Sitting in an enclosed room, metal walls reflected several rectangle lights looming above. A hint of green hue glowing on the walls, one could vaguely make out the reflection of Marean’s cargo ship, which sat comfortably inside. Light flooding every corner of the room, even the underside of the vessel could be visibly seen underneath. With plenty of breathing room on all sides, various swarming vehicles took turns filling their metal storage containers. Just outside of Marean’s cargo bay stood three figures. Chatting to each other, two of the figures, wearing white robes, stood by each other on one side. Facing them on the other side, Marean herself conversed with them while at the same time, gave directions to the passing men unloading the supplies from her ship. Wearing her usual Ursula replica, a white shirt covered by a black jacket and pants colored with pink accents and belt; the female doctor constantly shouldered her male companion to prevent him from staring at the newmen’s cleavage.
“We can’t thank you enough for bringing us these much needed medical supplies.” The female doctor gleefully said. “It’s a real shame that Arks is more focused on killing their enemies than repairing damaged supply lines.”
“It’s not my job to know what goes on in a president’s head. This is also the same group of people who try to avoid getting involved with civilian matters. It what we have mercenary groups for, they say. Like the Hunters Guild.” Marean replied, a hand on her hip.
“That’s true I guess. The trip was pleasant, I hope?” The female doctor asked.
“It was okay. Wasted a bit more fuel than I wanted to, but we made it here in one piece.”
“We?” The male doctor asked before having his toes stomped on.
“Yeah, he’s somewhere around here. Bonehead tends to help me do maintenance on the ship.”
“Well please tell him, he has our thanks as well.” The female doctor responded. Tugging on her male counterpart, she dragged the struggling man away. “If you’ll excuse us, we’ll be leading the supplies back to the hospitals. You don’t know how much this will help all the incoming wounded. Talk to you later.”
“Stay safe.” Marean yelled. Waving her arm to the two while they stepped into tinted hovercrafts, she turned to look to the ceiling, then to the cargo bay. Two men confirming that all the supplies have been unloaded, jogged into their own truck like vehicles, and drove off. Watching all of the visitors form a convoy, her face shifted from a smile to a frown.
“Men these days, I swear.” Marean said while shaking her head.
Looking up towards the ship, she noticed a glow of orange periodically appear on the roof. On top of the green ship sat Yoshi. With a torch in hand, he used sheets of metal to mend the ship’s open wounds. At first glance, a blue metallic tube, three silver nozzles protruded on the top. Attached by a rotating cap, each nozzle wore a different tip. Changing with the tip, words of the current mode rolled out from underneath the cap upon a digital screen. First applying a sheet of metal over the gap, a wireframe overlapped on top. Two lasers shooting from a nozzle, Yoshi applied gentle pressure on the heated metal, carefully pushing it into place. Pressing a red button, the nozzle rotated. A much flatter nose now facing forward, a flat beam shot out to remove any unwanted deformities and give it a smooth solid surface. Pressing the button once again, a holo-screen popped out, showing various patterns and designs. Finding one that closely matched the ship, another flat line rolled over the metal, giving it a similar green finish. A smile flashing behind the sparks of the torch, Yoshi felt proud of finishing a portion of his work. Reaching out to grab another sheet, he paused. Hearing the cargo doors close, his head jolted to the noise. Placing the torch down, he crawled over the roof to get a better look of what’s going on outside. Getting a good look of the floor, eyes peeked over the corner to see Marean stare back at him from the ground.
“Yoshi,” she shouted. “Get down here. I got a job for you.”
“Can’t it wait, woman? I’m repairing the ship right now.” Yoshi shouted back.
“Just get down here.”
“Fine, fine.”
Standing on top of the ship, he looked down and prepared to jump. “Yoshi,” Marean cried. “Don’t do it.” Not wishing to hit the protruding sides of the ship, he shifted a little to his left. “I mean it, Yoshi. Don’t. Yoshi?” The man jumping off without hesitation this time, Marean screamed with her hands over her eyes. Upon hearing a thud echo off garage floor, a tear rolled down her face as she slowly opened her eyes.
“It’s okay.” Yoshi said, hands wiping fluids on his shirt. “I have my line shield on.”
Running up to him, Marean slapped at the man’s shoulders as she said, “You idiot. Don’t you ever scare me like that again.”
“Okay, I’m sorry. I didn’t think you cared so much, sheesh.” Yoshi replied. “So what did you want me to do, anyways?”
Taking out a list from her right pocket, Marean handed Yoshi a piece of paper containing a list. Surprised, Yoshi looked to the list in a mixture of confusion and wonder.
“Welcome back to the civilian way of life, Yoshi. I need you to go grocery shopping.” Marean enthusiastically said with a wink. Unamused, Yoshi stared back at her with a cocked eyebrow.
“First of all, you’re scaring me. Secondly, I could be repairing the ship instead.”
“Nope, I don’t want you wrecking my ship while I’m away. Remember when I said I was on a tight schedule? Well I’m checking to see if those jobs are still available. We’ll get the ship repaired on our spare time.”
“Right,” Yoshi responded with uncertainty. Rescanning the list briefly, his eyes returned to Marean’s. “I’m going to guess that I’m the one who’s paying for all this?”
