Settling back into the simulator couch, Arrek fastened the restraining straps. He had met Lieutenant Cochran after he'd been assaulted by Sylvana and the Captain. Since his sister was off somewhere with the Australian Captain, Arrek had decided to explore. Exploring to Arrek and his sister meant going down as far as possible, and this had led him to the Batcave. Seeing as how this was Arrek's new wingmate, he had to meet him. Then Josh had offered to start training him using the palace's simulators. Arrek had chosen to fly a TIE interceptor, while Josh had chosen to fy an X-wing. Another Terra Group member, Brad, had joined in flying a B-wing, since he probably liked to blow things up, it was a natural choice for him, Arrek felt that much during their brief exchange.
So now the battle was on. Arrek came around to face the B-wing then immediately pulled up and away to avoid the firepower of the beast that faced him. He didn't know how, but he seemed to be taking well to flying since he'd been in the simulator for all of two mintues. Josh swung up around coming to try and maneuver on Arrek's tail, while Brad came in on the other side of him. They had teamed up to teach him a hard lesson. Arrek would not be taught.
Setting all power into his engines, he turned onto a collision course with Josh, he figured that if he was going to die, it would be while taking one of his colleagues with him, and who better than his wingmate. Frantically Josh tried to pull down and away, but Arrek followed him and the two ships converged. Then the simulator's display screen went black.
"Dude! You rammed me!" Josh's face was flushed said and he seemed to be in shock at the events in the simulators. "I can't believe you rammed me."
Arrek just laughed, "Well, at least you didn't predict what I was going to do." Since he was a kid he had always been able to do the unexpected and in this case his wingman was just starting to learn that fact.
"He has a point," Brad said, before shaking Arrek's hand and then moving over to another part of the hangar.
"Next time, try shooting me down, it will work better for your longevity." Josh was just starting to get his breath back now and had overcome his initial shock.
"I'll keep it in mind," Arrek said, still grinning. "So what else is there to do around here?" He asked.
"Not too much, but I am hungry, wanna go get something to eat?" Josh asked.
"Sure, what do you have? I'm really hungry."
"I dunno we'll just find a place and go."
"Sounds good to me."
The two of them got cleaned up and then left the palace looking for a suitable spot to eat. Josh led him around since he knew Mendellia better, but he was heading towards the upper levels. "We can't go that way." Arrek said. When looking for stuff to do always go down, it was a mandate he and his sister lived by. It made looking for things just that much more fun.
"Why not?" asked Josh, obviously confused by Arrek's statement.
"Well, because down's more fun, you always find better things to do when you go down."
Josh didn't argue and started heading towards the lower levels of the city. The darker and seedier it got, the more Arrek liked it. It was his kind of place. While his sister loved nature and was attuned to it in ways Arrek couldn't describe, Arrek loved the cities and felt at home within their streets.
"Let's go here," Josh said, turning to look at him. "It seems alright."
"Sure, why not?" Was Arrek's reply.
"Just remember you are a foreigner here and these people don't like foreigners too much." There was something dark in his voice when he said that, but Arrek shrugged it off, he knew he'd find out why someday.
They entered the establishment, it was about one notch under respectable, but wasn't too bad. They moved to a table near a small group of women and began talking about life and who they were. After about twenty minutes their food came so they started eating. It was then that they were approached. Identical twins, beautiful, shapely, and most certainly hot. They came over and sat in the booth, one sidling up to Josh, the other Arrek.
"Hi, how're you?" Josh said, barely able to keep his tongue from flapping out of his mouth. He just sat there gape-jawed, this was obviously a new thing for him. Arrek was used to it though and wasn't really interested in the whole spectacle.
"Hi, I'm Akat and this is my sister Inam, who are you two?" Josh was practically jumping up and down in his seat, Arrek could tell his new wingmate wasn't used to meeting women in barely respectable establishments.
"I..I'm Josh and t-this is Arrek." Stammering now? Arrek thought, he must have known them previously and obviously must have been interested. Arrek turned to face the woman sitting next to him. She was definitely attractive, but she wasn't Japanese. The only people who could captivate his heart, who he could speak to with ease and become really close friends with in a short space of time. They were his "type".
"I love your hair Arrek," said Inam, running her fingers through her hair. "The blue makes it look really good."
"Well," said Arrek deadpan, "My sister and I have had it since birth, we are pretty special since not many people have hair that is naturally two colors." He knew it was bordering on cruel, but he couldn't resist.
"Wow, your hair is naturally two colors? That's really amazing." Arrek was trying not to laugh, succeeding barely, while Josh was glowering at him. Arrek gave him a grin and he grinned back. The boys were going to play.
He gave Josh a play along with this look and immediately got a small nod in return. "Well, I am royalty." This drew a shocked look from the two girls. "I'm the King of Norway and this is my Queen, she's in disguise," he added.
"So that's why you have those accents. And you're a woman?" The plan was working.
"Yes, I'm in disguise, some people have been trying to assassinate us for a long time. They want to take over Norway and build a world empire, using our wonderful country as a base for operations." Josh was trying so hard not to laugh and he was keeping a fairly straight face. It was a good job that the girls were too shocked to notice.
"We have to be constantly on the lookout for these assassins and they could be anywhere, even you for all we know. It's a good job that we have some bodyguards in this place to protect us. I bet they've even got you covered right now." Arrek was sure that this would be over soon. So he called for the bill. He had some money, so he'd buy dinner as a reward for Josh's willingness to play along.
"Well, since you two boys, erm, you and her seem to be unavailable right now, we had better be leaving," said Akat.
"Okay, nice to meet you. See you around some time," said Josh, he was about to start laughing, so Arrek hurriedly paid the bill and the two of them left five minutes later.
As they approached the palace in silence, Josh turned to Arrek. "You're mean," he said. "I can't believe you would do that with such hot girls."
"Well, I told you about my 'preference', but I'm still suprised they believed everything we told them."
"Yeah, well, I have to leave for Paris tomorrow so I have some planning to do. Good luck on your mission and it'll be cool to be your wing. As long as you don't ram me again."
"I'll try shooting next time. Good luck and have fun."
Arrek went back to look for his sister. Wherever she was. It had been a very interesting day.