Elijah took a good look at the group as he approached them. Of the four, three were wearing Babel ear pieces so he reached into his pocket and wore his as well.

“Hi there. Elijah Winter, pleasure to meet y’all.” He said.

The energetic girl with the pixie cut turned to face him, giving him a good look up and down before smiling and introducing herself in kind. “Meiying Mei, but you can call me Mei Mei.”

As she said this with a wink the girl with the tablet rolled her eyes. She took a glance at him but seemed more interested in his watch than anything else. “Vivi. Hi.” Her lack of Babel was interesting, was she fluent in what to him sounded like Cantonese?

“Hello, I am Sato Ichika. Nice to meet you.” The other tiny girl said in what was most likely Japanese with a yawn.

“So you’d prefer I call you Sato-san?” Elijah asked.

“For now.” she said.

“And I’d be a fool to not recognize you. Arai Yukio-san, right?” Elijah said turning to greet him.

“Just Yukio is fine.” He said in English.

Elijah took note of the different languages being bandied about in the group and gave an evaluating glance back in Vivi’s direction.

“What was all that commotion about? Was it related to your… group?” Yukio continued.

“I guess it was. There was some sort of mix up with how today was supposed to go for us. A family friend told us that we’d have access to a private hanger to get things settled once we arrived, but rather than them or their assistant meeting us when we landed we had the… fortune to have Ms Cross escort us.” He said, making no effort to hide his disdain.

“Oh, yeah. She’s a real peach.” Mei Mei said.

“An acquired taste.” Sato chimed in.

“That’s a bit of a problem here unfortunately.” Vivi said, still eyeing his watch.

“What is, her shining personality?” Elijah asked.

“Hmm? Oh no, people who promise others things with no authority to deliver.” Vivi responded, finally making eye contact with him.

Her gaze was intense and he wondered if she was annoyed before he got here or on behalf of Karen. Regardless he decided to keep an easy smile.

“Unfortunate if true. We picked the Academy here rather than a military or private training facility in large part because of the family friendship.” Elijah said.

“We being?” Vivi asked.

“The Winter family I suppose. My older sister is actually a recent graduate.”

“Oh really?” Mei Mei excitedly asked. “Would we know her by chance?”

“Possibly. She didn’t stay here long.”

“Oh what was her name?”

“Lumi. Though I can see from the looks on your faces that the name doesn’t ring a bell. Maybe you’d recognize the name of her Vain Glory, Frozen Apollo?”

“OHMIGAWD!” Mei Mei shouted. “They called her the ice cold prodigy! She attended all of one class before requesting the exit exam and passing!”

Vivi seemed to grow even more upset after hearing this but she was holding her tongue for now and Elijah decided to not press her.

“Are you an admirer of hers perhaps?”

Sato laughed at the comment before blushing when she realized that everyone had turned to look at her. “Mei Mei has exactly two interests, Men and unique Vain Glories.”

Elijah gave a chuckle himself at her explanation while Mei Mei began smacking her playfully.

“As for the commotion outside” Elijah said in an attempt to bring the conversation back on track, “we brought some valuable equipment with us because of the promise of a hanger. We were given the option to unload here to keep an eye on it so we accepted. Had we known that there other things we needed to do first we would have left them aboard the plane.”

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Understandable.” Yukio said.

“So Elijah.” Mei Mei said. “I have to ask, did you see that interview on Tech Vow last week?”

“Oh, the one with Jae Park and Gloria Vain?” He asked.

“Yeah! What did you think?”

Had Elijah been more familiar with this group he might have caught the mischievous glint in Mei Mei’s eyes but not knowing any of them terribly well he decided to give his honest opinion.

“Jae’s level of professionalism was amazing, top tier. I heard she was let go after that interview though which is a damn shame. I suppose it’s not just soldiers and those who live in conflict zones whose lives have been ruined by Gloria Vain. I hadn’t known very much about her before that interview but if that’s the standard way she presents herself then I understand the resentment people have for her.”

He noticed Sato-san flinching at his statement, while Mei desperately tried to hold back her laughter. Yukio seemed embarrassed and Vivi looked livid.

“Ah, maybe we should have been more thorough with our introductions.” Yukio said. “This is Vivienne Vain, Gloria’s sister.”

Ah, that would explain it. Elijah thought. “Well Vivi, like I said. Nice to meet you, and don’t worry too much about what I said.”

“And why is that?” She said slowly.

“Because your sister is a clown, and knowing your relationship to her wouldn’t have changed my answer. Really great meeting you all and I hope we see each other again soon.” Elijah nodded to each member of the group before turning and walking back to where his group had gathered around a woman in a wheelchair. Her hair was a bright white, her skin pale and her eyes a faint red. As the group saw who he was headed towards Mei Mei spoke up.

“Who’s that in the wheels?” She asked. “Looks like they’ve got Cross properly spooked.”

Sato-san responded still faintly shocked as she recognized the woman. “That’s Elizabeth Carter.”

“She funded this Academy and bankrolled the initial Vain Glory project.” Vivi continued.

