“Well,” she smirked, taking the opportunity to tease the two younger members of the group, “Kyouko and Runa are also kiddos, no?” Covering a light chuckle with her hand, she nonetheless nodded. “I’ll keep it in mind. As for the hype… I dunno, I think any hype you’ll feel will be ruined if you hear me belt out my attempt at any pop song…”

Thankfully, Mason saved Iphie from karaoke hell with timely directions to the nearest DIHOP. Since there was a little bit of time before their engagement at the waffle house, she excused herself to take care of some business at her company offices.

It wasn’t Iphie’s style to bother with a disguise, but when she arrived at the Denny’s, it was via a nondescript black corporate vehicle, and with a pair of nice black shades. The purple-haired girl only removed them when she slid into the booth with the rest of the Final Five; it wasn’t quite a disguise, but it worked enough to not be immediately accosted between the street and their table at the restaurant.

It was certainly a trip to see Kyouko plastered in clothing ads out in the street. Really, she was still worried about the younger girl being taken advantage of by her father or others.

“Looks like I made it on time,” she greeted, taking up a seat across from Tian-Gui, and just in time to order. “I’ll have what he ordered,” Iphie decided, thumbing towards Jin-Sun. “The spicy honey butter sauce instead of buffalo, though. Oh, and a nice cold milk tea if you have that here, too.”

She sighed at the two apparent whales of the group once she was done ordering. “Seriously? Pulling for gacha? Scam aside, you known I can just zap your phones and give your accounts the stuff you want, right?”

"It can't be any worse than me," Runa quipped at Iphie's own remark about singing. It wasn't like she was a trained musician like a certain other member of the team. "It's definitely all about having fun and not worrying about if you look or sound dumb."

The meeting adjourned for the time being, Runa had her own things to attend to. Mostly school. But preparing for the next mission was somewhere in the back of her mind. All she really got was that wearing a jacket might be a good idea. She is not a clever girl.

When it did come time to actually make her way over to the DIHOP, she considered just flying there. It was, by far, the quickest route, if also one of the least considerate for everyone else moving about in the sky. She went with the on foot approach, it was still easy enough to get around that way, and the air quality never bothered her whether it was full yellow smog or perfectly clear. She was built of sterner stuff. It was also pretty easy for her to slip through more or less unnoticed inside the big crowds formed from people flowing to and fro in the Shanhu nightlife. Unless she was doing something obvious or walking around like some armored sentai villain, most people didn't notice her as anyone unusual. It was when she forgot her appearance and showed up at a convenience store for a quick snack while covered in her own blood and looking like a monster that things tended to get interesting.

After arriving at the restaurant and quickly finding Tian by his sheer size and presence, if nothing else, she took a seat without any fanfare. Some stares, now that recognition could really set in because she wasn't just another person with somewhere to be. The place was busier, and somehow less interesting, than it would be for a 3 AM visit. You meet really fun people then.

"I'll have a giant double bacon cheeseburger with extra fries, a big pile of chicken and waffles, and uh, might as well just bring a whole pitcher of cola." After a pause, she added, "just for me, I mean."

"Singing is..." Before Kyouko could finish her sentence, the idea for karaoke was already shut down. Not quite sure if she was supposed to feel grateful or not. She did like it, but this would have been... 'different'. Though ultimately the choice was not up to her. Instead, they opted for a nice dinner... "See ya later then!" She waved the group goodbye to do her own preparations. Warm clothes, sleeping bag, warm water bottle, a bit of food and whatever else one needed for a Russian nuclear winter if they had the option to turn it into an endless supply of the item in question. She also packed an Aluminium Bat, just in case.

...

The sight of herself was quite common for Kyouko, that she didn't feel too bothered by it. Or so she thought. Unaware of their somewhat unfortunate dining location. Zipped up in some thick sunglasses, a face mask, cap and a hoodie, Kyouko was the literal embodiment of 'suspicious but actually disguise cover'-trope. Ultimately only managing to get to their table undetected as, thanks to the lack of disguise of others, enough people quickly catching on as Kyouko had to reveal her face at the very least. Thankfully, it was all the people did. Stare.

"Ah..." Kyouko gave a small sigh, seating herself right next to Runa before giving the waitress a nod. "I have the same as her, please!" Yes. Junk food. And nobody close by anywhere to tell her how bad it was! "I'm sick of citrus fruits and water." She murmured before waving to the others. "Heyhey! That's the second time today, no?" Before tilting her head curiously at the gacha conversation. Right, those were a thing, too. Before nudging Runa. "When was the last time YOU could eat something like that?" Hopefully, she wasn't the only young maiden in the group that had to suffer!

