Rico lets an almost audible sigh as he slides firmly into the
cockpit of the Stier. "Man, it's been a while", he muses to himself,
as he fires up the engine, and some netting that had been resting
over part of the squat gear fell to its feet, as it stood to its
full height, looking for all the world as if it would beat its
chest and roar. And then it did.

"Rock. and. ROLL!!!", the shout came, almost audible outisde
the cockpit, even without radios.

"What was that, sir?"

"Uh, nothing. Let's head out...".

The contingent of gears coasted out to the grassy plains around
Nortune, led by the Stier, until out of earshot of Nortune, where
they stopped, and Rico turned, to face the four Kislev gears before
him. Rico turned his head back toward Van and Rimov, hitching a
ride in the cramped space behind him.

"What d'you reckon guys? Think I could take them all?".

Darn. They were in ultra-serious, trained killer mode. One thing
I -hate- is someone without a sense of humour.

"Aww, don't be so down. I'm only yankin' your chain. Still, let's
find out, eh?".

The radio fizzled to life for the first time in months, an open
channel to the four gears facing him.

"The first, and most important lesson. Know when to fight, and when
to run like hell.".

With a few deft movements from its pilot, the Stier lifted off
from the ground, and fired its forward thrusters to full capacity.

"Here I come..."

On cue, the four Kislev gears turned tail, and ran.

Rico took a second out to glance back at Van and Rimov, their
countenances softening slightly, the teenagers surfacing again.

"That's the spirit. Four or Five laps of the city should do for today."

Rico smiled. I could get used to this.

By Backseat Drivers on Tuesday, June 26, 2001 - 09:54 pm:

And behind him a conversation put together by gestures and expression and a few words here and there. The gutter-cant of the Firebirds.

"..I'm *telling* you Rim," he looks JUST like the Champ action figure I used to have!

How'd you get one in D? "Watch it with that foot would you?"

"But mine had a cape." Then someone--hey, the padding in here smells funny..

Just get Yash to buy you a new one. Is he going to try and escape today?

It doesn't look it.

In these quarters we're looking at a lot of attrition penalities unless we can get outsi--"Check out that guy RUN!" Bounce bounce yip. "That's SO COOL! Can you pin him? Can you?"

I'd rather have Dmitri wrestle him than us. I dunno what's so interesting about it, Rim. "We've seen people run away before." Watch anyway in spite of himself. "Do you have snipe accuracy, sir? I wonder if they're good enough to work without knees yet."

Wait and see for now, same as always? Sure. Spot me a hamburger when we get back? "Wow, catch THAT one! Off to the right, tripping over the othe.. ow, that's gonna hurt!"

"Maybe." Squint at Rico. I wonder if his head comes off too?

By Rico OOC on Wednesday, June 27, 2001 - 10:20 am:

X_x