Location: Casablanca
3 days after the events in The Underground.
The twins arrived here a day ago. Leonhard found them a hotel to stay in while waiting for the ship.
Leonhard entered the room, his eyes glowing faintly.
"Good news, the ship will arrive in three hours. Also, Harden says hi."
Olivia turned around. She was lazily enjoying her winnings. Still in her pajamas in the afternoon, surrounded by a mountain of empty plates, she peeked at her brother from the couch she was lying on.
"Tell him I say hi too!"
Leonhard nodded, his eyes back to normal. "He heard you. Says thanks." He approached the couch and leaned towards it. "So, how was your day?"
"I enjoyed this well-deserved break." Olivia sent a tentacle to a bag of chips. It quickly circled the chips and offered it to her brother. "Want some?"
"Not now." Leonhard stepped back and looked at the room. It was rather messy. A bunch of empty boxes of food were scattered around. "You might have relaxed a bit too hard. Come, get up. We are going out."
"What?" Olivia shot out multiple tentacles and bound herself to the couch.
"For crying out loud, don''t act like a child to me now." Leonhard tried to grab her to no avail.
"Hmpf!" She turned away, avoiding her twin.
"Sigh..." Leonhard moved to the minibar and grabbed a bottle of water. "Alright, you wanted this."
"You won''t dare!" Olivia glared at him, still holding her position.
Leonhard grinned and moved close to her sister, his face only centimeters away from hers, and the now open water bottle tilted only a single movement away from pouring at his hand. "Try me."
After a short duel of locking eyes, Olivia pulled her tentacles back. They had left their marks on the coach. "You monster."
"Look who is talking?" Leonhard took a sip from the bottle. "Go wear something. We need to buy clothes. The man who arranged the port invited us to dinner, and you lack appropriate clothing."
Olivia, still protesting, got up and changed to the dress she wore when the twins reunited.
"Just you know, you pay for it." She shouted while changing.
"Long as I get you out of this room."
While Olivie dressed, Leonhard called the reception and asked them for a cab.
When she finished dressing, the vehicle had already arrived and was waiting for them at the entrance.
The twins quickly left the hotel and entered the waiting cab.
"So, what kind of clothes we will buy?" Olivia asked, watching the street.
"I am thinking of something formal and simple," Leonhard answered, his eyes glowing faintly.
"What are you looking at?"
"Shops have good online catalogs, so I do window shopping before we arrive."
"What is the fun of shopping if you are just going to choose something from the web?"
Leonhard nodded. "I agree, but we don''t have much time. We have an hour or two between the ship''s arrival and the dinner."
"So, do you have anything in mind?" Olivia turned to her brother.
"Something formal and simple."
"Local or something more standard?"
"I don''t know their customs well, so I think I''ll buy a simple shirt, and maybe new pants. What will you do?"
"I don''t know," Olivia pointed at her eyes. "I don''t have a computer grafted into my brain."
"Funny. But how about going for something matching?"
"Oh!" Olivia clapped her hands. "What do you have in mind?"
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Dress or pants?"
"I think I will go with the former. Weather is rather hot here."
Leonhard nodded, and after standing still for a second, he smiled. "I found something nice."
After a quick road trip, the vehicle arrived at a historical bazaar, a hot tourist destination with many high-quality shops.
While the twins strolled through the various sections of the shop, a figure approached them.
An elderly man with tanned olive skin, his face wrinkled deep, and his eyes hidden behind a simple glass with large lenses.
He had a tape measure and pen hanging on his hips, with a bunch of needles pinned on a puffed piece of cotton in his shirt''s front pocket. "May I offer some advice to the lady?" His eyes carefully inspected Olivia.
Bored by her brother, Olivia turned towards the elderly man and smiled. "Of course. But may I ask who you are?"
"Just some nagging grandpa meddling with his customer''s business."
"Then, assuming you heard some of the conversation, do you agree with my brother?" Olivia lifted the navy blue dress Leonhard picked.
"It is not bad, but we can do better." The shop owner moved past the twins and began searching through the dresses. "Young lady has a tall and strong figure. A long dress would fit her, but I must learn of the occasion."
"We are invited to a dinner by a friend''s wife."
"And are you two going in as a couple?"
Twins shook their heads simultaneously. "We are twins!"
"My." Shop-owner chuckled. "Sorry, it''s just."
"No, we get this a lot. With how different our features."
The owner nodded. "Then let''s move past that. Will you two plan on having coherent clothing or everyone to themselves?"
"We want matching clothing. That''s why I thought about navy blue first. It is hard to find colors that fit both of us."