“I guess she did have the authority to promise whatever she liked.” Yukio said as they all watched a woman with a familial appearance to Elijah reach down and give her a tight hug.

======================

Evona Al Aziz was terribly bored. Maintenance was her least favorite aspect of owning a Vain Glory. She had been challenged again by some fool thinking her easy prey. The incentives to increase their mediocre rankings were high but the two snake heads and three crows sprayed on Falak’s arm were not merely for show. She stared up at the birth where the crew were hard at work repairing the arms from shoulder to hand. The idiot girl who challenged her had done something to the heat whips equipped to Falak and they had sheared through the arms of the unit.

The fight was truly a waste of time, Once her opponent was pinned underfoot she should have surrendered but she refused to believe that the maneuver would mean her end so Evona was forced to show her. The pile bunker that drove through the chest of the girls Tengu settled the matter. After the fight she was given a fine but she considered it just the cost of doing business. Her opponent was fined and demoted several ranks for refusing to accept her loss though Evona believed the actual reason was that the girl had annoyed the instructor who had acted as referee.

Evona caught sight of Saif returning from the maintenance crew’s quarters and smiled. Perhaps this would mean the end of her boredom.

“Adira would be a good fit.” She said as Saif came to stand at her side.

“Amaira would think we are mocking her.”

“The odds of us ever seeing Amaira again after this are slim.”

“But not impossible. I would accept Nishtar as a name.” Saif told her, much to her shock.

“Truly? That's so…” Evona stopped herself as she realized what Saif had said. “No. Trading sword for scalpel is terrible.”

“Thana could be a good fit, I am become Thana, irker of princesses.”

“I would say pass, but the whole point is for you to find a name you are content with.” Evona sighed.

“I am content in my role.”

“I wish for you to find contentment in life, not just from a duty you had no say in.”

“If I changed my name to Djinn perhaps I could give you what you want.”

Though her face remained unchanged and her voice remained flat Evona knew when Saif was being cheeky so she refused to respond to her teasing.

“How is the crew?” She asked vaguely gesturing to the team of workers crawling over Falak and its berth.

“Your presence is no longer required for the last stage of repairs. We are free to leave and return in a few hours time to retrieve Falak, the crew will message us once it is ready.”

“Wonderful!” Evona cheered.

The Academy while pleasant, was different to the conditions that Evona had been raised in. Chiefly she had been having trouble adapting from an arid dry heat to a sweltering humid one. The large white sunhat she wore and matching sundress and sandals had helped but she would have preferred to wear her pilot suit which could regulate her temperature and keep her cool and comfortable. Unfortunately outside of a situation that called for her to summon Falak the campus required her to wear its uniform. On the eastern island the culture that had developed there frowned upon flaunting pilot suits as well and since she planned to head there to avail herself of it’s amenities she would need to push through the humidity and her discomfort until they arrived.

The walk to the boarding platform was blessedly short and as the train arrived she noticed a commotion. There past the passenger cars was the odd sight of a unique Vain Glory standing between two shipping containers. After a moment of racking her brains she realized that she knew the suit! Frozen Apollo had been a fixture back home after all.

With a large smile blooming on her face she realized that if Lumi was here Elijah must be as well. Though her smile dimmed as a quick check of her phone revealed no calls from Elijah. She quickly jogged over to where a crowd had been gathering and as she got closer began to overhear the looming argument that had erupted between a group of workers and Lumi via radio.

“And for the last time, I don’t care who promised you what. You are not going anywhere.” The woman who seemed to be in charge of the group said. “You don’t have any of the required permissions or a storage space ready. You don’t attend the academy or work for someone who does. And your manifest doesn’t match the cargo that arrived. You’re missing a whole damn container.”

“That Cross woman cleared us to unload it!”

“With who? Because she sure as shit didn’t clear it with me!”

“Excuse me!” Evona interjected. “I have no problem hiring her on and storing her belongings if that’s the issue here.”

“Is that who it sounds like?” Lumi asked.

“How should I know who that sounds like?” The woman shouted.

“Look. I’m sure we’re fucking up some kind of schedule arguing like this, could we at least unload all this stuff and let the train go on it’s merry way?”

The woman seemed to grumble to herself a bit before waving over a few other women. They entered a brief huddle before they came to an agreement with each other and turned to face the VG.

“No.”

“What the fuck do you mean no?” Lumi shouted.

“I mean no you dumb skank!” The woman had steadily turned an impressive shade of red as the yelling escalated. “You don’t get to tell any of us what the fuck to do! You may be a bigshot back wherever the fuck someone like you comes from and you vapid little cunts might lord it over everyone else at the Academy with your special snowflake Glory units but right here, right now I’m the fucking boss not you! And it would take the hand of God ALMIGHTY HERSELF TO GET ME TO CHANGE MY MIND!”

as she continued her tirade one of the other women received a phone call, after a few moments the woman ran over to her ranting boss and shook her before trying to hand her the phone.

“WHAT!? WHO THE FUCK IS IT!?”

“In this context I’d guess we’d call her Her Holiness.” the woman said.