Bus Driver

Andreas, Dylan and their fellows managed to create a makeshift rope made of any fabric they could find, including their own clothes. The fabrics' length only managed to extend halfway down to the first floor, but it was enough. After helping each other down, the last ones were Brian and Tiff, they pondered their next move. Some people from the third floor were already climbing down, though it's none of their concern now.

Chaos was everywhere. People fleeing in every direction and vehicles scurrying in a hurry. Only a handful of red uniformed soldiers were trying hard to make some form of orderliness. Some police forces were in the air, warning people to stay out of the highways.

"What should we do now?" One of them asked impatiently.

"Any of you have a vehicle?"

"Nah! We all took a cab to get here." A chill one was still present in the group.

"We should hijack some vehicles. With a small tweak, they should be up and running." Andreas suggested, prompting the other specialists to look at him with condemning eyes.

"What?" He shrugged, shamelessly looking each of them in the eyes, portraying his determination to get out of the Starport.

As the group began to consider, a hover bus suddenly approached them in reverse. It stopped ahead of them, before the door slid open, revealing a handsome man with a bright yellow hair, manning the driver's seat.

"Hop in." He nonchalantly said, with an attractive voice.

Somehow, the group of specialists found the person to be familiar. They couldn't quite pinpoint their suspicion. After wasting a minute wondering, Tiff entered the bus holding Brian's hand, inciting them to act. When they all successfully entered the vehicle, a few random people took their chance, joining them.

The driver closed the hatch, denying more passengers in order to avoid overloading the vehicle. As they took a turn, he uttered, "We're gonna take a detour around the city. We will not go to the denser intersections."

Few vehicles were traversing the route they took. With their trip peaceful, Tiff sitting on the front rows, leaned forward, asking the yellow haired driver, "Do I know you?"

This question made the specialists glance at each other. They had been pondering that question since the driver appeared before them.

"Nope." The man dismissively answered.

"Are you a celebrity?"

"Nope."

"What are you?"

"Nope."

The driver rejected every question, adding in the end, "I'm just a bus driver."

"Just a bus driver? Hahahahaha!" Tiff began to laugh uncontrollably. Brian seeing her like that for the first time, suspected that she lost her mind. However, when she wouldn't stop after a full minute, he was infected and began to laugh as well.

Theon in the back, began to chuckle from the contagious laughter. After a futile attempt to stifle his bursting stomach, he laughed so loud causing a chain of reaction, as the bus exploded into mad cackles.

The handsome man steering the vehicle could only narrow his eyes in the front, his passengers seemingly happy from his reasoning.

After a while, Tiff regained her composure, bringing the laughter to an abrupt end. She said to the driver, "Can you show me your smile?"

"I'm not a happy person," The driver said deliberately narrowing his voice, adding, "My family call me 'Poker Face'."

Normally, this would have caused another laughter, but Theon stood up realizing something, pointing a finger at the driver, "Ahh! A mask, a charming voice, a killer smile.."

He trailed upon noticing something, murmuring, "Something's different.."

The group pondered at Theon's words. Not long after, their eyes widened, focusing their gazes on the short hair of the driver, outlining the perfect shape of his head.

"A mask, a charming voice, a killer smile, and a long bright yellow hair.." Andreas enumerated, before coming to a conclusion, "He took a haircut."

With this, they all exclaimed together, "IT'S THE ANNOUNCER!"

"Ah, crap!" Eran Losac cursed, rolling his eyes. He took a peek at the rearview mirror, and saw the begrudging stares the specialists gave him. Since he roasted them during the tournament, he couldn't blame them.

"I knew it!" Tiff celebrated with a soft smile. She had ample of time studying most of her customers, and men like Sy or this driver, just stood out from the rest. Thus, she laughed so hard after the man said that he was just a bus driver.