"Hm?" Tian-Gui looked at Jin-Sun, then towards Iphie, before laughing heartily. "Oh no, I don't play. Have a cousin studying in Finland though, and he's been bugging me about it for a while. And sheesh, Iphie, gotta be careful 'bout that sorta stuff, y'know? What would the kids think, if Final Violet begins espousing hacking for personal gain?"

It was only somewhat in jest, of course. Questionable ethics of mobage companies aside, the stalwart titan of the Final Five remained as lawful as he always was. "Oh, and Runa, thanks for reminding me." Tian-Gui glanced from Jin-Sun to Iphie again, an uncharacteristically mischievous look in his eyes. "In the absence of karaoke, you two wanna get some real drinks as well? Purely social drinking of course."

Lawful as Tian-Gui was, he also subscribed to the heroic stereotype of drinking hard and partying hard. And so long as he didn't get shitfaced, anything was fine!

"I can eat stuff like this whenever I want," Runa replies. "I don't even need to worry about getting fat," she continues with the smuggest look imaginable on her face. Damn nonhuman creature with a literally bottomless stomach and far too efficient control of her own biomass. "I mean, I don't need to stuff myself too often, not like I'm getting am arm chopped off every day. Probably is a good idea to load up before the mission, though." She hadn't even considered that. It had been a while since she'd been really beat up.

With the deftness of someone who had been stuck in the service industry for far longer than the average human sanity was equipped to deal with, the waitress coursed through the electronic pad's menu, jotting down each order like she was perfecting a rhythm game. At Runa's order and, ultimately, Kyouko's, she smiled nervously but said nothing, simply doing her job and not questioning the appetites of two young ladies. If they paid, they paid, right?

"Ah, that promotion ended last week, but we still have a bunch of the codes in the back, actually," the waitress laughed to herself, "If you want I can just get you a handful of them or something. Don't really have a way to get rid of them otherwise." Surely the prospect of getting a bunch of free gacha codes without even having to buy the meal wouldn't be turned down, and so with everyone's orders mustered, the waitress gave them all a nod and walked off to the next booth of customers.

Even considering the immensity of the order, DIHOP being a cheap establishment with quick and often pre-prepared meals, the team's food arrived on their table within a short while, no doubt stretching the limits of the table's available space. With their food ready a dozen minutes into their gathering, something did seem to be missing in the end...

Mason's granddaughter was supposed to be sharing this meal with them, wasn't she? This far into eating, she definitely seemed to be late. Perhaps shy or perhaps...

The Final Five, if at all they cared in the end to entertain a young fan, would have their worries or questions answered quickly enough once they were near the end of their food. Though... perhaps, Kyouko was still tackling hers, considering her decidedly more mundane digestive system compared to Runa.

The front doors to the DIHOP slid open out of sight of the Final Five, ringing an electronic bell that normally would have drawn the attention of no one but the employees themselves.

"Welcome to DIHO- er." The busboy at the entrance stopped their greeting short when whoever had entered simply walked right past, utterly ignoring the young man. Though their shoes were hardly heavy, the unseen individual stomped around the corner, right for the Final Five's booth, as if somehow psychically knowing where they were located.

When at last they stood before the Final Five, they found themselves met with a rather cross-looking girl. Long blonde hair was tied up in a messy ponytail, and cool blue eyes glared down at the group (or up, in Tian-Gui's case, despite him still sitting) below heavy eyelashes. The stick of a lollipop stuck out from between frowning lips, and she stood with a wide stance, arms crossed over her chest. Indeed, she appeared to be no younger than Runa and Kyouko, as Mason had mentioned, likely a high schooler herself, though perhaps at the end of her primary education.

That is, assuming she was the granddaughter in question.

She looked over each of the members, one by one, before opening her mouth to speak with an irreverent, growly tone.

"What kind of heroes choose a DIHOP? Don't you all have some kind of special place you patronize?" she mouthed off, "If I wanted to barge in here and attack you all, you wouldn't have any kind of security detail! The robot chefs wouldn't do anything."

"Oh, that would be lovely," Tian-Gui replied to the waitress. "In lieu of the promotion combo then, could I have the Reaper Burger instead then? Thank you." A pause. Even if it didn't look like Iphie and Jin-Sun were immediately enthusiastic about drinks, it didn't hurt to order some anyhow. "And y'know what? Slap on that pitcher of Sapporo."

