Editing Story:ROAD TRIP! (Warhammer High)/Part Two (section)

===Meeting And Greeting===


They rejoined their companions in the hall, dressed and ready.  “So…Venus, what do you recommend?” Alex asked.

“How should I know?  Let’s ask someone downstairs,” she said.

Alex snorted.  “Right, sorry.”  The group made their way down the hall to the lifts, and Venus was just considering asking random strangers in the hangar when a chambermaid serf emerged from a nearby room.

Freya angled straight up to her.  “Excuse me.  Can you recommend a place around here to go eat?”

The serf looked over at them, pre-packaged smile on her face, and did a quick double take as she spotted Venus at the back of the group.  Venus put a finger to her own lips and winked.  The serf stared, but struggled to answer.  “Er…there’s no place to eat around here for three blocks…but I would recommend a cafeteria five blocks east if you don’t mind a walk.”

“Great, thanks,” Freya said, bounding away.  Venus slid some mirrored sunglasses on, and tugged up her collar.  No sense in tempting fate.

The group emerged from the lifts in the public hangar, and made for the ground exit.  A small group of Salamander serfs in plainclothes followed them at a discrete distance, just for safety more than anything else.

As they stepped out onto the streets beyond for the first time, Jake and Alex both paused to stare.  The sky was red.  Deep, burning red.  “That’s going to take some getting used to,” Alex murmured.  Jake nodded his silent assent.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Venus asked.

“It is…” Jake said.  He looked up at the volcano rising in the distance.  “Wow…that’s what a mountain looks like.”

“That’s Mount Deathfire,” Venus said.  “To the Salamanders, it’s the most sacred place on Nocturne’s surface.  It was in the shadows of Deathfire that Dad first fought back against the Dark Eldar.  There’s a massive shrine and forging complex in its magma tunnels.”

“Sounds amazing,” Alex said.  Jake snugged his new sunglasses to his face and craned his head back, staring at the blue clouds in amazement.

“I feel like my world has been palette-shifted,” Jake said.  He stared up at the sky, watching the clouds move.  “Aren’t skies supposed to be blue?  And clouds gray?”

“Welcome to Nocturne,” Venus giggled.  “But yeah…it’s pretty amazing.”

The little group let itself be pulled into foot traffic, and they headed east.  The storefronts were still wet from the scourers, and the group carefully avoided the pools of water that were sluicing away into the drains.

After less than a block, Jake was already sweating.  “Man…you weren’t kidding about this heat,” he said.  He loosed his collar with a finger.  “This is crazy.”

“Are you going to be all right?” Alex asked.  Jake glanced over at the stocky rugby player.  Damn it, he wasn’t even sweating a drop.

“I think so, as long as we can get something to drink at this place,” he said.  “Aren’t you hot?”

Alex modestly shrugged.  “Compared to summer practices, this honestly isn’t so bad.  We had one guy drop from heatstroke once.”

“That’s encouraging,” Jake grumbled.  Venus, naturally, hadn’t even slowed down, and he made an effort to keep up.

As they walked, they people-watched.  The buildings were all squat, compact things, reinforced heavily.  They had little of the sweeping and spired architecture of Terra.  Instead, they seemed to be more focused on maximizing floor-space without compromising their considerable integrity.  On an earthquake-prone world, that was wise.

The people were an interesting mix.  Most tended to muscled and compact, with dark skin and reddish hair.  Eye colors spanned the whole rainbow, and nearly all clothing was loose leathers and artificial fabrics.  Venus’ companions drew some attention with their clearly Terran clothing, but the Nocturneans kept their comments to themselves.

As they approached the restaurant, the streets narrowed.  Buildings were taller here, presumably because they wouldn’t be threatened by the turrets on the castle.  Narrow alleyways formed between the buildings, too, and to Venus’ pronounced distaste, many were littered with half-dissolved refuse.  Apparently the locals just dumped anything damaged by the acid rain out back.

They arrived at the restaurant, which was really more of a food court.  As the group dispersed throughout the open room to select whatever reached their fancy, a few excited whispers began as someone recognized Venus despite her admittedly flimsy disguise.  By the time the five rejoined at a table, several people were openly staring.

Venus steadfastly refused to acknowledge any stares, and the few who looked like they were building up courage enough to actually approach and interrupt were quickly dissuaded with a quick glance.  As the group tucked into their fare, Remilia leaned over to her fiery cousin with a conspiratorial whisper.

“You appear to have a few fans.”

Venus rolled her eyes behind her shades, which she had not removed.  “I expected as much.  People seem pretty well-behaved, though, by and large.”

“No worse than when we went out for dinner on Terra,” Jake said.  “Remember that time at Ciordello’s when that dude started to hit on you?”

“Oh man, that was so dumb.”  Venus ruefully shook her head.

