Hannah was a little surprised. Not only because the dining room was rather simple, just a long room with a table and a bunch of cushioned chairs, but because there were a lot of hot guys waiting for them. Most of them were adults - probably between twenty-five and forty - but Hannah had imagined just a bunch of old men. There were some adult women too, and she supposed they were fine too. The table had been prepared so that everyone could sit, and after the gym session and the nervousness of showering in their room - Hannah could totally imagine Amanda peeking through the keyhole or something to try and see her - it was nice to be able to sit down and relax. The members of the team were seated the closest to the group of executives, while the others far away. Hannah ended up sitting right next to a young man. There was no way in hell he was older than thirty, and he had short, golden hair that mixed perfectly with his deep blue eyes. He had a strong jaw line, accompanied with a perfect chin. All in all he was the textbook example of a handsome guy.
What was strange was that Hannah felt absolutely nothing when seeing him. She could tell that she should be flustered, she should be fidgety and happy to be next to him. Instead, what made her heart race was that Amanda sat next to her. Was she going to flirt with her in front of this group? She had said she'd tone it down in public but tone it down didn't mean stop.
"Hello, Miss England," the guy next to her said. "You look lovely," he had a pristine white smile, like that of an actor. Hanna was wearing the same blue dress she had worn on the party back in Machina, but this time it did stand out like it should.
"Thank you," Hannah said. She wondered if the guy was flirting, but when looking at him it was obvious that he had just politely complimented her. Should she be disappointed? She wasn't.
The guy in the head of the table was Paul Hanbridge. Sadly, Andrew wasn't there, though there was a free seat next to Paul. Maybe he was running late.
When Paul stood, he smiled. "Welcome home, representatives," he said, nodding in respect to the team. "And welcome home, all of their friends," he said to the rest. "We currently stand first in the leaderboard, and I believe that warrants a celebration." He raised a cup. Hannah noticed that the cups of every minor were filled with orange juice instead of wine. Amanda didn't seem happy about that. "To winning this race, and to the future of humanity," he cheered, and then he drank.
Every member of the team frowned. Future of humanity? The hell was he talking about?
They drank, but the question lingered in the air. Hannah was surprised Amanda didn't instantly reply to it. Or Diana, for that matter. Amanda was just looking down. Akko was kind of the only one who seemed to be oblivious to the whole thing, but the air kind of made her shut up.
The rest of the meal was... silent. Maybe it was because of how uncomfortable everyone was, but they barely spoke. Not only being in the room with a bunch of important people made them not want to screw up, the earlier comment was like a constant nagging on everyone's side. Just how important was this race? It was just a sports event. Yet, she couldn't ask. There was this... Pressure. She didn't want the one to push against it. Everyone was in a good mood, what if it soured everything?
It ended before anyone asked the question. Hannah was a little disappointed Andrew never showed up, and she wondered what could he have been doing.
When everyone politely exited the room, the first thing that happened was that Amanda walked in the direction opposite of everyone else. Jasminka and Constanze looked at her, maybe considering following, but both of them ended up shrugging and walking away.
Hannah couldn't help her curiosity. I'm going to regret this, she thought as she followed Amanda. I should be going to say goodbye to Diana. Though she'll probably leave before I get the chance.
"Where are you going?" She asked the redhead. Amanda turned, surprised.
"I want to explore the place," she confessed. "I doubt you'll want to follow me walking on those," she pointed at Hannah's high heels. In them, she stood as tall as Amanda. Looking her eye to eye while standing was kind of empowering. It was enjoyable, at the very least.
"Oh, well..." Hannah hummed for a second. Then she decided to take off her shoes. "the entire place is carpeted and clean. There probably won't be much problem if I walk around bare footed," she said.
Amanda raised an eyebrow. "You know, if anyone looked at this situation from the outside, it'd look as if you wanted to, like... spend time with me?" she smiled.
Hannah froze. "You know what? I'll go back to the room," she said with annoyance. She had just trying to be nice and not let Amanda go on alone, but if she was going to be like this then- Something grabbed her arm.
"Woah there, it was just a joke," Amanda said. "You... You don't have to go," her tone probably came out a little more pleading than intended.