With that, the order was given, and in another fifteen or so minutes, the order was had. With his trademark combination of neat eating habits and gargantuan bites, the titan of the Final Five devoured his food at speeds that made one question if he were truly tasting it, if not for the appreciative nods he gave along the way. Meyer sauce truly was the best accompaniment there was for salmon, and even though there was that little bit of 'quality' missing from pre-prepared meals, Tian-Gui wasn't much of a gourmet and technology had slowly bridged the gap between frozen and fresh over the years. If not for the robotic sameness of each individual dish, you could hardly tell that DIHOP meals were cooked by automatons! Beer, of course, was nice too, and though two members still couldn't legally drink, the raven-haired sentinel made a big show of his toasts, toasting to Kyouko's second calling in life, Runa's joyful school days, Jin-Sun's resolved revengeance, and Iphie not yet becoming totally corrupt with the amount of power the Courtlandt Group was amassing. It was fun times all around, really.

And he definitely didn't forget about Mason's granddaughter too.

After all, how else would she have found the group if Tian-Gui hadn't been standing up at that moment, toasting to Mason's health? As she spoke up about the presumed laxness of the group's environment, he settled down once more, shifting to the side slightly before realizing that there wasn't going to be enough roof for her on account for his shoulder width. "Hey, welcome to the party, little miss!" Tian-Gui spoke. "Runa, mind scooching over a bit so she can sit?" There was a pause, just long enough for her to seat herself if she wished, before he continued. "And honestly, you're totally right about that. If someone came barging in to attack us, we'd have to fight them off ourselves..."

He grinned, even as he caught the gaze of the waitress and waved her over.

"...which is what I prefer."

What protector needed protecting, right?

While she can often give Tian a run for his money, Runa did take a bit longer with her meal, so she could actually enjoy it, and keep up with the table conversation along the way. That and, particularly in public, the sort of table manners involved in eating things with multiple mouths on the ends of tentacles were usually quite frowned upon. And she wasn't here to terrify the other guests.

She enthusiastically joined in on all of the toasts, raising her own glass of cola. The meal itself was definitely a matter more of quantity than quality for her. Who cares if it's more or less pre-prepped by robots, the point is there's lots of it. Small portions were her usual, so it was nice to really indulge. She did look pretty darn full by the time the guest of honor arrived.

The first indication that Runa had noticed the young lady was her ahoge turning to point in her direction. "You're a little late, but I can make room over here." She scoots over to clear some space. "I'm not sure if we have any super secret dinner places. It used to be a couple all you can eat spots, but then they saw how much some of us can eat, so we've had to adapt." Runa's probably also got her face on at least one wall somewhere one can eat a 72 ounce steak, much more prestigious than any warning not to serve her.

"I'm honestly with Tian on this one. We're our own security detail. So unless someone takes the totally lame move of blowing up the whole place just to get to us, we're good."

"What?" He shrugged at Iphie. "I need something to kill time with besides wrestling reruns. And don't actually do that, would you? You'd probably get me banned once the servers detect it."

Fifteen minutes of idle conversation later, Jin-Sun eagerly started digging into his waffles, his hologram generator maintaing the illusion that he was just shoveling food straight into his faceplate instead of lifting it and showing his face. Man, did he love crappy diner food. Though it did lead him to wonder where exactly Mason's granddaughter was. After all, a good amount of time since the given meetup time had passed now. Seriously, did she get lost on the way-

One teenage rant later, and Jin-Sun found he probably had his answer. Christ, he hoped this wasn't Mason's granddaughter. Bit of a fucking brat, from first appearances.

"What they said," Jin-Sun shrugged, playing it cool as he took a sip of OJ. "If we can't defend ourselves, we've really got no business calling ourselves the Final Five, do we? Anyways, I take it you're Mason's grandkid? Sorry we started without you. Take a seat, yeah?"

“Well,” Iphie shrugged back, “These sorts of games would be all server-side anyway. I’d be zapping the servers through your phone, not your account. Besides, I’m confident enough in my work that some silly game companies won’t detect me… your loss,” she replied, quickly thanking the waitress before occupying her mouth with her arriving food. “I mean. Corporations hack for personal gain all the time, Tian. Courtlandt Group probably gets about a hundred discrete –and not discreet—intrusion attempts from corporate or state actors every day, you know?” As far as food went, it wasn’t bad at all. Even if she could get the best meals home-cooked by a personal chef whenever she wanted, there was always a place for crappy diner or fast food. A meal didn’t have to be high-end to taste good, after all, and they really did seem to have the formula for their spicy honey butter sauce down well. Finger licking good, even.

Even so, Iphigenia had an image to keep, and ate politely and reservedly as usual. But even with her slower pace, she had long finished her food before Mason’s granddaughter had arrived, and she was working on a second drink. “So, where is the young lady…?”

The purple-haired girl finally had her answer when the teenaged brat finally barged into the diner to mouth off at them with a rant. Iphie raised her eyebrows. Well then.

