A rainbow rat A checkered cat Go tail in tail along the road Cowboy Beebop OST - The Singing Sea Sargasso, Barrier Island, The Hero's Armaments Pub There was a message on his communicator, and even though Luca hated seeing it, he knew he had to answer it. Despite his role in all of the fallout in EAD, Luca had a policy of being man enough to answer communications and meet any of his former companions in person. Even so, there was still some caution: First, Luca chose the venue - a place he trusted above all else: The pub down the street. The person he came to see was sitting at one of the booths in the corner of the bar. Isolated and quiet, but still public. The man, thin and dark-haired, wore a ballcap over his head for whatever reason. "Long time no see." Jirou said. It was an understatement. The last time Luca had seen the man was when their world was trying to implode on itself, metaphorically. "Decker..." Luca narrowed his eyes, recognising the man's features as he recalled their codename. They'd changed a bit from when he'd last seen them. "How's civilian life treating you?" "It's just Jirou now. Could be worse. I have a career. And lots of money. And adoring fans. Too many fans," Jirou shrugged, his stylish flexi-cloth jacket slipping slightly and revealing metal lines on his shoulder. He gestured to the hat and scarf he was using to go incognito. "Oh aye?" Luca asked, making small talk as he sipped a beer he was carrying with him. "Sounds like things are working out for you." He said, settling in. "Could also be better. Didn't get out of that mess unscathed either," Jirou sighed, pulling off one of the gloves he was using to stir the straw in his drink. A metal hand greeted Luca's vision. "Plenty more where that came from." Luca whistled at the metal hand. The straw was held loosely inside Jirou's grip. "Youch." He commented. "Y'see the news about the prison bus break?" He asked - it was all over the news, and when Luca had a name for the car, he knew the Driver was behind it. "Part of reason I came up, really," Decker sighed. He pulled out his communicator - an expensive device, as Luca could tell, and tapped it once. Out popped several holograms of other news articles. Various cases of arson, murder, mysterious deaths - most of them had no names attached, so far as Luca could tell. "The EAD left its mark in more ways than one." Where Decker had been looking at the bigger picture, Luca had been focussing on what was happening locally - that said, he was fighting a different problem to begin with. With Ex-EAD in the picture, things got a whole lot more complicated. "Yeah, who knew that leaving a hundred-odd empowereds and experts out of a job of killing things had negative consequences?" Though, it was never his call to have them all repurposed instead of shafted. He heaved a sigh. "I know what you're thinking," Luca said, looking into Jirou's eyes and leading him into the question. "That we have a responsibility, Luca. To finish what you started. It won't end with Driver. You know this. Leaving the others just loose to do what they want will endanger countless more," Jirou said. He took another sip from his drink. "They're coming home to roost..." He grabbed his bottle and finished what was left in one gulp. He ordered another. "And I'm willing to build a coop, so to speak, already giving it a shot." He drew lines on the table. "Finding some interesting characters locally, but I haven't had contact from any former EAD..." he popped the cap off with his thumb, "and we're not quite ready to go public yet." Jirou drew his own lines as he pulled his communicator back. "Not all of them will be so benign. I salvaged a good chunk of the personnel files thanks to a good friend I've made recently. The psych profiles I saw weren't promising. We need to end this before it has any chance to get worse." Luca nodded in agreement. "Let 'em come." "You would rather let them act first? Most of them would rather work in their enclaves than hunt down the guy who put them out of a job. Revenge isn't THAT profitable." "And I'll be offering the ones who want to keep doing what they did best, for what was right." He pointed, "Hell, you as a celebrity should be able to turn the public opinion around. Show the world us war dogs still have new tricks." Decker set his glass down with a clink, toying with the straw. "You'd rather risk it?" "The guys you're worried about are probably embedded deep in pirate ops on the Outer Ring," Luca rebutted, "the people I'm concerned about probably went into private security-" He laughed a little "-and they're probably losing their minds from such monotonous work!" "Luca, the number of- do you know how many of them came after me, both during and after the incident?" Luca held up a hand sign, indicating more than twenty hostiles. "I've had my share too..." He replied, the exact number escaping him as he took another sip. "I remember taking out Buzzsaw, Anchor, Prewett, and Wrack, amongst others." "From Pendragon, aged 23; Noir, aged 29; Caledonia, aged 26; and Noir, aged 32." Jirou recited. "I remember their files, yes. I guess I'll mark them off the list. But I'm getting off track. If we let this sit any longer, the more dangerous ones will come out of the woodwork. And then good people will die." Luca stood up. "Then let's go, we're not going to do any good sitting on it," he pointed out. "I'll try reaching out the good ones I can remember. The others? Well," he took his beer with him "you can bet I'll be there to stop them when they strike." Jirou sighed. He stood up to match Luca. "If you think that's the best course, then I won't stop you. I... you know I met Shadowcat - Rumia? Not many people have. You know what happened to her during the incident?" Luca shook his head, but he knew Shadowcat was very close to Decker. "Her cover was blown sky high. For two years, she was tortured and had to break herself out. If I hadn't found her after she got out, I don't think she would have left blood unspilled. Personally, or according to her file. There will be plenty of others who're hurting the same way. Who want revenge for whatever happened to them during the incident." Decker placed his hands on the table, staring Luca down. "We can't give them that chance. Ever. All it takes is one slip up, and everything you or I build will come crashing down. I know the media. I know how they turn." Luca wasn't the one who fronted the media. Back in the heyday, he'd be standing in the group photos, but he'd never be talking to the microphone about the meat of what EAD was doing out in public. When approached, Luca usually fell back on some quick one-liners and filler words. Now and today though, the media were taking a dim view to EAD, and the more explosive members who acted out gave whoever was left, and in hiding a bad name. "I know there's a couple of other EADs around Sargasso I can get into contact with first, so I'll start there." Luca said, heading towards the door with Jirou and stepping out together into the high afternoon sun. "Where you going to start? A lot of them went to Albion." "Let me worry about that. I'll do things quietly as possible. But, I can't help you directly. At least, not now. I'm the face of the relief effort, and you're close to making headlines WITH your name attached." Jirou was shrewd when it came to playing the audience and winning them. "If I start getting involved this close publically, then the whole thing changes." He said. He pulled out his communicator again and pressed a button, popping out a paper card with a magstripe from it. "Driver's file. That should help you in the meantime." Luca took the magstripe card, and swiped the magnetic strip between his index finger and thumb. The Grapple Stunner beeped, and the hologram projectors around his palm lit up with data on Driver: Code: NAME: [REDACTED] CODENAME: Driver, A-47 SKILLS: Grade Zero Frame Runner, UDD Flyboy, Engineer DEPLOYMENTS: 11 ... He could read the rest later. "Thanks." Luca replied tersely. "No thanks needed." Jirou said, shaking his head. He stood outside for a moment, looking at the sky. "I've made contacts. They can supply you with a thing or two, should you need it. Nothing big, but... enough." Luca was watching the sky too, looking south and down towards Ogonori island, at the buildings poking out of the rainforest, and the ridge that split the island in half down the middle. He was grappling mentally with the scale of the undertaking he was about to put on himself, sizing up the city in relative terms, trying to divide it into areas. He realised that he couldn't be everywhere at once, though - but he could at least, in time, have someone working for him everywhere at once. "I'll pay you back with interest later." "Just don't let the tightrope break. Remember, the moment the people turn against you, you've lost." Jirou said. He gave Luca a wave as he turned away, the scarf he wore was billowing in the breeze dramatically as he made his exit. "Be seeing you around, Phoenix." Luca waved back, "see you, Rider..." >END!
