The Assassin's Tale; En Route

Credits; Krell, Rea,

"Alright, so what's the deal with you following us around then." 
Krell and Rea had taken their seats in the cockpit.  Nao had taken one of the empty spots behind them.  The question was one Krell had been only moments away from asking himself.  Luckily Rea had asked first, sparing him the trouble. 
"You remember that other young woman?  The one who killed the shade out in the plaza?"
Krell nodded.  It would be hard to forget Petra, especially considering the fact only moments later she had nearly destroyed Rea. 
"She came up to me just before you left and started talking about how worried she was about her little sister here, and how she wasn't sure she could trust anyone else to take care of her.  You know, not to feel her up or yell at her or anything."
Krell glanced over at Rea.  He could see a mild resemblance, but how anyone could mistake Rea for Petra's sister was beyond him.  Among other things, Petra was an only child and had she any siblings it would have been nearly as public knowledge as her mother's identity.  Then again, Nao didn't seem to have recognized anything else about Petra, so perhaps he had just skipped class a few times and never payed any attention to the sorts of things he was sure were popular gossip on Stormguard.  Even then it would have taken quite a thick skull to have not recognized a living legend. 
"She's not my sister, and I'm older than she is.  I just have a bit of a problem."
"Growth defect?  Yeah, I thought it might be something like that, but I didn't want to say anything."
"Growth De!..fect, yeah, that's it.  Developmental problem, I just never really grew up properly."
"Yeah well, it's nothing to be ashamed of.  I knew this chick once who had a biforcated tongue."
"Genetics does horrible things to people, doesn't it."  Krell agreed. 
"Actually it was kind of cool, she could..."  Rea cleared her throat audibly.  Nao caught her meaning well enough to know not to finish the story.    "Anyways, yeah, genetics.  Wierd stuff, I totally know what you must feel like." 
Krell noticed Rea edging towards the prominently placed self-destruct button, which Krell realized wouldn't actually kill either of them but would get rid of Nao very quickly.  He quickly decided to rediect the conversation before she could go through with it. 
"So back to why you're here?"
"Right!  So this girl, she says how grateful she'd be if someone would keep an eye on you two.  And when she said it she gave me a look.  I'm sure you know the one I'm talking about?  Eh?"  He nudged Krell.  Even if he hadn't known the look, or at least some approximate form of it, that nudge was as good as a wink. 
"I know, I know, she's just trying to manipulate me into following you two around and keeping an eye on you.  But for a girl like that, any chance is enough."
"Yeah."  Rea voiced up, sarcasm dripping almost visibly from her words, "Even I wouldn't mind taking a Stab at her."
"Exactly!  She's so hot even the girls want her.  Nobody could blame me." 
Krell could already tell what sort of man Nao was.  If they were lucky, he'd get distracted by Tomastein's inevitable pretty secretary and they'd leave him behind.  Not having to deal with men like him had been the best part about leaving the navy.  There were a lot of good men in the navy; but somehow there was always that one guy no matter what rank you were.  His comrades in the army said it was the same there. Maybe it was some kind of law of the land; you always had to deal with That Guy no matter where you were or what you were doing.  Maybe shades had some sort of casanova equivalent that infiltrated perfectly decent groups of people and started talking nonsense and making themselves a nuisance to young women everywhere.  He suspected Petra would know, but from the sounds of it she wouldn't have been too miffed about it if it was true. 

"Hold on, Tesser coil active."  Krell buckled himself in as soon as he heard Rea make the rather familiar anouncement.  Nao must have been use to a more magical sort of transportation because he took no such precaution.  Krell put a barrier between he and Rea, and Nao.  Rea glanced over as she noticed the slight magical displacement of the new field.  She leaned over and mutered "Don't forget the upholstery." Before putting her hand on the lever.  Krell smiled and quickly extended the barrier fully around Nao as Rea engaged the rift.  The ship swelled as it passed over a vast portion of the universe that had been tucked beneath them and their destination.  Krell had never actualy managed to figure out why it swelled like that, since teleportation never seemed to have that effect.  No sooner had Rea released the lever, which sprung back upward nearly as fast as the universe did.  Nao reacted as expected; but no upholstery was damaged.  He weakly muttered that he needed to go change, and Rea directed him to a spare bedroom without pause.  As soon as Nao had left the room though she began laughing.  Krell managed to resist until Nao returned wearing what was clearly one of Rea's old T-shirts and a pair of golf shorts.  The sight of the fully grown man in plaid shorts and a shirt that barely came down past his navel was more than he could handle.