To Fight for a Country that Hates You... (Tigre-Family Stories: First Generation)

[Mr.Fabulous]

The ex-Corsair, finishing with Entry 16, lowers her Journal Unit down to her side. She puffs out a tired sigh to herself: it's been an almost-fruitless month in her search for that gofer, and most of the info she's been able to gather was from word-of-mouth, not cold, hard facts. She was beginning to suspect the gofer may have caught on with their plans, and that he was now on the run: a very high possibility, considering their attempts at becoming accepted amongst the Rheinland unlawfuls occasionally resulted in them doing some high-profile missions, which was what they LEAST wanted to do in a situation as slick as this...

A *knock knock knock* suddenly came on the bedroom door, which only served to increase her tension. Casini looks up and, taking out her pistol, she motions over to the door and carefully views through the peep-hole: grande, it was just Leonardo Tigre standing outside. After she unlocks the door's safety-mechanism and opens it, the Zoner steps inside and gives the Corsair a quick nod... and a slight smile! "I've got some good news, Ms. Chrisostomo." He began in his usual monotonous voice.

Casini widens her eyes a bit: in a situation as slick as this, good news was always welcome to her ears. Hopefully, she wished silently to herself, this information'll turn up of some use, "That so? What've you got, compadre?"

He dug his left hand down the right-hand underside of his trench-coat, and when his hand finally came out it produced in its grasp something remarkable: a golf-ball-sized Blood Diamond, the Hessian insignia engraved onto one of the larger facets surrounding the brilliant-red gem, "While I was walking downtown, a shady man intentionally bumped into me. As we made contact, I saw he was subtly offering in his hand this gem," he gives the item to Casini, who quickly plucks it away from him and appraises it with careful detail, "and, as he placed the gem on my hands, he motioned over to my ear and whispered, 'The Goddess smiles on you. Herr Holgien has called the Bundschuch to listen. You may meet their representative above Ingolstadt, within 24 hours. Greet him with the words, -Long Live Herr Holgien-.' I came here as quickly as I could afterwards."

The Corsair could scarcely believe it! It was a genuine Blood Diamond, and with the Hessian insignia to boot! Only a stupid fool... or a true revolutionary, would ever be caught DEAD with one of these thi---

"Waaaiiiit..." A thought quickly crosses Casini's mind, "... This thing isn't---"

"Rigged, is that what you meant?" Leonardo quickly interrupts her before she could finish. He takes out another item from underneath his large trenchcoat: a smooth, cane-shaped metal rod with a tiny aperture on the flat end, which seemed to also contain small white dots that ran down the curved side.

He places it on his right ear, which seemed to fit perfectly on the lobe, and a few milliseconds pass before the object lights up and activates. A beam of light quickly shoots out from the aperture, the rays coalescing into a flat, translucent-orange panel directly in front of his right eye. Soon, various texts, images and other things ran down the screen, as if the device were still booting up; the letters and data were too small for Casini to read from a distance, but of which Leonardo could see plainly. When it was finished, the screen simply becomes a blank, see-through panel.

The Zoner then turns his eye to look at the Blood Diamond, and as quickly as his gaze turned a fine reticle pops up on the screen, which moves in-sync with the guy's retina. When his gaze met the gem, the reticle locks onto the object, and another beam of light shoots out of the aperture and begins 'scanning' it with rays of light that seemed to pierce through the object. As it continued scanning, numerous text references and illustrations pop up one after another on the tiny screen, identifying the gem in its' entirety, "I've already taken the liberty of scanning the object in advance while I was still coming here, and the readings are exactly the same. The elements of the gem do not suggest any form of tracking device nor of tampering aside from the photon-printed engraving: for better or worse, this is the real deal... A genuine Blood Diamond, its' composition suggesting it originated from the treacherous mining fields of Omega-11."

The device then suddenly stops its scans, and without further warning, deactivates, the screen vanishing into thin air. Leonardo takes the band out from his ear and discards it back into the pocket from whence it came, "To tell you honestly, I am surprised as much as you are: I've only heard rumors that the Hessians use these types of gems as one of several different methods of identifying each other. This could mean either two things: First, that the Hessians have finally agreed to cooperate with us, and have decided to hand us a tangible proof of good-will..."