“While the diner actually wasn’t my first choice, they really do have a good point. Besides, it’d be more than suicidal, and it would be rather unsporting of them to attack a civilian diner,” she finally replied, with a bit of an amused expression on her face. Really, an uppity brat was actually leagues and bounds more entertaining than a starstruck fan. “For the record, I can borrow the robot chefs to act as said security detail if I really wanted. Have you seen the knives they wield back there? They’re quite sharp.”

Victoria remained at arms-length from the table, still defensive with her crossed arms. An upturned gaze fell down to those who weren't too tall to pull the expression off on. Her voice raised, easily drawing the attention of other unassuming customers towards their booth.

"I don't want any food -I'm here for one reason, and you've all fallen for my trap! Let me show you just how vulnerable you truly are!" the girl said, suddenly widening her stance, as if preparing to throw herself onto the table. "If you're so eager to fight off intruders, then prepare!"

Instead of throwing herself onto the table, Victoria instead shot her hands forward in a style all too reminiscent of a certain ages-old battle anime that had somehow survived into thirty-three seasons across time. There was a rumble in the DIHOP, like something was shaking its foundation, when suddenly an attack manifested from the ceiling above. In a flash of white-painted building material, a column shot forth at an angle, aimed squarely for Runa's ahoge-tipped head.

Despite the sudden sucker punch, for Runa, the attack was child's play, even forgetting that Victoria had essentially called her attack. It was easy to avoid, and pitifully weak if Runa decided to tank it. Perhaps it'd hurt at best, but fell a mile short of the sorts of damage she'd taken in her life. Whichever transpired, Victoria's battle-ready grin quickly dissipated into confusion and then disappointment. Either she had lost any will, or that single attack was all she could muster. Lowering her arms, she blinked and frowned.

"I... never mind..." she said gloomily, her shoulders sagging. Utterly defeated by the vast ocean between them, the originally haughty attitude she sported was replaced by a despondent shuffle to the seat where Runa had made room. Sitting herself down with a slump, she kept her gaze towards the food.

"Nice to meet you," she sighed. "Yea... he's my grandfather," she finally responded to Jin-Sun.

If his premonition had marked anyone else but Runa in the diner as the target of Victoria’s sudden attack, perhaps Tian-Gui would have interrupted. He didn’t need Jin-Sun or Iphie to overreact, after all, and Kyouko…well, an idol needed to protect her face, even if she could reverse time and just revert it back to normal. But Runa was the target, so he sat back and focused his thoughts on the other question.

Why?

Mason had said his granddaughter was a fan of the Final V, but here, she seemed to be portraying the attitude of a hater rather than a fan. She showed up late, complained about their lack of security, and then tried to attack them, only giving up when that attack (oh, a Whitestone Pillar?) failed to have any effect. If Mason had no reason to lie, then…

Tian-Gui smacked his fist against his palm.

“Oh, did you want to join the support team, Victoria?”

The only reason Jin-Sun didn't intervene was because he could see from the wind-up that the attempted punch had absolutely nothing in terms of power behind it. God, how the hell were this kid's parents raising her? It was like Kyouko, but worse.

So instead, the cyborg just sighed and took another sip of orange juice as Victoria finally took her seat. As weird and mildly annoying this situation was, he still owed it to Mason to be polite to the kid. Therefore, Jin-Sun simply pretended nothing out of the ordinary had happened, and nodded in response to the girl finally answering his question.

"Okay, cool. Anyways, good to finally meet you, Victoria. Pick whatever off the menu, our treat."

Runa, for her part, did see the attack coming, but otherwise ignored it. The blow did knock her head back, but it was ultimately no worse than if someone had just punched her in the face, and that hardly registered. Victoria did at least get an "ow" out of her, before she went back to pretending the entire thing didn't even happen.

Tian's question at least prevented her from jumping right to criticism of the attempt. "That's a pretty cool ability you have. keep working at it," she went with a compliment, instead.

"If you don't know what to get, I'd recommend the giant brownie sundae dessert. Can't go wrong."

Iphigenia didn’t stop sipping her drink. She only raised an eyebrow when Victoria suddenly ‘attacked,’ not doing much but to tap Runa on the head, really. Maybe they were all jaded at this point, but nobody really reacted at all, really.

What was she trying to do, anyway? If this was the equivalent of her pulling up her bootstraps and walking into a business with her resume to get a job, she wasn’t doing a very good job of it.

She made a shrugging action as her companions all chose to completely ignore what had just happened and continued to sip on her shake.

“As I was saying earlier, don’t knock the robot chefs. Most of what they make is pretty good.” She showed an index finger to the girl, letting it spark. “Did you know they also have a secret menu?”