[center][h1][color=lightblue]Skye Rosalind Lyons[/color][/h1][/center] [center][h1]Los Angeles, United States of America[/h1][/center] [center][h2]1200 Local Time[/h2][/center] [center][h2]A Trip to Grandma’s[/h2][/center] Collab between Skye Lyons and Kameko Takahashi (Samantha's Adopted Grandmother) Kameko was in her apartment above the dojo having tea. She still taught classes but had to hire someone to teach the classes that her husband had taught. She was enjoying a nice custom blend of tea that Samantha had sent her. The girl had signed her up for a tea of the month club. Her thoughts drifted to her wayward adopted granddaughter. She missed her but understood the forces that were driving her to investigate her father’s death. Kameko feared where this would take her. She worried about her but knew that her only course of action was to support her. She only prayed that Samantha’s soul would one day make peace with what happened. She sighed even as the sounds of the kendo class came through her open window. Her ear listened as the young man she had hired to teach the classes put a beginner’s class through their paces. He was more progressive in his methods and less traditional than Ryuji had been but she couldn’t fault that he was popular with the students. His class was made up of professionals in the area that were using the class for exercise. They at least always paid their bills on time. She missed her husband Ryuji since she he had been killed in a terrorist attack. Her life was comfortable though. She didn’t really need anything. She could have sold the studio but her life and memories were wrapped up in her home. It felt like leaving him behind if she moved on. She wasn’t ready to do that. She wanted Samantha to have something to come back to. She worried that she was so hurt and damaged by life events that she would never know peace. Her mind pondered these things as she sipped her tea looking out over the street. [color=6ecff6]The address hadn’t been quite what Skye was expecting, and after the flight over from Tokyo, stopping in Kahului Airport, the shining lights of LAX had then followed, and after that, a significant amount of dodging security, other cameras and a bunch of other resources. Ban’s fixers had run out, and now it was just them. A stolen car, her hair slightly regrown, a pair of aviators and a leather jacket did the job to turn Skye Rosalind Lyons into someone slightly different to who she had been. And outside, the old Buick sat there, as Skye sighed, engine turned off, and then climbing out and heading towards the door, knowing this would be it. She hoped Sam was right, on this one at least. In any ordinary team, Sam would have been disciplined within an inch of her life, but quite ironically, in the way that Skye had ended up with a dysfunctional team, they’d ended up saving the world. Strange, that. But then again, Skye was a little bit of a rebel herself. Perhaps it just came with the territory. Get on board a bunch of rebels, outlaws, strangers and you end up with people who end up fixing the world this way. And they wouldn’t think too much about Sam, they’d go for Skye, considering the events that had recently happened. Which made this even more handy. With a knock on the door, Skye awaited a response, and hoped for something to come back.[/color] Kameko was surprised to hear a knock on her apartment door. She wondered if a student had taken a wrong turn. It didn’t happen often as the dojo was on the bottom floor of the building. The upper two floors were the apartment that had been her home for over 40 years. The building had a lovely manicured backyard that was a peaceful oasis in the middle of a very large urban city. She set her teacup down and went to the door. She remembered what Samantha had told her the last time they had talked. It had been a hurried phone call and she had no clue where the girl had been. The connection had been poor. It was also obvious that she had not been able to talk freely. Their conversation had been in code. Kameko was aware of what Samantha did for a living. She knew that the girl had secrets that she was safer not knowing. She had let her know that she might get a visitor but that visitor would know the code to give her. She had also warned her to be careful. Kameko was an older woman but she was still graceful and strong thanks to the martial arts she practiced. She was not an easy target for anyone. Caution made her pause and check through the peephole to see who was standing at her door. Standing there was an athletic looking red-headed woman. She kept the chain on the door and stepped to the side so that the door couldn’t hit her if it was kicked in. She opened the door to the length of the chain before answering the door. [color=6ecff6]“Can I help you? The dojo is downstairs.” Her Japanese accent was slight and her English was clear. Skye picked up the voice, and immediately could catch that tell. Kameko. “I’m not here for the dojo. Listen, I know Samantha….and she left this.” Skye added, passing a tiny slit of paper through, a small code with the number on it, handwritten, catching the watching eye on the other side. “Her, and the team are in a lot of trouble. And I’m just trying to help. I’m a friend.”