Rocket Knights: Next Gen (Rookie Chapter 1)

[Kohakuchan19]

Gadget was feeling a little better at this point, Seeing as A leader had been decided, and even a second in command. Eren would be leader, while Consuela would be the second in command. Gadget was fine with that, and to be a supporting member of the team would be a great start for her. Everyone Started up their Rockets on Eren's command, and Flew all the way to the Village of Aspendale, The location of which the suspected bandits have been attacking. The Village was near the mountains, leaving the air very cool and crisp, and the scent of evergreen trees was drifting into the Young Knight's noses. Upon their arrival, The Knights approach the town square to discuss some sort of plan of action.

Gadget looks around, seeing the many log cabins that made up the town. The town square had a small fountain well, and several inns and pubs were surrounding the road that circled the area.

"This is a rather pleasant place isn't it?" Gadget asked to no one in particular. "Almost hard to believe that anything could be amiss around here.."

Gadget, trying not to wander too far looked around some more, and inspected the well, then she looked at the buildings some more. She then returned to the others.

"There's a few different inns we could check into. We could probably check into one of them after we know what to do.." Gadget suggested, while waiting for other ideas from the rest of the team.

[billysparkz]

Silver was annoyed by Bronco'ss insults and looked to the Armadillo with annoyed glare. Silver wasn't afraid to take on the leader position, he just needs to prove so. Silver listened to Bronce noisly cheer on Eren. Silver thought to himself about Eren being leader. "What makes him so special?" He thought to himself. After thinking he then responded to Bronco.

"Well I at least faster than you Bronco." Silver replied with a smirk. "At least that's something."

Summer just listened in disheartedly. She knows deep down that Silver is jerk but yet is caring whe the situation gets serious. By Eren's the two started their rocketpacks and took off for the village. As the group entered the village the duo were astounded by the sights of the village's fountain and multiple log cabins. After hearing Gadget's comment Summer responded.

"It sure is." Summer said impressed. "This place IS amazing."

Silver looked around. To him this where his sister lives. As Gadget returned with a suggestion Silver responded.

"This is also the place where my sister lives." Silver said happily. "Also checking into on of the inns is a great idea Gadget. However we should take it up with Eren. What do you think Eren?"

[KokoaMinto]

After some hours of traveling the group of young Knights arrived in Aspendale; the village where the bandits seemed to wrack havoc for quite some time now. It was a quiet place, at least in comparison to the Capitol of Zephyrus, and the people seemed to treat each other more like a family rather than just neighbors.

Mia was looking at each building in sight while Gadget was inspecting the well in the middle of the village. The first suggestion was to search for an inn where they could spend the night which wasn't actually a bad idea, and even Silver was approving to it.

"I guess it has the highest priority for now" Mia started "We don't know how full the inns will be in the afternoon. Even if this place has enough inns we could check in, we shouldn't try to risk not getting a place for us to stay."

Eren on the other hand was just huffing through his nose; their job was to find the bandits, and even though he knew that Gadget, Silver and Mia had a valid point around finding an inn to stay in first, his mind was more circling around their mission. Even more so he couldn't decide above the heads of the others, and he wouldn't even dare trying it.

His eyes were wandering from left to right; looking at Gadget, Consuela, Bronco, Mia, Summer and lastly Silver before he opened his mouth: "I'd like to hear the opinions of the others first. We need to set our priorities straight, but I can't decide anything alone since we're supposed to work as a team, and I don't want to deal with disagreements between us all."

For a moment silence was underneath the group, until Eren continued: "If we're able to get a room in the inn I'd say we split it between boys and girls. If we're not able to get a room..." His sight went over to Silver "Maybe you could ask your sister if we are allowed to stay in her place until we found something for us."

[metalbyakko]

After some hours of flying the knights landed in Aspendale. Bronco tooked his helmet off and looked in awe at the city around him. It wasn't so special actually, but he was here as a knight and that made this trip so special. It was even the first time he traveled to another town without his parents. Sure Consuela was here, but that didn't count. The village looked actually really peaceful, it was hard to believe bandits were causing havoc here. A woman walked with her child down the street. The child saw the knights, pointed with the finger on them and tried to get the attention of his mother. After the child waved at Bronco, the armadillo waved back, the mother dragged her child. Bronco was surprised by that "Looks like they don't like strangers at all," Bronco stated to the others. Maybe it was, because they weren't famous, actually this was their first mission and it was doubtful someone knew that they were new knights. The ears of the armadillo raised and he asked Silver out of curiosity "Wait, you have a sister? How comes you don't live at the same place? This town and the capital aren't close to each other."