"Hmpf," Hannah shook off the hand and turned around with an offended face. "Fine, if you want me to so badly I guess I'll go," she said.
Amanda smiled. "Thanks. Want to walk hand in hand?" She asked tending Hannah her hand.
"Oh fuck off," Hannah said, walking around her and taking off on her own.
Amanda looked the door up and down. There were no cameras around, and it was pretty unassuming, but there was something about it that she just couldn't ignore. Maybe its placing, in the middle of a corridor, all alone. Maybe its slightly more advanced key-card reader. She wasn't sure of what had caught her attention but she was sure of it: This door held something important behind it.
"So... You just want to break into someone's room?" Hannah asked from behind her.
"Yes," Amanda said. She didn't bother explaining that this was probably not a room. It was too big. If it was a room, then it was something like a presidential suite or something. "Though this..." she pointed at the reader. "Hmm..." She ran her own card through it, but as expected, it did nothing.
"Why are you so interested, anyways?" Hannah insisted.
"Because I want to find a nice, segregated place where we can have fun in peace," Amanda said as she thought of how to open this. She was only going to be here for a day, and she had no time to analyze and plan her break in.
Hannah scoffed. "Like hell if I'd let you do anything to me," she sounded offended.
Amanda took out her wand. Constanze had modded it for easier use, but Amanda wasn't very good at using the hacking systems. Constanze already had a bunch of different small programs that worked for different locks installed, but picking the right one was the problem. If Amanda fucked it up, then they could be in a world of trouble.
But what was life without risks?
She took off the tip of her wand and connected it to the lower part of the lock. It didn't have a jack or a port, but the good thing about magic was that it could create circuits even across solid surfaces, if you knew how to do it. "This lock is a higher security one than our rooms', but not the most secure," she explained to Hannah as she looked at the list of things she could run. They had different labels, but Amanda barely understood what half of them meant. She could, however, read 'key-card' and 'medium.' There were four programs with those tags, each with other additional ones Constanze probably used to differentiate them.
"Ok, pick one of these," Amanda gestured at Hannah to get closer.
"Why me?" Hannah asked, suspicious.
Amanda considered her answer. "Because I like you," she said.
Hannah deadpanned her. "That has nothing to do with it."
With a smile, Amanda shrugged. "Just pick one. We've got a seventy-five percent chance of fucking it up. Good luck."
Hannah looked at her with confusion, but after seeing that Amanda wasn't going to give any extra explanations, she just picked one at random. Amanda closed her eyes, half-expecting an alarm to go off at any moment. A one in four chance wasn't the worst she'd ever done, but it was still a one-in-four, which meant three out of four times they'd be screwed.
But the only thing that happened was that the lock's light suddenly turned green. Amanda reacted quickly and opened the door. The inside of the room was dark. "You sure we should be doing this?" Hannah asked nervously.
"If you want to leave, go, I wouldn't want to get you in trouble," Amanda said with honesty.
Hannah hesitated. "Whatever, let's just get in," she said, stepping into the room.
Amanda smiled as she followed. The door closed behind them. Searching around, Amanda found the light switch, pressed it, and looked around. Both her and Hannah were astonished by what they saw.
It was a room full of... nothing. There was nothing in it. Not only that, it was small. Just a couple of meters wide and a couple of meters long. No bigger than the rooms they'd first gotten when leaving Earth on the Dragon.
"What the hell is this?" Amanda asked, frowning.
"Maybe it's some kind of janitor closet?" Hannah suggested. Amanda shook her head. Something like that made no sense, since the room had no shelves or, well, anything. It was surprising it even had a light.
"I was joking before when I said I wanted a place to have sex, but I honestly can't think of any reason this would exist," she approached the walls, knocking them with her knuckles. "Soundproof."
Hannah's expression slowly shifted to a grimace. "It can't possibly be that. People would probably have sex on their rooms, why would they come all the way here?"
Amanda shrugged. "Rich people are weird like that. Maybe this is a rental room, like a small love hotel inside the hotel, you know? It feels like something I'd do if I was catering to a bunch of old farts that are probably cheating on their couples with every youngling they meet."