[/color] Kameko’s eyes narrowed as she accepted the slip of paper from Skye. She looked down and read the message on the paper. The code was correct but she was still suspicious. She wanted to be sure that the woman was from Samantha and not just taken the code from one of her trusted people. “What is Samantha’s prized possession?” [color=6ecff6]“The Shelby that’s parked inside. She wouldn’t ever shut up about it.” Skye replied with a funny reply, chuckling, her Scots accent carrying back again. Skye would have guessed the suspicion came from a good place, and knew Kameko would not have Sam watching over right now, considering the team were likely back out again, or isolated out again.[/color] Kameko gave Skye a soft smile and a nod before removing the chain on the door. She opened the door and gestured inviting Skye inside. “Welcome to my home. Please join me for some tea and you can tell me why you are here.” She waited for Skye to enter before closing and locking the door behind her. She led the way through her living room to the window that overlooked the backyard where she had been sitting and having her tea. It was a small conversation area with a small table between two wingback chairs. She gave Skye a half bow as she excused herself and went to the kitchen to fetch another cup. She returned shortly and poured some fragrant tea in a Japanese style cup and handed it to Skye. “There is sugar and cream if you would like it.” She indicated the typical serving sides on the tray with what appears to be an antique Japanese tea set. [color=6ecff6]Skye smiled back, the hospitality that Sam had clearly reflected in her childhood guardian, Skye bowing with a certain respect, a distinct one considering how gracious a host Kameko was being right now. Sunglasses off, the tired, jetlagged face of Skye could be seen, and her jacket was not doing a good job of covering up her wear from losing a lot of blood, and her wound tightly still bandaged in her side beneath it. “Thank you.” Skye replied, gently sipping down, before putting the cup back, not taking sugar or cream. “I apologize for visiting, as I’m sure Sam hoped a stranger would never come. I am not sure what Sam told you about her work, but as you can imagine, she is quite extraordinary.” Skye started, gently taking another wick, before putting it down, smiling back at Kameko. “That tea is good. Lovely. So, I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Skye Lyons, former head of an elite, multi-national taskforce that hunted down extremist terrorist groups considered a threat to global stability. And as of three days ago, we were attacked. If it wasn’t for the actions of Sam, things could have ended a lot worse. Especially for me.” Skye started, fumbling her words a little towards the end, hinting at what had happened. “But there is something she did. Something I didn’t even expect. She kept some data here. A small box-like compartment that contains our data. Kameko, this may be critical to saving the world. It contains information on a group that could be undertaking something so deadly, it may spiral. There are a lot of lives that could be saved. Tens, if not hundreds of millions in the balance.” Skye knew this would be a big deal, perhaps a little strange, so she sipped down a little more, and took the older Japanese lady in again, this time more in an English-speaking context.[/color] [color=6ecff6]“I understand you probably don’t trust me, and I understand you may be hesitant to trust my identity, who I am, or what I’m doing. But believe me, this thing she did was beyond important. I nearly died for it twice. Sam was willing to risk the same. If you have it, I’d really appreciate it. I can return it to the team, and we can find out what this group is doing. And put it to an end, at last. The last thing I did was to leave Sam to direct them to safety. And I know she will..” Skye replied, knowing this was not an easy thing to do, but well, it had to be asked- as direct as possible. [/color] Kameko gracefully sipped at her tea as she watched and listened to the woman explain who she was. Her face remained serene even as her head tilted slightly to the side in a listening posture. She smiled as she heard Samantha described as