(Thursday, 25th of Verdant Garden Moon)
It was now time for Jack's next mission, and his allies were...interesting to say the least. Saorise was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and swim shorts over a surfer wetsuit with no shoes. Yet the weirdest thing on her was the fact that she had her seal skin parka wrapped around her waist. TJ was checking his glocks, making sure they were working in prime condition. Hassan was also on the mission with Jack's group, but he was avoiding the archeologist with everything he could. Simo had the badger sleeping on his lap. Jack's group drove through the ocean in a truck. Yes, DROVE through the OCEAN. Jack had Chariot turn itself into a light brown colored truck, allowing Jack and TJ to sit in the driver and passenger seats respectively while Saorise, Simo, Jojo, Hassan sat in the seats behind the two. Jack had Chariot transform its wheels into a boat and engine. It looked like what would happen if someone plopped a truck in the middle of a large rowboat that had an engine. Jack drove through the ocean, using the GPS to guide him across the ocean, towards the mission in Mokupuni.
"TJ, what's our mission again?" Jack asked the boxer whilst squinting his eyes, trying to see the ocean aside from the rising sun that was coming through.
"Our mission is just guard duty." TJ looked through the mission folder whilst his feet rested on the dashboard. "Hassan, you may want to put on a mask or some shit. Since the land of Mokupuni has beef with Atitihad."
"First Deshret and now Mokupuni, any more enemies of Atitihad we need to be aware of?" In the distance, Jack saw an island swiftly approaching.
"Well my grandfather wasn't exactly the most negotiable person..." Hassan admitted whilst tying his hair into a braid and covering his mouth and nose with a black cloth. "My father is too busy with his harem, so it's up to me to fix our relationships with other countries."
"Wow it's barely been a week and I already feel bad for you." Jack adjusted his watch to check the time, 6:40 in the morning.
"Can I swim?" Saorise raised her hand awkwardly. "I can probably carry all my guns in my seal form if I have a net."
"There's like 15 Tons of weapons and ammo in there?" Jack turned his head to look at the back of the truck to see a pile of different firearms, almost all of which are military grade.
"I know." Saorise didn't even seem phased by this astounding amount of weapons in the back of Jack's truck. "So can I go?"
"We're only a kilometer away from the dock, so just wait for a bit." Jack noticed a dock that wasn't too far away from a hotel. "Besides, I don't want any of those guns getting damaged."
"It's fine, they're all modified to be waterproof." Saorise answered. "Besides, my shield acts as storage."
"Wait, if you can store them all in your shield, then why are they in the bed of my truck?" Jack asked Saorise, who rubbed the back of her head.
"I forgot to put my guns in my shield..." Saorise looked embarrassed whilst looking away from Jack. In his eyes, her demeanor was kind of...cute?
After a couple of more minutes, the group finally arrived on the tropical island paradise of Mokupuni. Jack parked the truck at the dock, and had everyone get out of the truck. Saorise got out a massive shield that was about her height and began storing every gun she owned inside of the shield. Jack considered the shield's design to be odd yet beautiful. The back of the shield of course had a handle, but it also had a kind of hole in the back that was large enough to insert all the guns one by one. Jack assumed that this hole led to a kind of pocket dimension where Saorise could pull out her guns. Once Saorise finished unloading her guns, Jack turned Chariot into a toy car form and made it disappear. Simo handed Jack Jojo, and the group began walking up the path towards the hotel, where they were to meet your client.
"Damn...it's way too hot and humid out here." Simo complained as his movements became more and more sluggish. "Boss, who do I need to shoot?"
"No clue, but if you're hot, then you can lose a couple layers." Jack suggested to the sniper. "How many layers are you wearing anyways? I told you that we were going to Mokupuni."
"I have no idea what that means, but if you called this place Hawaii, I would have dressed warmer." Simo was once again using words no one was familiar with. "From here on, I'm looking up the place we're going to before we leave."
"If you hand me your clothes, I can just send them back home." Jack offered the sniper.
"Thanks, but I'd prefer to keep my mask." Simo took off both of his two jackets, revealing a black t-shirt underneath, and he took off his second layer of pants to reveal white camouflage pants. When he took off his jackets, Jack saw that he had short, brown hair.
"Can you even breathe with that mask?" Jack pointed at Simo's mask. "That mask of yours looks like it was designed for the cold. I can ask Hassan for a thinner mask?"
"That would be greatly appreciated." Simo took off his mask, and Jack saw that his left cheek had a nasty scar on it that went over his mouth and reached the left side of his chin.
