strong enough to keep him upbeat and positive. The, uh, bodacious bodies glued to him were also good for morale. “It’s an exclusive party for the nobility, little lady. A party that serves the finest food in the finest mansion, attended by the finest guests.”
“That sounds fun! I wanna go!”
“I’m afraid the guest list is kept tight,” Virilitas said. “I can only extend the offer to the one winner of the tournament.”
“Can I bring a guest?” asked Meifang.
“Oh, yeah, of course!” the mayor said before stretching his arms out as wide as they could, clutching all four of his accompanying women and pulling them in towards himself. “A guest of honor is always welcome to noble parties, my dear!”
Bouncing up and down, Reina cried out, “Oh! Meifang! Can I go?! Please?! Please?!”
Smiling, Meifang patted the top of the chameleon girl’s head, calming her down. “Settle down. If I only get to bring one guest, I’ll have to think it over carefully.”
The airship intercom system suddenly turned on, and a pleasant voice came through. “Ladies and gentlemen, preparations have been completed, and we will be taking off momentarily. Thank you all for choo-choo-choosing-” Mayor Virilitas pumped his arm up and down three times in sync with the announcement, “the Virilexpress to carry you on your journey.”
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Amidst audible groans from Kiria, Tyger, and Cain, Meifang waved to the mayor before ushering the kids of Class G to the door. “Well, I think we’ve taken up enough of Mr. Virilitas’s time. How about we go and explore the airship, hm?”
The mayor waved back as the doors pushed open. “The pleasure was all mine, my stadium-saving heroes! And ladies, feel free to drop by any time if you’d like to take a nice, hot b-!”
Kiria shut the door firmly before turning to Reina and Annabelle. “Don’t take him up on that offer, alright?” The girls nodded.
Meifang stretched her arms high above her head with a yawn. “Mmmm….think I’m gonna go take a bath myself in my cabin and polish off this champagne here. Why don’t you kids go ahead and take a look around the place?”
“That’s a great idea,” Zeo said, ready to take control of the adventure. “We can get a good feel for the layout of the ship, and also see if we find any suspicious Mistral activity.”
Kiria nodded, albeit hesitantly. She still wasn’t fully on board with the idea of the six of them handling a situation like this on their own, but she didn’t think saying so would do any good now. “Should we split up again and cover more ground?”
“No!” Reina suddenly shouted, pulling everyone’s attention to her. “We split up way too much! Let’s all go together!”
Scowling, Cain said, “That’s foolish. Splitting up would allow us to efficiently cover more ground in a shorter frame of time.”
Reina pouted, turning to look up at Kiria. “Kiriaaaaaa!”
The sudden childish nagging caught her off guard; well, what actually caught her off guard was how endearing it was. “D-don’t look at me; I’m not the one in charge here.”
She nodded her head in Zeo’s direction, who responded with a smile and a clap of the hands. “Sorry, Cain, but I’m ordering Class G to move together as a unit for now!”
Cain’s brow furrowed. “Who died and made you commander?”
“Zeo’s a hero,” Annabelle said. “So of course he’s the leader.”
Now it was Tyger’s eyebrows’ turn to furrow. Well, technically, they’d been doing so since he woke up earlier that morning, but you get the idea. “Oi, what about m-?”
He didn’t have time to finish speaking, however, as Reina suddenly yanked both him and Cain in close to her with her right arm and tail while doing similarly to Kiria with her left arm. “C’mon, guys! Let’s go check out this super cool airship!”
* * * *
ULTRA PULSE
* * * *
Meifang sank into the water with an exhalation of relief, slowly rolling her neck around. A giggle came to her lips afterwards as the kids of Class G appeared in her mind.
Interesting bunch, those kids, she thought to herself as she kicked her feet up onto the edge of the tub and leaned back.
Six kids going off on an adventure together, aspiring to be great heroes who save the innocent. Nostalgic. Well, one of her companions was much older than the others, so he didn’t exactly fit into the “kid” denomination at the time, but the sentiment was the same.
Class G even reminded her of her own group on personal levels as well, broadly speaking, but she supposed that was par for the course; you collect a group of six adventurous young’uns and you’re bound to run into the same breeds of personality.
Her mind first settled on Kiria, the most mature and serious one of them. She would definitely be Meifang’s own mirror, back when she was around her age. Always playing team mom to the others, being blindsided by their antics. Everyone around you thought you had it all figured out, when you were the most uncertain of your own future and what you actually wanted to do in life.
Zeo came to mind next. The obligatory handsome young swordsman who led the charge on the group’s heroic adventures. There was something peculiar about him….like perhaps she’d seen him before. She traveled around the world constantly, and often met young children; prospective students, fans of her and the other Five Heroes, etc. The kids had told her that none of them were actually from Radecross, so it was possible she’d seen him elsewhere.