extraordinary. That was something that Kameko knew better than most having known Samantha for most of her life.Kameko set her almost empty tea cup back on the tray as Skye began to explain who she was and what she needed. Kameko could tell that Skye was just as guarded as Samantha. She reached over and took one of Skye’s hands and gave it a gentle squeeze as she shook her head with a soft laugh. “You remind me of Samantha. I know that what she does is top secret and dangerous. I also know that you would never have been able to answer my question if Samantha did not trust you Skye. Samantha does not share details of her life with many. Where did she tell you that you would find the box?” [color=6ecff6]Skye had a think, but it came back fast enough, even in spite of the injury that had happened. “The saddle bag on her motorbike. That was what Sam said.” Skye simply replied, chuckling, hearing Kameko’s reply. “She is one hell of a person. Perhaps excitable, but keeps her humanity well.”[/color] Kameko smiled and nodded. She rose gracefully to her feet. “Follow me. I will take you to it.” She led the way back to the apartment door. She waited for Skye to exit before keying in the code on the electronic lock and waiting to hear the motor engage the deadbolt. She led the way down the stairs and took a turn through a short hallway that led to a back door. She keyed in another code to open the door to the backyard. She led Skye through a small but beautiful manicured yard over to a free-standing garage to one side of the yard. She once more keyed in a code that let her into the side door of the garage. Inside the garage the lights came on and the private high tech yet homey garage that was Samantha’s personal joyful space was visible. There was a car under a cover in one of the bays of the garage. A deep purple and silver custom street bike was in the other. The bike had some saddlebags on it and had a storage compartment under the seat. Kameko waved a hand towards the bike. “Please look for yourself. Samantha was always here tinkering on something.” Kameko stayed by the door as waved Skye into the interior of the garage. [color=6ecff6]Skye whistled, looking around, impressed by it. “Quite the life she built here. Must have been working on lots before I called.” Skye added, looking around and impressed by the sight of it. Walking up to the bike, she pulled on the leather saddlebag, and with it, pulled out the SSD-sized device, bringing it to bear and checking it through, before snuggling it into her coat pocket. “She had a hell of a life I guess. Always talked about it. Doing stuff with it. I suppose she had a family with us, yet….well, there’s always projects to finish.” Skye spoke to herself softly, before looking back to Kameko, a smile back on Skye’s face. “Thank you. I owe it to her to bring her. And the others, too.” Skye added back to Kameko, the crack of a smile even forming on Skye’s replying face, considering what she’d seen. In spite of all the pain, suffering and agony of the last few days, this was the rare moment that it felt like humanity could be seen. Not someone with a capacity for boundless violence, but someone who was genuinely, truly, innocent. Worth protecting, and as much as Skye hated the idea of going out at all, making this move was important for what she had planned next. [/color] Kameko had a sad wistful smile on her face as she looked around the garage. Memories of Samantha working on a project came to mind. Her chasing the girl out of the garage for a meal or forcing her to rest when she got too wrapped up in a project. She remembered Ryuji trying to learn from Samantha and brought another sad smile to her face. Kameko came back to the present as Skye began to speak. She had obviously found whatever it was that Samantha had sent her to retrieve. She gave Skye a slight bow of acknowledgement. “You owe me nothing. You are out there fighting alongside my granddaughter. You are welcome in my home anytime Skye Lyons. Is there anything else I can do to help you?” Kameko’s head was tilted to one side in query. Unsure if Skye would allow her to help her more than she had. [color=6ecff6]Skye smiled, with a nod, as if to confirm that only this little had been more than a world of enough. “One day I hope Sam is able to tell you all of what is going on. Believe me, it will make quite a story. This is all I need. Thank you, Kameko.” [/color] Kameko nodded and led Skye back to her car, locking everything back up as she went. She thought about Samantha as she cleaned up the remnants of the tea setting her kitchen back to impeccably clean. Her thoughts on Samantha and the danger she was in. She would say extra prayers to the ancestors to watch over her and bring her home safely once more.