Someone Stole Sandor's Shoes!

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

"Okay okay," said Sandor. "Our strategy is this: you all do what I say. And I say.... coffee!" Sandor entered the cafe, along with Teresa and Korben.

"Come on, Amelia," said Korben, gesturing to her. "Food."

[Naza Sutera]

Amelia shrugged. This day was getting weirder and weirder, but she took it in stride. "Food it is. But not much. We already ate."

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

Korben nodded in understanding. He entered the cafe, with its comfy brick walls and orange and brown tiled floors. The cast iron tables were draped with white linen table cloth. Small bottles of condiments and tissue holders adorned the center of each tabletop. The chairs were also cast iron. The cafe itself felt very open and lit, with the doors leading out to the cordoned off patio seats wide open, and the sun shining through them. The wooden fans installed on the ceiling twirled with moderate speed, keeping the patrons at a relatively cool temperature.

"Want drinks?" Korben asked Amelia.

[MikeMurdock]

The bat continue to drive until his stomach started rumbling like crazy " gahhh. won't make it home.. need to stop somewhere. " the bat notices a cafe and parks in the parking lot.

" HOpefully they have something to eat."

[Naza Sutera]

"Yeah, sure," Amelia said. "I'm a bit parched." One vexatious side-effects of her medications was the constant dry mouth.

[Shmibli7]

The Venomian duo made their way to a table in the back left corner of the café. As soon as the two sat, Kosovo looked his young procyon friend directly in the eye. "Tamrok Leiu? " He swore in Venomian.

"You think I know?" Kimber shot back faster than his friend expected. "He called me and said that his shoes were missing. The bloody Yatish was freaking out."

Kosovo sighed and slumped a bit against the table.

"Do you have a talent of attracting other homicidal youths, Kim? " he asked.

"What do you mean?" Kimber asked defensively.

"I mean, there's Sandor, then that Cornerian red panda... What was his name? Llewellyn? " 

"First." Kimber said. "We met Sandor during the Terteroba affair. We are all equally responsible for having that whackjob waltz into our lives."

Kosovo scoffed at Kimber's description of Sandor as a "whackjob" as he was equally, if not more insane than him.

"...Secondly, Llewellyn was an enemy of ours, trust me, the second I get to put a ray through his-"

Kimber stopped as he became aware that he was getting sideways glances from the patrons of the restaurant. He smiled weakly, waved, and then dropped his voice to a whisper.

"...The second I get to kill him, I will."

"Whatever you say, Kim." Kosovo said, realizing that his friend had missed his point entirely. "But if you get yourself or Solomon hurt, it is on you. I'm done covering you and your crazy friends."

"You don't have to worry about me." Kimber said. "And Solomon can hold his own. He's a freaking dinosaur."

Meanwhile, Solomon stood in line, waiting to order his drink. 

Too many hot beverages. He thought. Coming from the southern coast of Sauria,  he was not used to injesting hot drinks. His eyes searched the menu as he tried desperately to find something cold to drink.

Eventually he got what he desired. He saw the smoothies, something he had come to enjoy upon his arrival on Corneria. 

When the patron in front of him had left with their order, Solomon approached the terrified barista. He smiles and begins to order.

"May I request a triple-berry smoothie, please?" He asked.

The barista nodded hastily and began preparing the drink, not wanting to cross his imposing customer. He finished and handed the cup to Solomon, who played for it and grasped it with two of his fingers. He then looked the café over, hoping to find somewhere to sit but he soon realized that he would break any chair he would sit in so, in order to avoid destruction, he stood on the café floor, enjoying his drink.

[SF Redd]

Korr and Sholt had gotten yet more food. They needed to eat nearly six thousand calories a day to keep in top physical condition, so this time they got medium-sized steak meals. As they ate, they had some witty banter with each other, laughing away. After a while they noticed that they were getting strange looks from some of the average customers. It made sense to them and it didn't bother them; seeing two armed mercenaries in a nice place such as this wasn't common.

"Hey, Sandor is still recruiting... is he building a damn army to find his shoes?" Korr pointed out and asked.

"You know, I think I'm already getting used to the weird things this guy does." Sholt replied, to which they both chuckled.

