Cloak and Dagger

As the initial searing pain subsides, a startling realization explodes in Yoshi’s mind. He knows this poison: Yokai Black — Miss Liz herself trained him to recognize and avoid it. Yokai Black acts fast, paralyzing the limbs and inducing maddening nightmares and visions that increase in severity until the victim perishes, usually of cardiac arrest but occasionally of dehydration. Yoshi smacks his lips, finding them tingly but not numb. He should be fine, but he’s still likely to see some really strange things out of the corners of his eyes for the next couple of hours. Better to wrap this fight up sooner rather than later.

Yoshi’s instincts about the illusion turn out to be spot-on. Almost the instant the thunderous hip-hop begins, the Bat’o assassin shrieks and throws her hands over her ears. A moment later her legs buckle and she falls to her knees.

For a surreal moment, Yoshi stands over his foe and listens to the cacophony he has created, realizing that he hears a couple of things he likes. One is the beat that he came up with previously while kicking it with Mellie back at home. The other is new, something Yoshi didn’t intend to throw in there at all: the beginnings of a hook over a jangly, bell-like melody possibly inspired by the ambient music in Mountain Bird.

"Gremlins…" Zrain echoes, his expression melting into a kind of punch-drunk resignation, "…of course. So obvious…"

But Dirt can practically hear with his own ears the nasty, silly little kobolds down there, gobbling up the candy in satisfaction, and at any rate the running of the engine should be proof-enough for anyone, for the time being at least. Zrain, for his part, finds that he is happy enough to be alive to once again overlook Dirt’s eccentricities. By the time that the two have exited the Emperor’s Road, and with the comforting vastness the Station once more filling their field of vision, the young owl has even begun to laugh and hoot hysterically at the wildness of it all.

"I don’t believe it!" he cries, "I mean I still don’t believe it! And no one else is going to believe it either! Hoo hoo hoo— I can’t wait to go back through my footage!! This is insane!!!"

Zrain’s enthusiasm seems to have gone out ahead of him and infected the rest of the cadets in advance of their arrival. As the little dots of their bodies in the bright frame of the hanger bay window grow, Dirt can see that they are leaping and tumbling with elation at Dirt’s success, their eyes wide and their fingers pointing at the deep bronzed hue that Dirt’s stunt on the rings conferred to the vessel’s finish.

"Son of a finch…" Twintail says, impressed. "I look forward to reviewing your flight log, Ziawk. Well done, Ensign."

The gruff instructor grants Dirt and Zrain a crisp salute.

"Now hit the showers, you’re done for the day."

On their way towards the showers, Dirt and Zrain’s comrades clap them up in congratulations, pressing them for details and advice."Hooty-freaking-hoo, dude," Zrain sighs, "what a day. What now? I could use a bite, myself…"

The warm rectangle of light that is the storefront of Iguana Don’s washes over Yoshi like a tropical sunset, welcoming him and sucking him in like jungle quick-sand. Before he knows it, Yoshi is tucked into a remote booth beneath the comforting shade of an overhanging fern, and not a moment too soon. When Yoshi’s server, a dark-eyed salamander with a lip-ring, brings him his tea, it’s all Yoshi can do not to gawk at the colorful bolts of electricity shooting out from the young lizard’s mouth and ear-holes. He tries to focus instead on the crawling pattern of rings on the surface of the wooden table, which looks as if it might melt into a great puddle at any moment.

"Ok cool. If you need anything else, my name is Death Vein."

"What was that??" Yoshi thinks as his eyes snap up in alarm, and "did I just say that out loud??"

"I said my name is Devin?" the Salamander repeats, "And yes… you did. Did you want to get some food too?"

Behind Death Vein the Salamander, the rest of the restaurant swims and sways to the rhythm of the music which comes from the speakers hidden in the carved wooden masks and totems that adorn the space. Behind the bar, temporarily empty, Yoshi notices a little golden statue which he’s sure he’s seen before but never really seen before: a little golden statue of an Iguana, not unlike Don himself, seated cross-legged on a rock, great round belly peaking through his simple robe. One of the golden iguana’s claws is gently touching the rock beneath him, while the other is raised as if waving to someone in the distance, or perhaps as if waving away a silly joke like "oh stop it, you." He is smiling, mouth wide with joy. The little guy had a name, Yoshi knew, but it was evading him. He wishes he could remember the little golden lizard’s name… he knows that if he could, he’d be able to keep it together until the drugs wore off.

"His name is Nodo-Don," says the little golden statue, pointing a claw at Igauna Don.