Hannah shook her head. "Whatever it is, I think we've seen enough. We should probably leave this place," she said. Amanda hummed. She was definitely disappointed, but what could she possibly do? Hannah was right, there was nothing more to see here. No secret doors, the ceiling was clear, nothing.
"Man, what a waste of time," Amanda said as she opened the door again.
"Well, at least you've learned something," Hannah said.
"That rich people like to waste space in useless shit?"
"That breaking into random rooms is stupid."
Amanda chuckled. In a way, Hannah wasn't wrong.
The room was cold. It didn't matter, since Chariot was warm and cozy between the arms of her 'best friend.' At this point, it was pretty clear they were more than friends, but they hadn't made it official yet. "I hate this planet," Croix said, still sleepy. "It's way too cold."
"It's what happens when you barely receive any sun during two years," Chariot replied, hugging her tighter. "Though I suppose we could use a heater," she agreed.
Croix was slowly brushing Chariot's bare back softly. It sent goosebumps all the way up her spine, but they were enjoyable. With her head buried between Croix's boobs, all Chariot could smell was... Well, Croix. The girl in question sighed. "Tomorrow's the ninth race. Just two more and we'll make it," she said.
Chariot nodded. "It's thanks to you. Your upgrade really saved us..."
Croix chuckled dryly. "I know," she said, though her voice already sounded as if it was far away...
Ursula woke up with a sigh. To this day she still hadn't made up her mind on whether she regretted what happened that night or not. She was angry about it, sure, but... She couldn't honestly tell herself that she wouldn't do it all over again, if she could go back in time.
She went through her morning motions as always before doing anything else. Then she got dressed, checked her messages, tried to shake off the awkwardness she still felt from the previous day and then did some stretching. Practice would start soon. Akko was probably up, and also aware of the fact that Diana was already gone. Ursula checked the messages on her wand. A message from the blonde had arrived. She was, indeed, already home.
After tidying up her room, always making sure not to wake Sucy up, Ursula exited and started her way towards the track. They would do some physical training, since they had the chance, rather than just using the simulator.
"Oh, the human coach," suddenly, a screeching voice spoke from behind her. "What was it... Ursula, I think?" The way he pronounced the name in his screeching voice instantly gave Ursula a chill. She wasn't surprised to see Horn behind her. "Who would have thought they'd give us rooms so close to each other."
"Hello, Horn," Ursula took the hand he was offering. She could see in his posture that he was feeling confident. In fact, the slight way his shoulders seemed to drop indicated more of a cocky attitude, not just confidence. Daemons were just as expressive as humans, if you learned how their bodies moved. "It is strange, I believe."
"Well, I'm sure they're just trying to prepare us for the next big trip, eh?" Horn said, his body shaking slightly with a chuckle. Ursula had heard of the bet going on, of course.
"I think you'll be surprised," was all Ursula replied before turning and leaving Horn be.
Horn didn't say anything else, but Ursula wasn't as confident as she wanted to be. Constanze had done some minor tweaks to the Shooting Star the last few days, so something could go wrong. And Akko was determined, but she just seemed incapable of getting used to flying on her own planet. Ursula wasn't really superstitious, but the home-race curse was... well, it had a name for a reason.
Hopefully everything would be ok.
Akko woke up and Diana wasn't there. She waited, but Diana didn't appear. Had she maybe pushed it too far the previous day? Diana had made her desires clear, but Akko had pushed her to giving in to her desires. Maybe she hadn't wanted that and she had decided to sleep elsewhere.
After dressing up, she went straight to Barbara's room. She knocked with some insistence. The one to appear on the other side was Lotte. "Akko? Is something wrong?" She asked, rubbing one of her eyes. Akko tried to ignore the fact that she was wearing a t-shirt that was clearly bigger than her usual size.
"Diana left last night and she hasn't come back," Akko explained. "You... haven't seen her, right?" She asked with some nervousness.
Lotte frowned. "Akko, she's not going to come back so soon," she said.
"Huh?"
Lotte seemed as confused as Akko was by the situation, until realization hit her. "Oh. Wait, she... didn't tell you?" she asked with surprise.
"Tell me what?"
Lotte hesitated. "I... I don't know if I should tell you," she said. "If she didn't, then..."