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

Sandor and Teresa had ordered their drinks. Teresa's was a coffee, cream and sugar. Sandor's was an iced tea, sweetened. They sat down onto a vacant table towards the center of the room.

"So, that was hairy," said Teresa, blowing on her coffee. Sandor nodded. He did not feel like talking for some reason right now. Instead, he sipped on his tea. "Where are your shoes anyway? And why bring this many people?" Sandor just shrugged. Teresa scoffed, and drank her piping hot coffee. "Ooh, that's hot."

[Shmibli7]

After a while, Solomon looked over at the Dithis brothers. Korr seemed friendly enough so Solomon decided to approach them as he had zero tolerance for Kosovo and Kimber's arguments and he was interested in these two mercenaries.

"Hello, again, gentlemen." He said upon getting to them. "Do you mind if I rest for a bit over here? My friends think thay this is a time for a damned heart-to-heart."

[SF Redd]

Neither Korr nor Sholt expected anyone to approach them, but someone did, and it was the Saurian.

Of all the people he had met today, Sholt was least wary of Solomon, so the dinosaur was okay in his books.

Korr looked at Solomon for a second before he said, "Yeah sure, bud, take a seat." with a smile as he moved along in his booth to give Solomon room to sit.

"Yeah... your friends... they are a unique pair." Sholt said as he glanced over to the two.

[Shmibli7]

"Indeed." Said Solomon after sitting down. "I guess that's just the Venomian mentality. Always looking for a fight. The funny thing us that neither of them show it unless their together."

"They're not that bad, though. Just scared. Both of them. But you don't want to hear about that. So, any idea on how we should go about find in these shoes?"

 

[Naza Sutera]

Amelia stared tentatively at the Tykiriel gentleman as he sat a couple of tables over with his lady-friend. Where have I met him? Amelia wondered. Then it dawned on her. "Korben," she whispered, "that is your loud-mouth friend who told me all your private business before we met?"

[SF Redd]

"Oh... where to find a madman's shoes..." Sholt trailed off.

"I guess... I guess we'll start by looking where he last saw them; find out what he was doing and if he perhaps lost them. Then we'll look for leads, if that still hasn't panned out." Korr suggested. "I mean, they can't be that hard to find, can they?" He asked.

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

Korben looked from the menu to Amelia, heeding her whispered question.

"Oh yeah... You remember." He had a less than thrilled look on his face, remembering that uncomfortable encounter. "Yup... Alex." Korben nodded, then went back to the menu.

[MikeMurdock]

the bat walks in as he takes a seat and starts looking at the menu for this place

[Shmibli7]

"I feel that," Solomon began. "With a man like Sandor, there could be any number of strange places where those shoes could be." 

"I assume you two are not accustomed to odd jobs such as these, hrm?"

[SF Redd]

"Heh, you assume right." Korr chuckled as he leaned back in his seat after finishing his food.

"We've taken extremely dangerous jobs before." Sholt added and leaned forward onto their table. "We've fought a massive force of Aparoids on MacBeth and Zoness, and we've been in combat with space pirates. We've also taken many tedious missions: escort missions, mainly." He continued. He looked around the room to their companions, mainly Sandor. "But this... the best way to describe this mission? It's just... odd." He sighed.

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

Korben walked up to the cashier, looking at the menu. He then looked down to the cashier, a lanky canine.

"Banana strawberry..." Korben paused, hoping not to utter his stutter. "...Smoothie." The canine nodded.

"Will that be all?" asked the cashier. Korben then turned back to Amelia.

"Amelia? Want something?" said Korben, pointing to the menu.

 

Meanwhile, Sandor and Teresa were still enjoying both the quiet scenery and their quenching drinks. "How long has it been since you last saw your shoes?" asked Teresa.

"I don't know," said Sandor, shrugging his shoulders. Teresa face-palmed. She shook her head.

"I can't believe you. You drag me across CC looking for shoes, and you don't even remember when you last saw them."

"Why are you complaining?" Sandor questioned, annoyed. "I'm paying you!"

[Naza Sutera]

Amelia looked over the beverage menu, then flipped over to the alcoholic beverages as she was feeling a bit bold right now. "...Can I have the Sunset Passion Colada?"