"It would be a fitting choice... Though, I can do better." He grabbed a long red dress and showed it to Olivia. "It fits with the lady''s unique eyes."
"It sure does." Leonhard nodded in approval. "But I am not sure if that shade of red would fit me."
"Unless the customers are hellbent on wearing the same color, I have the solution." The shop owner gave the dress to Olivia and quickly moved to the men''s section. After some searching, he grabbed a charcoal jacket.
"These two colors remind of embers," Olivia said, comparing the dress to the jacket offered to Leonhard.
The shop owner smiled. "Lady has good eyes. Young people should have a flame in them, the flame of youth. A powerful red next to charcoal should put your fire into the limelight!"
The shop owner had clutched his fist and lifted it while saying that.
The twins, barely holding their chuckles, agreed with the shop owner.
They quickly changed into the given clothes, putting their old ones in a bag the shop owner had given them.
Leonhard moved before a mirror, turned around, and stretched his arms. "This feels nice. The cut, the texture, all feels great."
"Mine too!" Oliva twirled. "I am totally in love with this color, but it could be a bit longer."
"Lady is taller than most of our customers, so even the longest one we had came short of her size, but if you can give me some time, I can adjust it for you."
Oliva shook her head. "No need," And she suddenly shrunk a couple of centimeters.
The shop owner adjusted his glasses. "What a useful ability."
"Thank you!" Olivia clapped her hands. "But I only did it because we are in a hurry. If I bring this later, can you still adjust its size?"
The shop owner nodded with a smile. "Of course. I can."
Leonhard moved to the counter and paid for the clothes while Olivia moved to the cab that waited outside.
When the twins entered the vehicle, Leonhard pulled out something from his pocket and gave it to the cab driver. "You know the location?"
The cab driver nodded. "We will be there in no time."
***
The cab driver had told the truth. He had arrived at the designated point in no time, even though it was far from the bazaar.
Leonhard paid for the trip and put in some extra as a tip.
They were before a locked mesh fence gate and a mostly abandoned dockyard.
Everything looked worn except for the crane Leonhard''s contacts brought.
The dock was very secluded, with no sound except for the fading rumble of their cab returning to the hotel and no people beside them.
Leonhard moved forward and opened the lock. "We are early."
"It seems so." Olivia moved past Leonhard and entered the dock, opening her arms and embracing the ocean breeze.
"So, about shrinking your height. How did you do that?"
"Oh, it was easy. Here, look." Olivia lifted her dress, revealing that except for the parts of his legs outside the dress, her body was in mist form, just holding a humanoid shape.
Leonhard instinctively turned his head around to avoid looking at his sister, but he only turned back when she laughed. "It''s fine. My body is currently mostly mist."
"Just tell this first, then show later, or even better, just don''t show."
"Fine, fine. But anyways, I just manipulated the mist to make myself short." Olivia shortened and raised her height to show her ability.
After that, they idled around, waiting for their arrival. Olivia searched the place for "Something cool." In her words, Leonhard replied to some emails.
And when the dawn arrived, the ship finally arrived on the horizon.
As dawn broke, the ship finally appeared on the horizon. When it docked, a figure leaped from the bow.
When he landed, he cracked the concrete below, lifting a dust cloud.
"Well, aren''t these my favorite kiddos?" The man said with a big smile, his half-grayed hair shining under the sun.
Nearing his fifties, the man had a well-developed, muscular body.
He wore a black business suit, open jacket and shirt, and no tie.
"Harden." Leonhard moved forward, clenching his fist. "It''s good to see you, but I think I asked you not to come yourself."
"Well," Harden scratched his head. "I was not going to, but the cargo was too valuable to let anyone but me deliver it."
Leonhard sighed. "Damned idiot, he knows far well UN will keep eyes on him, the head of The Hares, a PMC loyal to me." "That ship is fully automated with a small army of armed robots."
"You are breaking my heart here, it''s not like my arrival is bad-"
Just as he opened his mouth, a series of sonic booms echoed in the dockyard as 13 people with large, angelic wings landed before the gate. They all wore navy blue suits with the UN emblem pinned on their chest.
Harden opened his mouth. "Ah-"
"Please, don''t." Leonhard turned towards the winged people with distaste on his face. "What is the Chancellor''s right arm doing here? Aren''t you need to be at work."
The woman leading the winged group stepped forward. "And aren''t you needed to fool around with other kids instead of smuggling weapons? Especially when ordered not to."
Leonhard pinched his temples. "It is going to be a long night."