“What did he do when he figured out who you were?” Freya giggled.

“Oh, if anything, this activated him further,” Venus said.

Alex glanced over at Jake.  “What did you during all this?”

“Try not to laugh,” Jake said.  “It didn’t work.  He’s just sitting there, trying to put moves on her, she’s just glaring at him harder and harder, and I’m on her other side trying not to inhale my soda.”

“Then, he hears Jake laughing and starts getting all angry at him, trying to glare at him over my head,” Venus continued.  “Jake is just sitting there giggling-”

“I was not giggling!”

“-And finally the other guy half-stands in his seat, bobbing his head like a fucking rooster.  Jake is cracking up, and finally I reach over and get about an inch from his face and tell him that I’ll turn every bone in his torso to sawdust if he moves an inch for the rest of the night,” Venus finished.

“I love it,” Alex chuckled.  He smirked over at Jake, who was still looking indignantly at Venus for her affront to his manhood.  “So who wears the pants in this relationship?”

Jake turned to gape at his friend, all indignation.  “Hark who speaks!”

Alex slowly raised his eyebrows, but glanced over at his wolf-girl, Amazonian girlfriend and had to concede the point.  “…Touché.”  Freya batted her eyes innocently as Remilia laughed into her napkin.

As lunch wound down, Venus brought the check up to the counter, and the other four nursed their drinks in anticipation for heading back out into the heat.  “I’m surprised water isn’t rationed on a planet with toxic oceans and murder rain,” Jake said as she returned.

“I was too, until someone told me the size of the ice deposits on Prometheus.  They just rip glaciers up whole and drop them into purifiers in Clymene, one of the cities we’re going to visit,” Venus said.  “Then they just send them wherever they’re needed on the planet.  They don’t need to do that much, now, though, the population is pretty stable.”  She sank into her chair at the table and sighed contentedly.  “We chose well.”

“Yeah, this place was great.  I can’t even pronounce what I ordered, though,” Alex joked.

“It was sauroch flank.  A massive herd critter from out in the deserts,” Venus said.  “Good eats.  Dad brought some home once.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of the plainclothesmen at their own table slide his fingers across the butt of his needle pistol.  Venus looked straight at him and cocked her head in silent question, feeling her heartbeat pick up.  He saw her glance his way and shook his head as the other serfs visibly relaxed.

Her shirt moved.  Venus glanced down to see a young girl – couldn’t have been more than three – standing awkwardly next to her chair, tugging her shirt.  She had one hand on her mouth, and was staring up at Venus in evident confusion.  Venus stared back through her shades.  “Hi.  Can I help you?” Venus asked.

“Stop that!” her mother hissed at the infant, grabbing her and lifting her up.  “Leave the Princess alone!”  The weary-looking woman took a few respectful steps back before starting to take a knee.

“Stop,” Venus said quietly, her voice hard as steel for an instant.  The woman froze.  “Sit down.  I don’t mind.  And I wouldn’t be here in disguise if I wanted people kneeling.”

“Uh…all right, sorry, your Highness,” the woman said, sitting back down at the table next to the little group.

Venus smiled to take the sting out of her words.  “She’s a cutie.  What’s her name?”

“Ly’Sung,” the mother said.

“Nice.”  Venus grinned broadly at the baby before turning back to her own group.  “You guys ready to head out?”

“Sure,” Freya said, standing and stretching.  “Where to now?”

“Dunno.  Castle first.  Then I want to go see the shops a bit,” Venus said.  She leaned over to Ly’Sung, still clinging to her mother.  “Bye.”

The baby stared silently at her as her mother managed a nervous smile.

Outside, the group started back to the castle.  Jake turned to look at Venus through his own shades.  “You made a friend.”

“I did.”  Venus smiled.  “I don’t remember her making a sound the entire time.  I wish all kids were that well-behaved.”

“She still grabs strangers,” Jake chuckled.

“Eh, can’t win ‘em all.”

Remilia slung an arm around her shorter cousin’s shoulders, gesturing broadly.  “They just want to acknowledge their Queen.”

“Bah,” Venus scoffed, shrugging her cousin off.

As they walked back to the castle, the wind picked up considerably.  The temperature rose with it, until Jake and Alex both were panting.  Freya and Remilia – iceworlders both – were looking pretty overheated as well.  As they arrived at the castle, Jake actually stopped to lean on the doorway.  The serfs on either side of the entrance both looked at him askance.

“You all right, baby?” Venus asked, glancing over her shoulder as she heard him stop.

“No,” he managed.  “This…this is bad.”

“Do you need to sit down?” Venus said worriedly, walking up to him and taking his free hand.

“I need to lie down,” he said, sweat pouring off of his head.  “And have a haircut, and an ice bath,” he continued as he slowly followed her to the lifts.