Then Leonardo's eyes glint, "... or, with a more cynical view of things..."

"... That someone..." Casini continued darkly from his short pause, "or that some infidels wish to capture us through indirect means via planting false proof that we are sided with the Hessians, and then tipping local authorities to our possession of this object, is that what you're saying?" She angrily tightens the fist around the gem she held.

The two slowly, but casually, move away from the view of the window and, standing along the edges of the glass, cautiously scan the outside to look for any signs that they were being watched, "Precisely...

"... But my gut says this is not likely the circumstance we have." After seeing none of the usual signs of being watched, Leonardo then turns the lights on and increases the window's opacity-levels to block any viewing from the inside or out; he soon regains his composure and sits on the bed, calming down while scratching his chin thoughtfully, "Dhimitriov may simply have been too preoccupied with his own matters to not favor a direct meeting with us. Perhaps he was under too much suspicion to not warrant a clean reply for our appointment, and was forced to send a representative on his behalf. The man said a Bundschuch representative is now waiting at Ingolstadt, so Dhimitriov may had had already contacted the movement."

"A likely possibility, compadre." Casini also sits on the bed, but on the rim directly opposite to that of Leonardo's, her body facing the other way as she further contemplates half to herself, "I would've preferred it that he had contacted us via Transmission... But I suppose the Comm Channel could also be intercepted via a third party, so si, this is possibly his best means of contacting us without any compromisation...

"... But I have to ask, how DID the representative manage to find you, compadre, amongst a sea of people?"

The Zoner shrugs his shoulders with a slight smile, "Anyone linked to the Neural Net has a chance of being found... Which all the more---"



He abruptly stops from finishing his sentence before sighing sadly to himself, "... Which... all the more troubles me to know that... that Mila... still remains missing... even until now... that she's..." and with that, he suddenly falls silent. He slouches forward on the bed, another puff of breath escaping his mouth.

Casini turns around and, seeing that her companion was slipping into another emotional-moment, rolls her eyes and disgustedly grunts, "... You are pathetic, you know that? With all of your seriousness and coolness and combat prowess, you sure are emotionally-crippled to the point that it even affects your ability to think straight. Pfah... And I thought hombre's were supposed to be the stronger and more adamant of the genders."

"Well, forgive me for bitterly-sulking over my entire family that I've lost at the hands of blood-thirsty aliens..." The Zoner snarles back.

"That's the point! You're NOT supposed to sulk this long, and only crying over things like a prissy, little boy isn't going do anything other than make you look weak, exposed, and easy to kill..." The Corsair stands up from the bed and continues barking at him, "... and those that are easy to kill will ALWAYS find the other end of the gun to be the last thing they'll ever see through their pathetic, infidel existence. If you wish to continue on living and breathing, compadre, I suggest you get over your pain quickly, or at least redirect all that pain into something more productive, like the enemy, because I don't need a co-pilot that suddenly blacks out in the heat of intense combat."

The Zoner's hands tighten into two, heavy fists of anger, and he clenches his teeth into a furious growl. Her words were arrogant, and they hurt his pride a LOT. It would've been so easy and satisfying to gut that wench right then and there: she was a pirate anyway, so who'd miss her? In fact, he would've been praised by the Military if he decided to take her down...



... but...



"... You're right." He slowly lets his anger fade away, his jaw relaxing from its' tension, his fists slowly loosening up and unfurl onto the bed. He decides against taking her down since, after all, she did have a point: he had let his bitterness get the better of him, he realized, and knew that unless he was willing to control his situation (or at least bottled up such thoughts for a more appropriate time to sulk) he wouldn't be able to get anywhere, nor achieve anything. Had he really forgotten what Mila taught him all those weeks... no, months ago?



----------FLASHBACK

"... Meep... That was a good laugh, brother. You always did act all formal, serious and emotionless around people, and seeing you smile and enjoy yourself like that just for the sake of it always makes me feel even happier every time you do so, meep..."