Finally, she pictured the boys — Tyger and Cain. They definitely had clear parallels in the Five Heroes — two hotheads who always tried to one-up the other. They walked different paths in life, so comparison was always ultimately pointless, but neither would ever accept that answer; abandoning the rivalry would just give way to an emptiness that would be difficult to ever fill again.
She then remembered that she would be bringing one of them along to the noble party in the Chateau once the airship landed. She wasn’t quite sure which of them to pick; Reina was the only one who seemed interested in it, but Meifang didn’t know if she could weather that storm of excitement and energy. The nobles at the party likely wouldn’t appreciate her presence either.
There was the elven girl, Annabelle, but Meifang wasn’t especially close to her. Plus, taking a lone eighteen-year-old elven girl to a party of nobles far from home just screamed “terrible fucking idea”, so she threw that option out the window. Maybe she’d take Tyger? He didn’t seem like the type to enjoy a party like that, but he was good looking in the way she liked, and would make good arm candy. Er, actually, maybe not him either. He wasn’t exactly the most composed person on the candidates list, and she didn't want to risk him flying off the handle at a fancy party.
Just then, she felt a faint chill waft over her arm. Her eyes peeled open, and she aimed them out of the bathroom and into the main room. She focused her senses and her mental eye on her own chi — a sparkling ball of cerulean light — and pushed outwards on it.
A dark wave of blue light washed over the bathroom and the cabin; not visible to anyone other than herself. The only chi spirits she could sense were that of the microorganisms populating the room; nothing out of the ordinary.
She shut her eyes closed once more and returned to her relaxing bath. That chill hadn’t come from nowhere, but it also didn’t appear to be anything worth considering just yet.
But soon? Definitely.
“Hope you kids are ready,” she said, reaching out towards the champagne bottle.
* * * *
ULTRA PULSE
* * * *
The airship explore-a-thon turned out to be….not especially interesting, all things considered. While it was novel for most of Class G to be on an airship for the first time, and novel for all but Annabelle and Kiria to be within an environment of the wealthy, there wasn’t much else.
It didn’t help that the group was constantly approached by adults, particularly guards and nagging nobles, interrogating them on how they’d manage to get aboard, where their parents were, why were they (Reina) were making such loud noises, and so on.
But despite the lack of points of interest on the airship itself, the group enjoyed their time together. Kiria had been almost all smiles since the six of them set out on their exploration, mostly because of Reina, but she did also find the boys’ surprise at how “fancy” everything was a bit amusing as well.
As the group made their way through one of the halls, which were lined on both sides with framed photographs of Mayor Virilitas standing beside nobles and celebrities, Tyger came to such a sharp stop that Cain bumped his broken arm into him, eliciting a hiss.
But Tyger’s attention was reserved exclusively for one of the photographs. “Holy shit! This dude met SHIELDERON!”
“SHIELDERON?” Kiria asked, bringing her fingers to her chin. “Why does that sound vaguely familiar?”
Giggling, Reina said, “You don’t remember? That’s Tyger’s favorite superhero!”
Zeo snapped his fingers as the pieces clicked together for him as well. “Oh, yeah! He used to be obsessed with him back in elementary school.”
“‘Used to’?” Annabelle asked. “Are you sure about that?”
Tyger had outright yanked the photograph off of the wall, cradling it in his hands. His eyes were wide open in wonder, a visual far cry from his usual sour expression.
The group continued further down the halls, although Tyger stayed behind for a few more moments before finally returning the framed photograph to the wall and jogging to catch up.
By the time he did, the group had stopped once more to look at yet another photograph. This time, it was Kiria who had taken interest in one of them, although none of the others in the group recognized the subject.
“Who is this?” Annabelle asked. It was a woman; quite tall and with a confident air about her. She was wearing a nice white suit, and looked incredibly sharp in it.
Kiria shook her head, stepping away from the photo. “Sorry. I thought I recognized her, but I was mistaken.”
Zeo squinted his eyes and leaned over Tyger’s shoulder to get a look at the nameplate on the bottom of the frame. “Sariah Knight? That ring a bell for anyone?”
That didn’t appear to be the case, so the group dropped the subject and continued on their way. Although, a moment before joining them, Zeo froze in place as a cautious warning made manifest on the hairs of his neck. It was a familiar flicker of danger; like a warning crack of the whip of the wind.
He turned around to scan the hall from which they had just come, but sensed nothing.
“Zeo! Hurry up!” Reina belted out. “I wanna go to the buffet next!”
He looked back and waved his hand. “Got it! On my way!” He began to walk forward, although a thought floated across his mind.
Mistral’s preparing to strike….Get ready….