A night on the town

by Shadur t'Kharn


Hotel Takkat, penthouse Time: 'elifno. Evening-ish.

Rens sighed in contentment as he sank into the steaming bath and closed his eyes, thinking back at what had happened.

*Man, what a day.... If somebody walked up to us 24 hours ago and told me that I'd be seeing the next sunset in Chiba City in another dimension I'd have had him tested for cRaCk-smoking on duty....*

{Good thing Nexx knew that bigwig in at that office. Getting jailed would have sucked. Wonder how she can afford the penthouse in the local Ritz...}

*The lady's well connected, obviously.... This is probably where she came from in the first place.*

{Whatever....} and Shad's mind-voice drifted off to blissful sleep, leaving Rens alone. For all of 30 seconds until he, too, drifted off.

Several hours later he woke up, dried himself off and examined the clothes that had been delivered. The ones he'd been wearing had been ruined when he shapeshifted in mid-air, so he'd ordered new ones from Room Service. He'd asked for "black and casual" and they had obviously done their best to oblige. The pants were a pretty basic model that'd go unnoticed nearly anywhere on Earth, but the shirt-no, it was more like a tunic- resembled something more usually seen in the Middle Ages or classic Sci Fi movies.

*Ah well. They'll do. At least they do have bandannas here.*

Rens got dressed and walked out into the living room. It was still dark, and the room was empty.

{They're probably asleep. We might as well do the same.}

Rens turned around and headed for one of the bedrooms when Nexx teleported into the room, nearly landing on him in the process.

"Good, you're awake," she said as he turned around to face her.

"Nexx? I thought everyone was still asleep. Got the logs?"

"Yeah. Here, this is what they managed to recover from the logs..." She tapped a few keys on a laptop and a hologram appeared in the center of the room, illustrating her narrative.

"As you can see, there were 7 landings yesterday. Here was VR's landing," she continued without looking up as the display zoomed in on a group of 6 dots apparently positioned a short distance from a coastline. A short distance into the sea, that is.

"... And this is where we came to Chi-lin. This one I'm assuming is where you came in, Shad, and this, right here, *has* to be VR.." She looked up again as the screen indicated another signature similar to that left by the group that had landed in the sea. Rens looked at it more closely. Two dots.

*How many people did she say were unaccounted for?* {Kapella, Selvane and Aris. Three.}

Rens opened his mouth. "But...." at the same time that Nexx resumed her recounting, "But..."

"... There were only two people in that last teleport, and we're missing three.." Phoenix finished, emerging from the bedroom.

"Yeah, which means...." Nexx began again.

".... Someone didn't make it to this side" Shad finished grimly.

"Maybe he did. Look," Nexx said, pointing to the 7th and last landing. The same basic signature again, only this time smack in the middle of Marraketh.

"Smack dab in Sponge Central. Hope whoever that is has enough sense about him to keep his head down until we get there..." Shad mused.

An hour later they were out in the streets, heading to the south gates. The basic reasoning was that whoever had landed would realize they were lost and head to the nearest large city, so it made sense to talk to the gate sentries and inform them of expected strangers.

The theory was sound, but in practice it turned out to be difficult to get the guards to get the message. Shadur and Phoenix stood to either side behind Nexx as she tried explaining the situation to a guard in several different languages, getting louder and more annoyed by the minute. Eventually she got the point across to Mr. Thicko and he replied in a language Shad didn't know. The general gist was pretty clear, though: "Nope, haven't seen 'em" would be an accurate translation. Nexx turned around, muttering her opinion of the guards under her breath. "Guess we should head back to the hotel to get some quick food and then start searching again." The group turned around and walked silently back to the hotel.

Before 5 minutes had passed a massive commotion broke out behind them, followed by the distinctive sound of someone running directly at them. Shad whirled around, slipping into a combat stance, to see a burly man of Slavic descent running towards them with a group of guards hot on his tail. What was astounding, though, was the VR-R&D patch on his uniform. Shad tapped Nexx on the shoulder, causing her to turn around and spot the newcomer. "Selvane?" she muttered in disbelief. "Nexxus?! Could you get me out of this?" he said, sounding slightly out of breath and highly worried.

{Talk about Deja Vu....} *there's something familiar about this...* Rens and Shad commented to each other at almost the same time. He grinned as Nexx noticed the guards coming at them and realized the problem.

"Aww, dammit, not again.... Right, put your hands over your head and don't move."

Selvane blinked. "*What*?!?!"

"Stand still! I can't do anything for you until after you've been taken into custody, so you'll have to play the good little prisoner until they haul you to the kaetoonk."

Selvane didn't look too happy with this, but complied.

"Oh yeah, Aris is back at the gate." he said before turning around to surrender to the large squad of guards standing behind them. Nexx grumbled to herself some more while the squad hauled Selvane off and one of the guards walked up to them to inquire them as to the incident.