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

"You got it," said the twenty-something male cashier, a terrier. "And you sir?" he asked to Korben.

"Iced tea, unsweetened," replied Korben. The cashier nodded, and began working on their drinks. A few moments passed, and the two drinks were before them on the counter.

"One sunset passion colada and one unsweetened ice tea," said the cashier in a feigned enthusiastic manner. Korben nodded and paid for the drinks.

[Shmibli7]

The longer the rag-tag assembly of mercenaries, soldiers, and civilians sat eating in the café, Solomon began to become restless. He swore under his breath in Saurian as he began to realize that his employer was not in any hurry to leave the eating establishment.

"We will not find these shoes at all if we spend our day sitting idle here." He said to the Dithis brothers.

[SF Redd]

"Agreed." Both Korr and Sholt responded simultaneously as they both finished their food.

"Oi, Sandor!" Korr called out across the café. "We leaving this joint any time soon?"

Korr was starting to become restless. He ate a lot of food every day which gave him a lot of energy, which he enjoyed putting to good use. Sholt was more patient, but he also didn't like wasting time.

[Shmibli7]

Alexi Talis looked out of one of the many windows in the suite that he shared with the rest of his team in the Grand Corneria Hotel. Below him, the ultramodern metropolis that was Corneria City  teemed with life. Large LED screens displayed advertisements for various products and entertainment outlets as pedestrians and drivers alike made their way to and from the plethora of stores, restaurants, and places of business.

He took a long breath inward as he took in the sights. Corneria City: The Land of Excess. For the MacBeth native, it was a display of decadence unmatched by any other city in the Lylat System and, in his profession, he had been to quite a few.

He was a mercenary, leader of a fledgling  band of hired guns who called themselves Rolling Thunder. While not the premier private military company of the free galaxy, the rookie band had just recently fallen into a season of good luck, pulling off jobs for influential figures of many different worlds. They were making a decent living and their influence grew with every successful mission.

The operators had recently pulled off a job on Katina,  capturing the head of a notorious drug ring known as the Niran Boys for the Cornerian government and bringing him planetside to stand trial for the murders of two CSS agents. The job had  earned them a lump sum of twenty-five thousand credits, Cornerian and had inspired Alexi to give his men an impromptu vacation. That was why he was here, staring from his window into what was, to him at least,  was metropolitan paradise.

"Alexi?" Asked a small, shaky voice behind him, knocking the Dhole out of his daze.

"Yes?" He asked, turning to see his comrade in arms and friend, Tyler Udesku.

"Rush and Udolov are going at it again." Tyler replied, which prompted a small sigh from Alexi.

"What are they doing now?" He asked the Fisher.

"Fighting over the remote." Udesku responded. 

"Boi Zhemoi..." Alexi said. "Tell them that if they can't act civilized, I'll come in there and kick both of their asses."

"Verbatim?" Tyler asked.

"Verbatim." Alexi replied.

With that, Tyler walked away from Alexi and into the room inhabited by Rush and Udolov, the other members of his outfit. Upon his leaving, Alexi turns back to the window and reaches into his pocket to retrieve his communicator.

He thumbed through his contact list, hoping to find one of his many mercenary allies who operated out of Corneria so that he and his group could have something to do while they were on this planet. He stops on a familiar name, Korr Dithis, another MacBethian mercenary who they had worked in conjunction with before. He taps his contact and waits as his phone attempted to call his friend.

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

Sandor and Teresa sat staring at their drinks for what seemed like an eternity. They then snapped back to reality. Teresa looked around rapidly, while Sandor just blinked slowly, his maw gaping.

"How long have we been here?" asked Sandor.

"I don't know..." answered Teresa.

"What were we doing?" questioned Sandor.

"I don't know..." Teresa repeated.

"Are we alive?" inquired Sandor.

"I don't know..." replied Teresa.

[SF Redd]

As his question threw Sandor and Teresa into a confused daze, Korr's ears perked up as he heard ringing from one of his pockets. He reached into his pocket and brought out his phone. Alongside the ringing, the screen showed a name: "Alexi Talis".

A toothy grin spread across his face and he answered the phone. "Hey Alexi! What's up?" He greeted.