"Just do it!" Barbara said from inside the room. She sounded annoyed. "They're a couple, despite what they say."
Lotte shook her head. "Akko, Diana will be gone probably until we leave the planet," she explained. Akko's eyes widened. "She had some kind of family trouble and went to see them."
"Oh," Akko pursed her lips. "I wonder why she didn't tell me..." So Akko was right, then. Diana was avoiding her.
"Because she's a moron," Barbara appeared on Akko's line of view. She was covered with a towel. "If she hasn't told you it's because she doesn't want you to worry. She's got trouble at home, she'll tell you when she's ready," she yawned. "Just don't hold it against her if she's snappy when she comes back."
Akko pouted. "I see," she said, feeling disappointed. "I... I guess I'll continue with my day," she sighed, leaving Barbara and Lotte to whatever they were doing.
So Diana had just... left? Akko felt her soul dropping to her feet. Why hadn't she said anything? She had just mentioned having to do something, she never said she wouldn't come back! Akko brushed her lips with a finger, remembering the feeling of the intense kiss they'd had the previous day. Diana had also enjoyed it, right? Akko wanted to see her. Ugh, this was the worst. She felt torn between going back and asking Barbara where Diana lived so that she could go see her or just leaving her be.
For now, she should probably go brush her teeth and all that before going to practice.
Diana entered the mansion through the backdoor.
"It was you, wasn't it, Anna?" Diana asked as the door behind them closed. They were in an old stone room a set of stairs leading up to the mansion proper. Behind her, Diana heard some uncomfortable shuffling of clothes as Anna, their maid, moved.
"Was it that obvious, young lady?" Anna asked.
"No," Diana shook her head. She was wearing her Earth Team's g-suit. She wanted to make a point. "But Daryl would have never decided to make that call on her own. I thank you."
"I was trying to stop her, but it didn't work. I'm sorry," she bowed in respect. Diana had been putting on her neutral face for hours now, mostly to regain the practice she felt like she had lost after all the emotions of the past few weeks.
"It's fine," she said. She looked around the room. There were a couple chairs and a lamp. Both of them were covered in spider webs. "I assume the little remaining staff we had left too?"
"There's only five of us left, young lady," Anna said. She wore her usual maid outfit, and she had her brown hair up in a bun. "I'm sorry, I should be able to-"
"Don't apologize. You're a single person. No matter how good you are, you can't take care of everything..." Diana paused as she heard hissing. She looked down to find a white snake slowly approaching her. She scoffed at it, wanting to kick it, but the creature quickly felt her hostility and fled. It went upstairs, where soon footsteps arrived.
Wearing a night gown, a still relatively young woman stood in the set of stairs with her hair up in a ponytail. Her blue eyes were lighter than Diana's, her tea-green strands of hair mixed with the almost white blonde more saturated, but she was without a doubt a Cavendish.
"My, what is this," Daryl said in her voice that was almost as revolting as her pet snake's hissing, "When I heard footsteps I almost assumed it'd be a burglar," she said with a smirk.
"I apologize for surprising you, Aunt," Diana said with as much venom as she could. Her face remained perfectly unchanging, though.
"I didn't think you'd actually come. You could have called," she said. Her smiling face was something Diana had grown used to hating. "Particularly if you were going to arrive so early in the morning. Don't you have a race to pilot in?" she asked while looking Diana's attire up and down.
"I've come to take care of some things. You shouldn't worry about me, there's already a great pilot as a replacement for my absence," Diana replied as calmly as she could.
"I see. I can't express how happy I am to see you," Daryl said. The sarcasm in her voice could have probably been heard all the way to Darkworld. "Plus, you being here, it'll certainly make tomorrow's dinner more interesting."
"What do you mean?" Diana furrowed her brow.
"You'll see, soon," Daryl chuckled. Then, she slowly walked upstairs again, her snake following her. Diana wondered why the thing hated her so much. Diana had only been kind to her during her first years of life. Well, like mother like daughter.
And speaking of daughters, she wondered where the hell were her cousins...
Constanze finished screwing her last bolt and, with a sigh, she got out of the Shooting Star.