Consuela no the other hand had other thoughts. It was a little bit strange, that it seemed to be so peaceful in this town. The few people on the streets weren't just looking at the knights, they observed the young knights. She barely listened to what the others said. Something was wrong. Eren gave first orders, which weren't bad. Still Consuela also had some ideas on her own. "Excuse me Eren," she said and raised her hand, walking in front of the others she explained clearly and loudly "While finding a place to stay isn't a bad idea, we should also do other things. We shouldn't forget that this town was attacked several times by bandits and I doubt they will trust us. Let's face it for most of them we're just seven armed children." Behind a window, to which Consuela pointed, there was a middelaged opossum watching them. "I don't think we can walk around like we want. Also it could be more important to know more about the bandits. So my suggestion would be to split up. Silver goes to his sister and tells her everything. It would be really good having someone, who lives her and is able to provide us with informations, not just shelter. The rest of us should split up and do other things, like looking for a inn, getting some information and also going to the local authorities to tell them why we're here. After some time we should meet again here. If no one disagrees with my suggestion, we should think who goes with who and who does which task."

[Kohakuchan19]

Though at least half of the group had the same idea, it seemed that Eren and Connie had other ideas. To Gadget, this was neither surprising or disappointing. Really, only one person needed to make the arrangements for the room reservations. Consuela suggested they split up, and then meet back a few hours later. Gadget thought about what she wanted to do.

"Well..." Gadget paused to think just a little more before talking. "How about Silver just goes to talk to his sister and ask about letting us stay at her place for a while, and then if she doesn't, we can look for an inn? I'm willing to go run around the market and ask people if they know what's going on. and I will look for any guards that may be there too."

[billysparkz]

As Silver stood there he watched as Eren stated that others should give out their own opinions beacause they were also part of the team. Silver actually started to see potential in Eren being a leader like his father. He even also acknowledged that the team shouldn't come to disagrements, Silver gained more respect for afterwards. After Eren gave the others orders to split up to find rooms at the Inn, he gave Silver the suggestion to ask his sister if they could stay at her place in the meantime. Silver responded glady.

"Perhaps she could let us stay there for a little while." Silver replied happily.

He and Summer then saw a child as he waved at the knights. Afterwards the mother dragged him away, leaving the group to think for a while.

Silver and Summer then listened in to what Consuela had to say. She stated that they all should focus more on investigating crime scenes and protecting civilians. The duo agrees with her on that. They need to focus more on helping the people here than finding a place to sleep. Silver then heard Bronco say that he didn't know that Silver had sister. It didn't surprise him, because he really doesn't like talking about his family after the Praxis incident. Now would probably be a good time to say so.

"I just don't talk about my family that much." Silver stated. "Don't worry. I'll intoduce you guys to her soon."

Summer truly wants to help people, but sometimes it getss very hard for her to do so. It can be especially more difficult when lives are on the line. She could do nothing but look around and lighten up. "Now is not the time to mope..." she thought to herself as she saw a flock of birds in the distant sky. She admired the sight before responding.

"Well our priorities have been settled." She said. "Now Silver could go find his sister, to get us a place to stay for now while the rest of us could investigate."

[KokoaMinto]

Eren stood completely silent while he first listened to the suggestions that Consuela made. Of course she was right; out of all things that are crossing the minds of the young knights it was of higher priority to find some clues of the last accidents with the bandits that are terrorizing the town. Not only that, they needed to earn the trust of the people of the town as well.

He looked around. Judging by the face expressions of the middle-aged to the old 'storytellers' he pretty much understood why gaining trust and showing some common sense in what they're doing was so important.

Mia saw that her younger brother was more lost in his thoughts, so she only nodded in agreement of Consuela's and Silver's idea of letting him ask his sister for a place to stay. It took her a moment to snap Eren out of his own world by nudging him with her elbow against his upper arm.

He cleared his throat and looked to the others.

"Okay guys, here's the plan..." Eren slowly started and looked over to Silver "You will go to your sister and ask her if we could stay in her home for a few days." Then his head turned to Gadget, Summer, Bronco and Mia "You four will split up and talk to the towns people to get any sort of information of the bandit incidents. Stay polite though, I don't want to see anyone of you getting into unnecessary troubles." Lastly he looked over to Consuela and nodded "And we two talk to the local authorities so they know that we were sent to support them, and to help them find the bandits and arrest them."

Mia nodded and looked over to the others, in hopes they will agree with the plan Eren made. At least Consuela was able to give Eren some sort of hand when it comes down to make important decisions like that. He was good in fighting, but his strategies were as questionable as those of their father at times.

"Once we're all done with everything we will meet back here at the well." Eren added lastly.

