Within the east portion of Westlin Town was a local United Space Defense Force base. Its primary use was for supply loading; ships come and to and from here constantly to restock on supplies but it was also the current home of Battlestation-Zeus.

Meaning his favorite little noodle shop was currently being invaded by a bunch of dogs. How displeasing, can’t go anywhere these days without some military arseholes thinking they own the place.

Ryoji could only glance around him to see that and he was already filled with pure disdain, the only way to make up for this would be to have a good bowl of noodles at this point. He struts to a vacant seat , his hands firmly in pockets.

“Are you sure you want to be here right now, there’s dogs everywhere and if even one recognizes your face, we’re done for,” Rex whispers into his ear.

Rex wasn’t a normal person, he wasn’t exactly living at all. He was what one could call a Repidroid. A robot that imitates human life and can be considered their own life forms. Rex has a strong stature, looming over most folks with an athletic body that would make even the Olympic runner blush. His hair is auburn and reaches to his shoulder, it was quite tidy, if you ignore how disheveled it’s probably under his beanie. Rex often wears an unbuttoned trench coat with the collar popped and a charcoal turtleneck.

Meanwhile his ebony hair was slicked back and was gleaming with the amount of hair products he uses to keep its appearance. Compared to Rex, he’s a shrimp. His current outfit that he spent way too much effort in stealing was a black combat jacket and a white school shirt underneath with a bandanna wrapped around his neck. For safety around these parts, he has a plasma blaster holstered in his white utility belt.

“Look Rex, we’ve been here plenty of times, I doubt things will change today,” he replies, sitting comfily in the seat, Rex sits opposite him looking at the menu even though he won’t eat anything.

Hmm today he will definitely be having some beef chow mein noodles and milk. Ryoji rocks in place waiting for someone to take his order but there were too many dogs taking up his time.

Time keeps ticking, on and on and Ryoji takes on many positions on that chair. Lying down, standing, sitting backwards, doing a handstand on it, anything that would keep him entertained for a few seconds.

Finally, after what feels like hours, the white panda who wears nothing but Hawaiian shirts waddles over to their table with a gleeful smile. “Well if it ain’t my favorite replidroid and my most hated human.”

Ryoji grumbles.

“Hey Jian, you got my fave in stock?” Rex asks with a soft smile as Jian viciously nods, you’d think he’d break his neck by doing that.

“I want beef chow mein!” Ryoji whines, slumping over the rickety wooden table.

Jian rolls his eyes and smacks Ryoji against the head with his furry paw, “Complain less and you may get more noodles.” he says. “And for the love of all things that I can’t say to my son, do not and I mean do not start a fight today.”

Ryoji winces in pain, readjusting his posture on the seat back to somewhat normal, watching all these military dogs with a keen eye. They were all slurping up noodles and their drinks like pigs, laughing and boasting about what they did to make everyone’s life worse. Meanwhile Rex stays quiet, his face rarely changing to a smile, it was just in a persistent state of neutrality.

Eventually Jian comes waddling back carrying several plates full of gorgeous and mouth frothing meals on his hands, arms and even head. He throws the plates to the customers with a level of preciseness and ease that nobody else in the world could ever match.

“Order up! I decided to only spit once in Ryoji’s dish today,” he said, throwing Ryoji’s plate onto the table. He then slams a can of oil in front of Rex.

The plate was piping hot with the dish covered in thick noodles as bright as the sun and there were so many beef chunks for Ryoji to dig into.

It doesn’t even take a second before Ryoji has his head planted into the plate, demolishing the food as fast as he could. It tastes amazing as the noodles slide down his throat, the soft chews of the beef itself. It was pure euphoria.

“Behold people of Westlin Town!” a young voice shouts.

People turn their heads behind their seats, looking onwards as a stubby boy with silver hair, a soft round face and feminine features stands at the entrance to the noodle shop. The boy was wearing a baseball hat on his head as well as a simple white top underneath a red sports bib with the number 14 on it.

The boy leaps onto an empty chair, holding a mop as a spear, pointing it into the air. “I, the great Volt, am gonna journey far and wide to stop this war and save all of us from destruction!” he proclaims with a loud voice before the chair tips over, sending him backwards and crashing into the ground.

The military soldiers howl in laughter at Volt, some choking on their own food cus' of their laughter.