He places a reluctant arm over her shoulders as he replied in a kind tone, "... Yeah... I did say you're the one who taught me how to laugh again, didn't I? I've got to thank you for that someday, Mila..."

FLASHBACK----------



"Damn, STRAIGHT!" Casini pats the suit off of its' creases and continued, "Learn to be more thick-skinned of loss, Señor Tigre, or it'll be your downfall, one way or another."

She lets out a quick sigh, "... Now... We'll have to leave first thing tomorrow, since we've only got 22 hours left. I'll contact reception that we'll be leaving early. We'll head off towards Ingolstadt without another moment's notice. Make sure you aren't followed when we meet at the desk."

"Acknowledged." Leonardo gives a quick nod at the Corsair before quickly exiting the bedroom, leaving Casini to herself.










She places a palm on her face in frustration and muttered, "... He'd better improve..." But as the hand slid down her cheeks, her expression changed from that of being upset... to one showing pity and remorse. A long and heavy sigh escaped her lips as the arm simply limped to the side. After pausing for a few moments, she unzips her black flight suit slightly, opening her collar a bit, and revealing a small, round locket that hung from her neck.

She lifts the locket to eye-level and, with a click, opens the casing that revealed the small photo of a 40-something man with black hair, powerfully-gaunt jaw, pinkish-white skin, and gleaming-yellow eyes, featuring a stern and frank expression on his face. She looks at this face for what seems like eternity... the memories of the life she once had were slowly flooding back...










----------FLASHBACK

"... What'cha gonna do? Cry 'till your papito comes to your rescue?" A boy, who was backed up by a couple of other teenagers, insults the downed Casini, who's mouth was now tasting blood from that last punch he did, "You just don't get it, do you?"

Her fighting-spirit almost broken, she was just about to resign and slump down the floor from the beating she experienced from being outnumbered when she glanced to the right...

... and there she saw her papito standing some distance away from the fight, his powerful arms folded against themselves, his face seemed disgusted from looking at his girl... a stare that seemed to say, 'Is that all you've got?'



Then he does a quick whip of his head, implying that she had to hurry up with what she was doing... and that simple gesture apparently gave the downtrodden girl some weird form of inner strength, as if she was still believed on that she could take on these boys despite her disadvantage.



"I'M the one running the show, NOT you, peon!" The leader of that small gang was just about to land the last blow when Casini quickly rose up and kicked him squarely in the soft-spot.

Caught completely off-guard, the boy doubles back and falls quickly to the ground, still clutching his compromised manhood with a long gurgle of pain. The other two boys, seeing their mate downed and out, growl furiously and waste no time in rushing at the stricken girl, and the fight so began again...





... and though being outnumbered 2-to-1, after several minutes she barely manages to disable the other two boys.





With three boys lying in turmoil behind her, she limps back to her papito with a smile on her face, albeit her lips being bruised and inflated and bloodied from the brawl. But instead of doing something welcoming, Viciente puts a knuckle on her head and swipes a hard, painful scratch, "Pfah! Your counter-attacks are still sloppy and predictable, your jabs were hooks, while your hooks were roundhouses, yeesh! It's no wonder those three estupido's were able to take you down. When we get home, we'll have to redouble--- no, reTRIPLE your training. I don't want to have a kid that fights this pathetic."

Casini moans at how much more hard work she'll need to do to satisfy papito's infamously-known perfectionism. But as she looks up to him, she could see a smile slowly beaming from his face, "... Well, at least your feints are improving. Knowing how to trick the enemy into thinking you are weak before going in for the kill is also an equal asset. For that ONLY, I commend you."



Praise from her papito? Well now, THAT was something to be proud of! Though she knew she still had a long way to go, to receive praise from a man such as he was a very good indicator that she was on the right track. She couldn't help but smile inwardly to herself, despite realizing her body was screaming with pain all over...

FLASHBACK----------










... A single tear ran down the side of her cheek as she closes the locket and grasps it with a clenched hand, "... I will avenge you, papito... The name of the Chrisostomos shall be given its justice... I will not disappoint you."

---

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