No, that can’t be right…

"But mostly we just call him Nodo, Iguana Don continues, still gesturing to the little golden statue.

There it is.

"He was an ancient prince who renounced his throne to become a monk, and to live a peaceful existence playing simple stringed instruments on the beach and drinking rum-based cocktails out of various hard-shelled fruits… which I suppose is mostly what being a Noddist monk entails, in the grand scheme of things!"

Iguana Don throws back his head and laughs heartily, causing his neck-flaps to waggle merrily beneath his toothy maw.

"It’s funny, you know… back when ‘we’ were running the station, I might not be able to display Nodo-Don in my bar… heck, under old Kebo-law I probably wouldn’t have been allowed to operate a bar in the first place!"

The old bartender laughs again, although nothing he’s said has been especially funny on the surface.

"Now, the imperials let me practice my religion, so I long as I pay through the nose for my liquor license! It’s the only reason this has to be a restaurant and not a temple, you know? Back on Kebos III, this could all be basically free! And I still can’t sell moss legally! And selling it illegally is such a pain, you know? Ha ha ha ha ha!!! I’m just kidding, it’s really pretty simple. Talk to Devin if you’re looking. Say, don’t I know you, Young Geck? You got a brother who comes around here or something?"

"No, Iggy-D’s it is," Zrain agrees readily, "I’ve been craving fried beetle-bombs all dang week…" A chill creeps into Zrain’s voice before he continues "…and yeah, after what we just saw… I’m going to need about 3-7 shots of White Dwarf before I’m even ready to *think* about talking about all that."

Not much later, as Dirt and Zrain stand toweling the last of the water from their feathers, Zrain asks Dirt a question without turning to face him, and with an air of having chosen his words carefully:

"Hey, Dirt… have you— and I would normally never consider this any of my business, but— Have you ever, like… spoken to anyone? About, you know, whatever it is that’s going on with you? With someone at the academy, I mean."

Dirt and Zrain arrive at Iguana Don’s with just enough time to place a couple of Happy Hour orders. As they stand at the bar, looking around for a place to sit, Dirt spots Yoshi at his table.

"Hey, that guy was at the Records Office with, you, right? I saw him for a sec but then he seemed to disappear while they were rounding the rest of you up. Do you know him? Should we say something?"

Iguana Don tucks his chin and frowns in thought, but then rolls his eyes and slaps his forehead in mock horror, "Aaaiiiii! Another Modo hatchling?? Sweet Mothra, what have I done to deserve this? Devin, hide the moss! Hide the Nectar! Hide everything!"

The old fool waddles off, lamenting his great misfortune in a dialect of Kebo that Yoshi has trouble following, but which makes itself clear in the context of Iguana Don’s performance.

BRO, Mellie replies instantly, Yes, barely. R u?? The second message is accompanied by a pic of a junction that Yoshi recognizes, and which indicates that Mellie is nearly home, and on friendly turf.

What should I do with the roll? Mellie types after a few moments, meaning the film from his spy camera. Str8 to Bowz or wait for u?

Zrain starts, taking in Dirt reaction. After a moment, he looks down at the ground as if sweeping it for his response. Then, he looks up again and nods curtly at Dirt.

"Ok," he says, "I won’t tell anyone. But that means YOU gotta be honest with ME, got it?"

It might be the strongest that Zrain has ever gotten with Dirt. The young owl points a feather-tip at his comrade for added emphasis.

"It doesn’t have to be right this second, it doesn’t even have to be tonight. But it better be before I end up having to lie for you, okay? Otherwise, how else am I supposed to be sure I’m not accidentally telling the truth?"

Having debriefed with one another at last, Dirt and Yoshi are able to relax for a short while. Zrain seems quietly eager to redeem himself to Yoshi after their iffy last meeting, and to his credit he stays cool and speaks in his own goofy voice throughout. After a while, they part ways and allow Z to believe that the night is over for everyone, and not just him.

Cardi had promised to meet Yoshi in the Mystics’ Quarter, and in order to get there, he and Dirt would once again have to travel to one of the stations nexuses, a joint of two rings well outside of either of their comfort-zones. The Mystic’s Quarter is in the upper half of one of the two junctions between the station’s lateral "X" ring and the inner vertical "Y" Ring, surrounding the portal that leads upward and inward to Ring 1, where the majority of the station’s Avians live. All along each narrow "street," vendors hawk their curious wares and gurus of a thousand different faiths and feather-colorations offer wonder and enlightenment, often for a modest fee. A body could spend hours wandering this wild nest and still never stop at the same stall twice, which offers a problem to Dirt and Yoshi, who are looking for a single bird.