“Hey Jian Yu, your daughters’ quite the laugh!” one of the soldiers said with the panda’s ears drooping and a frown forming on his face.

Ryoji scoffs, reaching for his blaster only for Jian to slap him across the head. He was right, he couldn’t solve this by dissolving the guy’s own heart but he could do it another way.

Ryoji takes a second to think, there was a hot sauce bottle on his table and that guy’s throat seems like a good opportunity for a good laugh.

Ryoji smirks as he takes the red hot sauce bottle and approaches the soldier who told that to Jian.

The soldier looks up to him. “You’re that asshole who keeps fighting with us in the Alboy Bar, you should be thankful none of us executed you yet-”

Ryoji grabs a fistful of his hair, snapping his head back as he uses his other hand to pour the hot sauce down his raw throat.

The soldier screams in pain as he runs around the place trying to find a glass of water, the other soldiers are in hysterics watching the clown act take place.

“Fair warning for next time, don’t make fun of the kid!” he shouts across the room, the soldiers looking up at him in a mix of laughter and smiles. Ryoji grows a smirk on his face. “That’s my job!” he points to himself.

The soldiers get a beep on their DataLinks causing all of them to get up and leave money on the tables for Jian to pocket for himself. They were all moaning and complaining about having to go back to work again.

Jian sighs, cleaning up the tables of the now nearly empty restaurant bare him, Rex and Volt.

Rex hauls Volt back onto his feet, Volt lightly pushes him away as he sits down with a pout. “I don’t get it, why do they laugh at me? I’m in the military too.”

Jian rubs his necks, his mouth opening and closing as he tries to form some answer for his son.

“Because they think you’re small and easy to pick on,” Rex chimes in, hands in his pockets again.

Volt doesn’t respond, his mood isn’t exactly improving either even after Jian tries comforting him with statements like how strong and cool he is.

Rex gets a buzz on his phone, “Aw man, I’m late for basketball practice.” he says, preparing to transform into his motor form. “Hey Volt, ya wanna come?”

Volt tilts his head, and stares at Rex in silence before answering with a big smile. “Sure!” he exclaims before leaping over to Rex’s side as he transforms into his sleek and agile motorform that resembles a motorbike and shines brightly as one. Volt jumps onto the seat, gripping onto the bars as they accelerate away.

Jian desperately tries jogging after Volt, “You can’t ride that!” he yells. “You’ll get yourself killed!”

It didn’t matter how fast Jian tried to catch up to them in his stubby legs, the two were long gone within a flash. Ryoji could only chuckle at his attempts.

“Stop laughing… he could fall off on him, what if he gets injured!?” Jian exclaims, clawing at his head with his ears spiking up.

A man steps into the restaurant, he was wearing a U.S.D.F. uniform. By the looks of it and his age, he was a high ranking member. A captain perhaps? That’s what Ryoji could assume from the looks of him.

The guy was old and it was showing with the gray streaks in hair and the walrus-like mustache on his face. The man stands straight, looking over the restaurant as if analyzing it, looking for someone specific.

Then there’s the other guy behind him, an absolute heartthrob with that auburn hair giving off that charming superman look. Guy looks like he was Clark Kent considering his small dotty eyes and that sharp jawline. He’s also wearing a U.S.D.F. uniform.

Too bad he’s a dog, maybe then, he’d go after the guy… if he was single.

However, Ryoji is snapped out of his dreamlike state when he sees the small little girl that was his sister, Kasumi. The small blonde girl was looking up at Ryoji with worry. It’s obvious that something stupid has happened at home or there was an emergency, usually it was the former.

“Ah Commander Reinhard,” Jian salutes with a smile. “What brings you here, carrying a lot of papers?” he asks with a small frown, seeing the bundle of letters and papers the commander was carrying.

“Nyx here could answer that question, I only came by when I saw a group of soldiers laughing and one in tears, claiming he was assaulted by someone here.” Commander Reinhard replies, throwing the bundle towards the cadet who stumbles to catch them. Some papers dropped on the floor, causing the cadet to let go of Kasumi’s hand and bend onto the floor to pick them up.

That didn’t answer why Kasumi was here.

Commander Reinhard approaches Ryoji, the burly man looking down at him with a not so hidden anger. “If I’m correct, it’s been you causing trouble to my comrades on Zeus.”

“And?”