It had been arduous work. She had needed all of her stanbots, and even human assistants. Most of them had frowned upon the new changes to the Shooting Star, but all in all everything should be fine. Shields were upgraded, the entire structure had been strengthened, the weapons had been changed for ones with more power - being on Earth was convenient.
When everything was finished, she called her stanbots. They all turned into little squares and combined to make a big block of metal that no one dared move. She had also used this chance to make sure that none of her human assistants tried to mess up with the process. None of them had, though a couple of them didn't like working under the command of a tiny sixteen year old girl.
It was a common reaction. Constanze did a final checkup of every system in the ship and, upon seeing that nothing was wrong, she nodded softly and gave her thumbs up to her helpers. They all sighed in relief and started walking away, ready to get a shower and a break. Poor guys had only gotten a couple breaks in the last week, one when Constanze had gone to the dinner with Diana and the other when she had gone to the pool to check the underwater functions of her stanbots.
Constanze exited the hangar of the Dragon and looked around. There was a lot of people swimming on the ocean, since the whole place had a magic field around it to drive away fish or other animals. Constanze went to the closest bathroom, got rid of her utilitarian outfit and threw on her swimsuit. Then she exited the place, gave her clothes to a stanbot and exited the Hangar ready to take a bath on the ocean.
She often liked to use different kinds of floaters to make it easier for herself. She knew how to swim, and while she was no pro she also wouldn't consider she was bad at it. She often preferred to just stay in place doing stuff, which was where floaters came in. A lot of people seemed to find them embarrassing, but Constanze couldn't have cared any less.
Not that she had any on her right now, but she wished she had.
Swimming in the area that was brimming with people soon proved to be too annoying, as some people had started to look at her like if she was a lost child, so she decided to take it further. The magical field around The Island was of about five hundred meters away from the building, so she could totally do it. She made sure to bring some siren-stanbots (Working name) with her in case anything happened to her, though.
It was a good amount of time she spent swimming around. She had been already tired, and this session of exercise was more than what she usually got. Pilots and gunmen had to do some physical training to be able to withstand g-forces, but mechanics and different technicians like Constanze, Barbara or Lotte didn't really have to worry much about that.
Constanze decided to go back in when she saw some clouds looming over the horizon. It would be a while since they got closer, and it wasn't sure it'd be any kind of rain, but she was getting tired anyways. The feeling of being back home was a good one, but she was still more interested in her work.
A couple kids tried to take one of her two stanbots. When the stanbot kicked their legs and they ran away crying, the kids' parents gave Constanze a angry looks. She shrugged. Their fault for trying to touch her things.
"You should be glad you got that permit," the voice of the supervisor surprised her from behind. "If it was me, I'd take those little demons away from you in a heartbeat." Constanze looked up at him. She brought up her wand menacingly. "See? This is what I mean, you can't go around threatening people's ankles like that."
Constanze stared at him intensely. His balding head was probably one of the reasons he was always so angry.
Then she turned and walked away, as if he wasn't there. The guy followed her, at a safe distance away from her stanbots. "I'm serious, kid. You modify a broom and mess up our contract, you make every guy in my team angry at you. It's not ok, I don't care if you're a genius or not. The new broom arriving tomorrow is the symbol of our truce with the sponsors, if you mess with it..."
Constanze paused. She turned around with a confused look. They were already inside the hangar, and some people came and went, walking inside it. Some looked at them, probably thinking they were father and daughter. "Wait," the supervisor said. What was his name? Constanze had never bothered learning it. "You don't know? I told the guys to-" He stopped, smirking. "See? This is what I meant." Constanze kept looking at him. The question in the air was obvious. "Oh, now you want to know, don't you? Well, it would sure be a shame if..." he trailed off as he saw Constanze raising her wand again. "Put that down, come on."
She waved it, and the two stanbots suddenly jumped and seemed to crash in the air. In truth, they were combining. Soon, a bigger stanbot appeared. It reached the height of Constanze's mid-thigh, and it would certainly leave a mark if it hit something.
"O-ok, relax, fine, I'll tell you. Fuck, you're way too aggressive, girl," he said. Constanze lowered her wand. Now, what was that about a new broom...?