Petting Yoshi’s teal hair, Marean said, “You’re learning already. Now don’t look so mad. I’ll treat you to something later, okay?”
Lifting an arm, he paused before saying another word. Folding his arms instead, he tapped his foot a few times in anger. Thinking to himself for a bit, concern began to dawn on him as thoughts of combat without a line shield drifted through him. “You sure you don’t need me to come with you?” Yoshi asked.
“Yoshi, you’re forgetting who you’re talking to.” Marean cried. “I know how to take care of myself. Also, take off your line shield and go change your clothes. People aren’t supposed to know you’re with Arks.”
“Alright, if you say so,” said Yoshi who walked towards the ship’s rear entrance. With a chuckle, he continued, “Just remember who use to save you from explosives half the time.”
Glaring at the human, a memory flicked as he walked away. In her mind, a recollection of a purple hair woman stabbing the teal hair man, just after saving her life, replayed. Nails digging into her palms as the memory progressed, regret tugged at Marean’s heart.
Minutes passed as Yoshi struggled to get the auto adjusting “one size fits all” feature to work. Sleeves tugging, shirt pulling, the suit finally obeyed him. All set and ready to go, Yoshi walked out of the garage in a white and gray civilian suit. Wearing a long white and gray coat, grey pants and rather oversized white boots; he let out a sigh and looked to the sun. Guessing the time of day, he made his way to nearest store. Still getting used to living life without the convenience of Arks technology, he couldn’t access his usual holo-screens, couldn’t bring up a floating display of the time, nor could he summon a mini map. Having to suck it up and ask for direction, it turns out that the layout of the city was exactly the same as Ur’s. Walking down the sidewalk, Yoshi was surprised to see how calm people despite the recent Falz attack. No one rushed anywhere. All vehicles followed traffic laws. Everyone treated today as any other day. Passing by several stores in the shopping district, he turned into an oversized produce store.
White shoes stepping through sliding glass doors, Yoshi took a breath in preparation for the task. Sea green and ecru seemed to be the color scheme of the building. Brown eyes watching several people walk through the many isles the store had to offer, he picked up the scent of vanilla while walking in. Almost slipping on the recently waxed brown and yellow checkered flooring, he skated to a nearby cart dispenser. Standing in front of what looked like a fenced ATM machine, a small console protruded from the surrounding half walls with a single red button on it. With a press of a button, a screen popped out. Heavy, Light, Special appeared within faint orange glow. Rubbing his chin with a thumb, he pondered for a moment. Knowing that the list is quite large, a small cart wouldn’t do the job and special carts were only used for specials and holidays. Pressing the large H, a shopping cart materialized over a gray mat, sitting snugly between the two white half walls, gray handle bars just over green counter trimmings. Letting off a gust of air from his nose, he tugged at the cart while reading the list. Several minutes of careful produce pickings having passed, the shopping cart now carried several items within its crisscrossing plastic walls. Coming from around the corner, a girl with teal hair skipped toward the cart with a box in hand and slammed it into the cart.
“Can I have that, dad?” the girl asked.
Half paying attention, Yoshi replied, “What’s the magic word?”
“Chicken nuggets.”
“No, the other magic word”
“Please?”
“You should ask before you throw things into the cart but okay.”
“Yay.” The girl cried.
Looking back, no one was to be seen. Pondering if he was just hearing things, he shrugged and returned back to the list. Turning into the dairy isle, he stopped to gaze upon the massive selection of cheese, questioning what type of cheese he should buy. Deep in thought, a hand tugged at his sleeve.
“Dad, you should buy this too.” The voice said.
Tilting his head to see who was bugging him, a box of mints caught his eyes. Taking the box out of small tan hands, he lifted it to his face and said in a nostalgic tone, “Mocha mints. I haven’t bought these in a long time.” Looking back down, he saw his partner machine Marean stare back at him. Surprised, he smiled a large smile and immediately knelt down to hug her.
“Dad, stop. You’re embarrassing me.” Marean cried. Struggling to escape his grasp, she squirmed out from underneath and hopped backwards.
“I thought you didn’t like calling me dad.” Yoshi said with sarcasm.
“Yeah, well I learned to accept fate and deal with it.”
“How did you find me anyways? Does Arks know I’m here?”
“Silly dad, our bond was just that strong. Really though, Arks has no clue where you are. They don’t seem to really care either. Kazamir may know though; because he’s weird like that.”
“Haha, not really sure how to respond but let’s hope that bond stays strong.” Yoshi said, his hand rubbing his daughter’s hair.
Grabbing her father’s hand, Marean smile and said, “Anyways, you should stay away from Arks. Mom says they’re bad people and are only using you for personal gains. So promise her you will, alright?”
“Mom?”
“Well, I got to go. See you later, dad.”
“Marean, wait!”
Reaching out towards her, he watched as his little girl ran up to a woman standing at the end of the isle. Frozen in place, a familiar face smiled back at him with an arm wrapping around Marean. Sounds no longer in the air, the atmosphere growing colder, everything seemed to slow to a standstill. His heart froze as brown eyes synced, a chill running down his spine. For upon blinking, the two vanished as if they were never there at all.
Connect With Us