Away from comfort [NPC/ Ashelin]

[Rick]

"Sure" It's not like he had something better to do, leaving aside his original idea of finding an hotel room. But fuck that – travelling through the desert with a sexy girl looked like a better idea anyways. "But first," he added, "let's go to a less crowded place"

They moved to one of the streets that crossed this one; because it didn't lead to the beach, it was less crowded. And from there, they entered an alleyway. At no point did the woman hesitate; her steps as sharp and decisive as her voice. It didn't appear she was being dragged to an empty alley by a stranger. And if it did, it sure as hell didn't seem to bother her.

The wiki about primes he read about earlier mentioned the ability to summon stuff with that shiny thing called "omnilium". All primes are supposed to be adept at it, but doing something so magical and out of the ordinary was... weird, to say the least. But he had to try.

So... One had to visualize something on their mind, concentrate to not lose the image, and the thing will appear out of thin air. Visualize... His old racing car: a blocky yet smooth red exterior, with it's oversized wheels escaping from the robust carcass wearing tires with exaggerated desings. It had no roof – in its place, a skeleton-like structure of metal wired itself, giving it the feel of protection with the added wildness of an opened convertible. Perfect for crossing the empty-ass desert of New Mexico at unrecommended speeds. Now, concentrate on it... But how, exactly? Mmhh...

"So?", said the woman, snapping Rick back to reality. "What are you waiting for?"

"I'm trying to 'summon' my car. I'm supposed to concentrate on it, but I'm not... Entirely sure...". He made a little pause, then added, "Just... give me a minute."

"Whatever you say..."

With interrumptions out of the way, Rick tried again. To his surprise, a big mass of... something appeared before him, probably omnilium. The more attention he payed to the specific details of his car, the more the mass morphed itself into what he had in mind. Until, after several minutes, the whole car materialized in the place of that weird, glimmering mass of colors.

"I think our ride is here", he said, entering the car. The keys were already set; with a soft turn on them, the powerful engine roared to life, bringing the whole vehicle on its soothing but violent rythmic vibrations. Once Ashelin got herself comfortable on the passenger's seat, Rick took both them out of the alleyway, being careful to not accidentally pass over the many pedestrians that populated the sunny streets of Costa del Sol.

So, their mission consisted in finding some guy in the middle of a desert, to convince him to somehow help them into fighting that beast, "Jak's dark form", as she called it. Sounds easy enough – as long as they don't expect Rick to fight alongside them, he wouldn't have a problem. Doing the chauffeur job was well within his abilities. Fighting magic monsters was not.

Some time after they started moving, Rick said "Im Rick, by the way"

She closed her eyes for a second and nodded "Ashelin. I'm Governess Ashelin. Also Captain of the Freedom guard from back home"

He smirked "Really? You look like the kind of girl who would rock that position"

Ashelin blinked "Wow, I've never heard someone say I'd rock in that position, except maybe... Torn."

"I don't know who he is, but I bet he's right" He let slip a short laught.

She fell silent, then added in a soft voice "He's dead. He was my Commander back in the city"

Rick's smirk dissapeared in record time. "Oh..." Goddamnit.