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

===Acquisitions===

Jake leaned against a support pole in a tent in the markets, his back shaking a bit.  Remilia was at his side, worried.  “Jake?” she asked quietly.

“It’s just the gravity.  I’m still a bit short of breath from those damn anticoncussives,” Jake said.  “I’m all right.”

Remilia nodded, stepping back.  Venus was at the counter in the tent, signing an autograph and paying for a vox cozy with the Skarokk city-state emblem on it.  “Thanks, your Highness, you are most kind,” the vendor praised her, before her tone turned low.  “My apologies for the hassle the other night.  Please do not judge us all by our most embittered neighbors.”

“I don’t,” Venus said.  “Farewell.”  She walked back over to the others, sliding the cozy on with a *click*.

“This is so cool.  There’s a little hatch for the charge cord,” she said excitedly.  Jake straightened up, smiling at the trinket.  Venus read a message from the governor she had received on her vox since she had checked it last and switched it off.

“Nice find.”

“You want to stop for a drink?  You look extra pale,” Venus observed.

“I do, actually,” Jake said gratefully.  “The anticoncussives are getting to me in this gravity.”

“Sure thing,” Venus said, eyes settling on a small drink cart at the end of the market row.  Nocturneans, wise in the ways of their world, were never without a source of hydration in public, it seemed.  Jake sank onto a bench on the roadside beyond the market row and Remilia bought drinks for the three of them.  They settled onto the bench and sipped, as Jake checked his vox clock.

“Wow.  It’s much earlier than it feels.”

“You’re still tired,” Remilia observed.

“What exactly did they do to me at the hospital?” Jake asked.

Remilia explained.  “Dug some glass out of your head and stitched you back up with protein cord, gave you some triethyl mono-submorozin to prevent brain damage, gave you some anticoncussives for good measure, and sealed it up.  Minus the glass, it’s the same thing they did to me after I shattered the fuck out of my leg four years back in practice,” Remilia said.  She rolled one pant leg up until a tracery of faded white scars that stretched clean around her left thigh were plainly visible under the red sun.

“Yow,” Jake said.  “How did you manage that?”

“The ball went left, my torso went backwards, my leg went right, my foot went forward,” Remilia recited.  She smirked at his shudder.  “Spent a week in the hospital after they figured I cracked my head on the fall, too.”

“You and Alex both have good sports catastrophe stories,” Jake chuckled.  “I’ll stick with sitting behind a nice, safe desk, drawing things.”

“Paper cuts certainly heal faster than compound fractures, even mine,” Remilia guessed.

“Yep.”  Jake sat back and held an ice cube on his tongue, cooling his mouth off.  Venus stood and dropped her empty drink cup in a nearby recycling bin, leaving her bag behind.

“You guys mind if I go drop off a message?” she asked, as a passing Techmarine, the same one that had caught Freya and Alex’s eye, clomped up the road towards the public tram station.

“Go ahead,” Remilia said as Jake nodded.  Venus walked up to the Techmarine and asked him to halt, discussing something with him.

Jake let the ice melt and swallowed.  “Even here, it’s hot enough to fry soylens on the pavement.”

“Yeah.  Apparently the whole city freezes solid in the Time of Trial when the glaciers up the mountain freeze,” Remilia said idly.

Venus returned from the Techmarine.  “Tech-Brother Corensia said that he would be happy to pass along our acceptance to a dinner with the Governor before we depart and where the hell is my stuff?” she suddenly asked.

“What?”  Jake sat up.

“My bag.  I left it on the ground next to the bench.  Where is it?” she asked, pointing.  Sure enough, her bag was gone.

Remilia swore and vaulted up off the bench.  The bag wasn’t in the hands of any of the nearby people, and somehow it had been snatched out from under even her senses.  “Fuck!”

“What the hell is wrong with this city?!” Venus snarled.

A serf materialized behind them.  “Is this yours, Princess Venus?” he asked, her bag in his hands.

“Yes!  What happened?” Venus asked, snatching it up and rifling through it.

“The perpetrator dropped it on top of a trash barrel in the alley behind us, your Highness, with this,” the serf said, passing her a note.  She grabbed it and read it aloud.

“‘I wouldn’t have taken it if I had known it was yours, Princess,’” Venus said.  Her hand shook with suppressed anger as she handed the note back to the serf, who pocketed it.  “My city fills with vermin and I can do nothing without ruining the trip any more than it already has been,” she snarled.  She turned to the serf, eyes glaring through her shades.  “Put the Enforcers on it.”

“Yes, your Highness,” the serf said, then turned away to speak into his collar.

“Would someone like to tell me how this lift went unobserved?” Venus asked a few shamefaced serfs that had appeared behind her.

“No clue, your Highness, whoever this was, they were hellacious fast,” one volunteered.

Venus’ stomach tightened in frustration.  “I see.”  Jake moved to set his hand on her shoulder and paused.  She sensed his movement, though, and sighed through her teeth.  “Fine.  Fine.  I’m heading back to the markets for one last thing, then we’re out of here,” she said tightly.  She walked off without a word as the serfs melted into the crowd.