A Call to Arms

[Sophia]

Continued from here: http://cdbzrpg.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28042

“Deal,” Kaden cracked a smile, running a hand through his blonde hair as he shook his head at the sight of his truck. He motioned towards it vaguely with his free hand. “I doubt we’d get far, anyway. If we got anywhere at all.”

Sophia had inched her way towards the vehicle without even realizing it. She really did wonder why he even kept it around, or why he didn’t invest any of his hard-earned zeni on upgrading to a new one. Paint was chipped in places all around, the windows were dirty, and the entire machine just seemed to slump like an old man settling into a nursing home. Then again, the healer had to admit that despite all its shortcomings, it held a certain amount of charm for such a shabby-looking vehicle. She looked between Kaden and the truck a few times before she walked back to the courier, running a hand along its surface as she passed. “You can come back for it. I doubt anyone would even bother to tow it; not in this part of town,” she smiled, though it faded as soon as a stray thought struck her. “You get in even more crazy adventures than I do. How did you find your truck before?”

“Well…” Kaden paused, pondering the question as his eyes wandered towards his broken-down vehicle. “Suffice it to say that it happens to show itself when I least expect it.”

“Kind of like me?” Sophia stuck her tongue out.

“Exactly like you,” the courier laughed. Sophia shared the sentiment and held up a slender hand to mask her chuckle, although she did a poor job due to the snort that she accidentally let out. The pair sighed after the laughter subsided, leaving behind only an uncomfortable silence that was sullied only by the street noise surrounding them. It took a bit for either of them to realize what was wrong. Kaden clicked his tongue. “Okay, this whole deal sounded better in my head.”

“Yeah…” Sophia rubbed her arm awkwardly, suddenly embarrassed about leaving her only job in twenty-two years of life for a random, nameless adventure. “You really didn’t have any ideas?”

“I did go to space,” the courier shrugged, a casual move for something that sounded so ridiculous. “But…you know. How often can someone say that?”

“Yeah…wait, what?” Sophia shook her head. “When the heck did you go to space?”

“Remember Ander? Creepy guy with the bandanna, hit on you a lot?”

“Sure. What about him?”

“I bumped into him a while back. We ran around, did some things, and I ended up on a planet called Namek,” Kaden responded bluntly. He cleared his throat after a moment. “I’ll have to explain it later. Anyway, the point is that we literally have an entire galaxy just…out there.”

“Okay, then…” the blonde woman smirked, crossing her arms. “How do we get there? We haven’t made it ten feet from the restaurant, and we’re already short on ideas.”

“Let’s…just go,” Kaden sighed and shook his head, motioning for the girl to follow him. Sophia blinked and turned heel, following his steps just a few feet behind him. She supposed that it was probably the best thing to do—after all, they weren’t going to get much accomplished just standing around and arguing like an old married couple. Kaden shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket and turned his head slightly. “We’re looking for something to do, people to help, baddies to fight. Stuff like that, right? This entire place is a shithole…something this broken surely has something that needs fixed.”

“We just need to look around,” Sophia finished his thought as she did just that, turning her head to take in the sights and sounds and smells. West City was a problem that she had simply ignored, and for the first time, she actually cared that it wasn’t exactly the best place to be, at least on this side of town. The trick, however, was determined the cause of the disease, and not the symptoms. It’s easy to point out trouble when you spot it, but it’s more difficult to find a solution. Up ahead, down the sidewalk, a group of people had started to gather around a store window—judging by the distance from their relative position, Sophia guessed that they were looking into the local electronics store.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Kaden muttered, his head turned from the scene. “I mean, how hard could it be to find work? You’d think that we could just walk down the street and…Sophia?”

He glanced at the woman, but directed his gaze towards the group that was gathering in number, finally aware of it as they got close enough to discern facial features. They were all looking at a television display wordlessly. Every set displayed the same eerie image, and broadcasted the same eerie message, though the content of the latter was harder to understand. The pair of adventurers stopped at the back of the crowd, staring into the monitors with raised eyebrows. There were images of different people, all races that Sophia had seen before. The words stopped for a moment, but the message suddenly repeated:

“ur worlds are in grave danger from an unknown assailant. These enemies are powerful and ambitious; they will not stop there. To all who can fight, now is the time. Answer the dire call and register with your local Militia representative. They will not be hard to find.”

Sophia blinked at what was said, and while the other members of the crowd started chattering amongst themselves, she couldn’t help but crack a smile.

Kaden looked over at her. “I know what you’re thinking.”

Her grin was almost mischievous. “Space, you said?”