Reinhard simply clenches Ryoji’s hair and slams him into the table over and over. “We don’t take kindly to behavior like that around here!”

“Around here? Nobody wanted your bougie dog asses to come occupy our streets telling us what to do. We were perfectly fine without you!” Ryoji spits in the man’s face, causing Reinhard to slam his head back into the table again before releasing him.

Reinhard turns around and exits the restaurant, his back turned to all of them. “Cadet Nyx will see to the rest of your business.”

Jian and Nyx look at him with concern, Ryoji already knew it was probably the fact his beautiful face was done in and now has a broken nose which is pouring blood all over his mouth.

Don’t worry, he can tell already considering he can taste the copper in his mouth.

“You know it was either gonna be me or someone else who broke your nose,” Jian says nonchalantly, picking Ryoji off the seat and onto the ground.

“Why is it every other day you come back battered and bruised?” Kasumi asks, looking up at him.

Nyx looks down at Kasumi in surprise, “You saying this is common?”

Kasumi nods, “Everytime he comes home, he’s got some scratch on his body cus he’s a th-”

“Don’t even finish that sentence Kasu,”

Jian starts leading Ryoji gently to the back of the noodle shop, where his little living space was. “Come in kids, while I fix this idiot up.”

The living space tight but comfortable has everything the two needed to live. The kitchenette they have was a bit of a mess with unclean dishes from the night before sitting in the sink. The walls are adorned with photos of either Volt or the achievements he won in school, particularly photos of Volt and the school basketball team. There’s also a few food certificates on the wall as well as Jian’s bachelor’s in culinary arts… however, it has been scribbled upon endlessly by Volt when he was younger.

Jian rummages through the cupboards and pulls out a first aid kit, sitting it on the kitchen counter as Ryoji takes a seat beside him.

“So what brings you here?” Jian asks, wiping the blood off Ryoji’s face.

Nyx fidgets with his fingers, “Ah well, it’s just the health forms for Volt. Since he’s still a kid, we need you to sign these forums so he can access medication when we leave.”

“Okay… can I sign a forum that will give you custody of Ryoji?”

Nyx chuckles, “Not unless he’s conscripted which can’t happen on this planet due to the neutral space.”

Jian shrugs his shoulders, “Worth a shot” he muses, turning to face Nyx. “So how’s things going on with Volt on the base?”

“He’s doing fine, he’s already got his room set up with all his things in it. However, we’ve been getting mail addressed to Volt.” Nyx replies, his face becoming stern. “It’s soldiers from other bases, particularly Zeus have been sending him hate speech, alot of it was calling him the T slur, calling him a woman or some brutes going into detail of what they’d do to him.”

“Frickin’ dogs,” Ryoji mutters under his breath.

“We read Volt’s mail in advance because of this, we don’t want him reading that stuff.”

Jian’s ears spike up, his brow furrowing as he tries to hold back his anger before he takes a deep breath and calms down. “You know Ryoji… keep bullying those soldiers.”

Kasumi sits on the couch trying to tune into the TV but it was only showing static, with a sigh, she watches Jian tend to Ryoji’s injuries.

Ryoji may as well ask the question now, “Kasumi why are you here?”

Kasumi stiffens and looks down with a frown, “Dad’s gone missing!” she exclaims nearly bursting into tears.

Oh so it was a nothing deal after all.

“Dad goes missing all the time, he’s probably lying in a ditch somewhere,” Ryoji replies, with Jian applying the plaster onto his nose.

“Yeah but it’s the first Friday of the month,” Kasumi replies.

Jian and Ryoji’s faces widened in shock, that wasn’t normal. First Friday of the month was when Mateo’s disability allowance came in the mail, their dad would sit on the porch like a dog waiting for that check to come in… and then spend it all on booze or drugs.

“Oh yeah that’s the other thing, I found your sister crying at our base about being left alone in the house,” Nyx replies. “She said she knew someone here so I wanted to bring her over safely.”

He left her alone? He told him to watch over her today, while he and Rex ran off to find a job or two and get some money to pay the bills. Mateo was at school and Kaori was… Kaori was at home, also alone.

He has to get home, right now!

Ryoji shoots up from the chair and runs to the door, “Right, Jian take care of my sister and the dog, I have to go get Kaori, right now!” he says rushing out the door and onto the street.