Phoenix was chuckling. "First Shad, now Selvane-Oof!" as a well-aimed jab in the ribs with an elbow shut him up. Nexx snickered and pulled them both back in the direction of the gate. "C'mon, let's go get Aris."

Aris had already made it into Chi-Lin when they'd gotten there, so collecting here was a matter of finding where she'd gone to and tapping her on the shoulder.

Back in the hotel 20:30 equivalent local time.

Aris, Phoenix and Shad were in the middle of a Mortal Kombat-like game when Nexx walked back into the main room with Selvane in tow. Shad ignored her and concentrated on the game until she stepped in front of the screen.

"Hey, watch it! Game on!"

"Firefoots Feth'ra! Will you *MOVE*?"

"Nexx! Outta the way!"

Nexx jumped back out of the way, and Shad resumed pounding into Phoenix while dodging Aris's strikes until Nexx yelled "Enough Mortal Kombat for now, guys."

Shad's groan of protest counterpointed Aris' pouting, but Phoenix turned the console off and they regarded Nexx.

"Selvane Vladiva, meet Shadur t'Kharn and Phoenix. Shad, Phoe, meet Mr. Vegetable...."

Shad sniggered with Phoenix while Aris threw a pillow at Selv. "That's for making me wait half an hour in the cold by myself!"

"Knock it off, you two. We can talk about it over dinner and drinks. I'm buying." Nexxus interjected before Selvane could reply.

*Best idea I've heard today.* "Gentlemen, I believe our mission CO has spoken!" With that Shadur bounced to his feet and walked for the elevator doors, calling his jacket to him in the process.

{Ya know, I could get used to living in this place}

Rens agreed completely with his bond-mate's comment. This was one of the best nightclubs/restaurants he'd been to in years. The entire lower floor - which could have harbored a football field, a basketball court and a Roman-style amphitheathre with ease - was one big dance floor which was basically the same as any other in, say, Hollywood on the night off for the cast from Babylon 5, and the upper stories were quite pleasantly-decorated restaurant booths, one of which the team was sitting now, having a couple of drinks while their food orders were being dealt with.

Topic of the day was, of course "Mister Vegetable".

".... And then he *punched* the guard out, right in front of everybody!" Aris recounted as everyone else, including Selv, chuckled.

"And then the locals started pelting him with produce," Nexx continued, and then downed the last of her drink, something she called "drykkur" - a beverage that seemed to be as popular hereabouts as beer was back on Earth. He'd tried some, and it wasn't too bad.

"No, no, no no," he interrupted, "*FIRST* he comes up and asks you for help, and gives you this total blank look when you tell him to hold still, and *then* he gets carried off to the slammer while getting pelted at."

Phoenix burst out in peals of laughter, with everyone else joining in. Nexx got up on her seat and yelled for another round of drinks, which were promptly delivered by a waiter whose professional smile was being put through some heavy-duty testing.

Selvane looked up from behind his enormous tankard of Earth-style rum, and asked "So what did you do while we were gone?"

Shad's mind-voice chuckled. Rens grinned. "Well, we sort of 'winged it', so to speak..." and he began to recount their experiences in the past few days, much to everyone's renewed chuckling.

The evening went on quite enjoyably until suddenly all the lights flickered and the music died out. Everyone looked around in surprise, but Phoenix was the first to voice everyone's theory: "A brown-out?" This was confirmed by the voice of the PA. "Sorry, folks, but there's been a power surge from the blenders and the whole kitchen is toast. Food orders are gone, and we won't be able to start repairs until tomorrow morning. No more munchies for tonight, I'm afraid. But hey, free round for everyone on the house!"

"No problem, we'll get some food back at the hotel," Nexx shrugged as she got up and walked towards the stairs. The others followed her until she stopped at the top of the stairway. "Hey, you guys wanna hit the dance floor for a bit before we leave?"

Rens paused for a sec to consider the music. Pretty good, low bass throbbing and a heavy percussion set beating out the rhythm. "Haven't danced in a while... Why not?" he answered, then hurried downstairs with Nexx, Aris only a few steps behind.

The throbbing beat was almost hypnotic, and Rens lost all awareness of time while he moved with the rhythm. Shad, on the other hand, was using the opportunity to study his companions a little closer. Aris was dancing with a feline humanoid, moving with a smooth grace Shad doubted he could match even in his dragon form, and Nexx was swaying with the swift and sure movements he had come to associate with trained soldiers. Phoenix was bouncing up and down in the gangly way of someone who wasn't used to dancing, and Selvane was standing just off the dance floor, staring at Aris and her companion, the expression on his rugged features unreadable.

{Don't get into it, pal. Dragons aren't meant to have romantic lives. It always goes wrong...}