"Hey, Hassan, you got any spare masks?" Jack tapped the assassin in the shoulder, and he tossed the archeologist a white mask without even looking at his companion. "Thanks."
"Thank you." Simo swiftly used that mask to cover up his scar, along with the rest of his face up to his nose. He must not be proud of that scar, so Jack thought it would probably be best not bring it up.
Jack's group reached the hotel to see that it was bustling with activity. People were walking with their families towards the beach, hotel employees were carrying bags to the various rooms of the hotel, and rich business people were on their phones, making calls or something. In the distance, Jack heard a child crying. Jack couldn't see where the child was as his group walked towards the front desk, and TJ showed his badge, the golden shield, to the front desk clerk.
"We're here to see Mr. Rockefeller." TJ informed the front desk clerk, who looked through her computer for a moment before responding.
"He's in the penthouse suite." The clerk informed TJ, and the boxer thanked the woman before moving towards the elevator.
The group of six entered the elevator, and Saorise stared at the buttons on the door, trying to understand which one would get the group to the penthouse suite before pressing the highest button. The elevator doors closed, and Jack's group was sent up towards the suite.
"You know, I wonder what it would be like to learn a martial art." Jack commented out of nowhere. "I feel like everyone here has a martial art. TJ's got boxing, Simo and Saorise's got...military martial arts?"
"CQC." Saorise corrected, and Simo remained quiet, cautiously looking around him.
"I have a special martial art called Atitihad Royal Dance." Hassan informed Jack. "Except it relies solely on my weapon, Golden Libraria and my time stop ability."
"Did Dorian use that in our fight against each other?" Jack asked, and Hassan nodded. "Then that martial art sucks ass."
"Damn you really gonna take that shit lying down?" TJ snickered before the elevator doors opened.
The elevator doors opened up to reveal a luxurious penthouse room, and Jack could smell the strong scent of alcohol lingering in the room. The elevator door opened up in the living room of the penthouse, complete with expensive chairs, tables, and a massive television hanging from the wall. Sitting on one of the couches was a man drinking from an expensive looking glass cup, whilst a half empty bottle of alcohol sat not too far away from him on the table.
"So you must be the guardians I hired." The man supposedly known as Rockefeller greeted the group. "I'll get straight to the point, I need you guys to hunt some kind of elusive beast."
"What kind of beast?" Saorise asked while her shield rested on her back. "If it's one in the ocean, I could probably handle this myself."
"I'm afraid that isn't the case, instead, this beast is in the air." Rockefeller pointed upwards. "Lately there's been a monster that's been harassing people who come to Mokupuni for a good time, the monster known as Bird Man. It's a man, but with wings and the beak of a bird. Glowing red eyes to scare tourists, and a horrifying screech that could be heard from miles away."
"You're having a boxer hunt a bird man?" TJ didn't sound too sure about that. "Like sure I have dual glocks, but that's it."
"I didn't get to request who was sent, I don't think anyone can request individuals without a valid reason." Rockefeller informed everyone, and now that he mentioned it, Jack found that it was odd how Hassan didn't go with you to the Deshret/Atitihad border mission, nor did Mifu go to Hinode. "So anyway, you all can wait around for a bit until night, when Bird Man is most active."
"But we left early so we'd get here around dawn..." Jack looked out the window to see that the sun was only slightly over the horizon.
"If it helps, just show the employees your badges and they'll put everything on my tab." Rockefeller sipped from the glass cup once more. "Just whatever you do, bring down that damn bird. It's bad for business."
"Well, I'm gonna go look for tracks, any of you guys want to join me?" Hassan asked whilst walking into the elevator.
"The elevator is the only way down, I think, so we kind of need to follow you to leave..." Jack pointed at the elevator.
"There are stairs, but this is the 30th story." Rockefeller informed your group. "So it'll take a while for you to get down to the bottom."
"That doesn't sound like a problem." Saorise commented in a calm and almost soothing voice.
"Girl, how much stamina do you have?" Jack stared at Saorise with a deadpan expression, and she just shrugged in response.
"Well after we head down, I'm gonna go track down the bird with Hassan." Simo informed Jack. "Would you like to come with us?"
"Nah, I'd like to enjoy the beaches while we're here." Jack admitted whilst stuffing his hands into your pockets.
"I'll join you guys in tracking down bird man." TJ offered before looking at Saorise. "What about you?"
"I want to swim." Saorise excitedly looked out the window, allowing her to see the ocean.
"Then swimming we'll go." Jack then remembered that he didn't pack swim shorts, or any kind of swimsuit. "After I get some shorts."