"Look to your right." The driver said, which his passengers did. Upon peering through the glass windows, they all tensed, some even cried out loud. Enormous spherical objects, steaming hot with smoke from the planetary entrance, hovered over the city. The powerful boosters were the only ones preventing them from dropping their entire weight into the fragile infrastructures below.

"Those are shock orbital drop pods, designed to make a devastating impact on their designated landing point. Thankfully, they belong to the AO Guild, based on The Kingdom of Xepp. They're just making their presence known in the Union." The driver explained, but with a sting in the tail, "They'll give the people sometime to evacuate their landing area before they choke the city, to avoid inflicting civilian casualties, else our faction will have an excuse to chase them away."

"Choke the city?" Tiff repeated, unable to comprehend what the driver meant.

"They'll cut off the main roads, preventing the defenders from rotating across the city. Next will be neutralizing defense forces and military bases. Lastly, they will capture strategic points like factories."

"Why are they doing this!?" Theon uttered unconsciously. He was in Logria during the storm, taking shelter in the Three Towers. Such an awful experience had been commited in his mind. The people of this planet needed a break.

"If they try to neutralize the defense forces, won't there be casualties?" Dylan asked, his face full of concern.

"Usually, they know their stuff. Logria is ill defended, and they can just streamline their effort. But if there were some stubborn resistance, they have non-lethal rounds to disable such individuals."

"This is an unsanctioned occupation. A violation of the treaty!" Andreas protested, adding, "The central government is obliged to drive them out from our territories!"

"Unfortunately, the central government's hands are tied with the coming war. They might try to negotiate a little, but they will not make full effort to liberate Logria. They'll let the guilds sort it out."

"So we're just gonna sit around and ride it out?" Tiff questioned, with annoyed look on her face.

"Hopefully," The driver flinched, "If GT saw this sudden occurrence as a grave offense, this desert planet will become a warzone."

"Oh, my goodness! These mech guilds!" Theon exclaimed, cursing, "What the f*ck is in their heads, interrupting with the lives of civilians!?"

"We are fortunate that we had not yet witnessed a guild war during our generation in the Union. The GT had established themselves here during our grandfathers' time. Now that the GT is weakening, other guilds are now probing their weakness."

They entered an underground tunnel, causing them to lose view at the terrifying image for a few minutes.

"What about us mech specialist?" Dylan asked, "Surely they have no use for 1st grades?"

At this, the driver chuckled, responding, "You are a valuable asset to them. As you probably know, every faction develops their technologies separately. With your knowledge, they will know how we build and design our mechs. A good headstart for them, but also a great loss for the Union."

"The factories!" One of the specialists shouted, as a look of worry washed over their faces.

"They are not yet fully equipped for mech production. Only the replicators had data of a few mech components." Said another.

"They can still use that!"

"F*ck this!" Theon cursed, standing with revived determination, "I say we build a Union's mech in Niel's mech facility, and scare the sh*t out of them!"

The fellow specialists laughed at this. They were not even skilled enough to build a 4th Gen Mech from the ground up, much less the current gens which were probably the only ones that can contend to whatever war machines the AO Guild had brought. However, one person came to their mind as their trip finally made half of its progress. Sy.

"Our house is only to the left." Tiff said, pointing at a two story hub, just beside a green house, a bit surprised that the driver knew where she was heading. She thought of joining the mech specialists for sometime, but suddenly, without her knowing, they were on her childhood streets.

As the bus slowly came to a halt, the blonde glanced at the driver after making her way toward the sliding door with Brian in tow, asking with a curious voice, "What's your name?"

"Poker Face." The driver answered without interest.

Visible irritation could be seen on Tiff's face as she sighed, "Fine! You know what? I notice you look just like Emma Losac."

'F*ck!' Eran cursed inwardly.

"Hoho-ho!" Theon rubbed his palm, a grin plastered on his face. "I was beginning to like the concept of a bus driver. I hated that arrogant announcer, by the way. Bus driver was a bit informative and humble.'