"Alright," Mia said slowly "But please be careful as well, and keep your own words in mind by staying polite." She showed her tongue before running ahead. It was an effective strategy to avoid arguments with Eren, as he pretty much wasn't able to say anything against it.

The dark blond opossum gave a slightly annoyed sigh from himself before he looked to Consuela "Come on, Connie, let's get going." With that said the group was finally ready to split up.

[metalbyakko]

"Sounds like a plan!" said Bronco cheerfully, but he began to think about it and raised his arm "QUESTION: What kind of information?" Consuela looked at her brother. She could now scold him for being clueless, but this time the question wasn't so dumb and she explained to him "It should be things like:Where and when do the bandits attack, how many are they, how do they look and maybe possible ideas where their hideout is. Maybe we could even find some names, but I think the most important informations will still coming from the authorities. At least that's what I think could happen." Bronco huffs and crossed his arms, with an annoyed tone he asked "And why should we run around getting MORE information if the important ones come from the guards anyway?" "Because there it's possible that they overlooked something and now hush!" After that the group scattered. Mia asked her brother to stay polite. Consuela smiled at her and put an arm on Eren's shoulder "You worry too much. I'm still with him. If he screws up I slap him on the back of his silly little head," she went with Eren to the authorities. While looking around she asked him in a serious tone "Hey Eren...do you think everything will go well? It's not like I'm afraid or something but...I just have an odd feeling. What about you?" she sighed and asked herself in her thoughts if that was something stupid to ask. Maybe now she realised they had now a mission on their own, she wasn't sure about it herself. Well now she tried to concentrate, it couldn't be that hard. Her father and her aunt worked alone for sometime and everything went well. The young knights got even proper training and that was hard enough. For sure they would be able to take down some mere bandits, wouldn't they?

Bronco was looking around with the others. The armadillo wasn't sure who to talk to. Well there weren't many passengers going around, but after sometime he found a few people. "Look there is someone!" he told the others loudly and rushed to the passengers. They were wondering about the armored guy running towards them and it was clear they were already intimidated. "I have some questions! Where can we find the bandits to beat them up?" Bronco asked, but the passengers, a oppossum guy and a woman who may or may not be married, looked at each other and then back to Bronco. The only answer was their heads shaking and going away, ignoring further attempts of Bronco asking them questions. Naturally the young armadillo wasn't happy about it. He crossed his arms and pouted. "Sure ignore the guy who is here to help you!" he mumbled angered and kicked some dirt away. Looking around again he hoped finding someone else. He found some other citizens, two times and used the same tactic. Straight out asking them without holding back his intentions, which were to beat up the bandits. Still they told him nothing. Bronco huffed over and over. After stomping with his feet to the ground and began to complain "THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING! WE JUST WANT TO HELP THE PEOPLE, BUT THEY TREAT US LIKE THAT!" He calmed down after a while and looked to the others "Did you find out something?"

[Kohakuchan19]

While Gadget when with the others to get some information, she noticed Bronco was being far too forward with his approach, and was probably scaring people away more than helping. When Bronco was getting get angry and shout, she walked over to him and patted his shell.

"It might help if you try to look a bit less intimidating, and try sounding more sincere?" Gadget paused. "We need to give them a reason to trust us, and be empathetic. Not say things like 'Where's the guy I came to beat up'."

Gadget saw the same couple from before and decided to give talking to them a shot, in an attempt to demonstrate what she meant. She approaches them.

"Excuse me Sir? Mam? Could I have a moment of your time?"

The couple looked at Gadget and then give an irritated huff.

"What do you strangers want?" The man huffed. "Why are a bunch of.. Kids! poking their noses into our business?"

Gadget was taken back a bit. "Hey, hold on a moment. We're Rocket Knights in Training, and we were sent here because of the Bandit problem. If there's anything you can tell us that can help with the investigation, it would be very helpful, and we can sort things out quicker. Please... At least give us a chance to prove ourselves.."

"Oh well... The truth is.." The lady was about to say something but the man hushed her up.

"If you want information so bad. talk to the authorities. We won't get involved in this!"

The couple walk away in a hurry, leaving Gadget dumbfounded.

"That.. was strange... what are they so afraid of?"

[billysparkz]

When Silver got approval from Eren to go see if he could get his sister to let them have a place to stay, he nodded in acknowledgement. He then ran off to where his family lived. During his trek to his home he saw the many stores he remembered and used to go to for things like food and clothes. He wanted to get some food for the team, but he realised that now wasn't the time for that. So he hurried to get to his house and managed to get there. The house was a normal two-story building with a brick exterior. The front had a big window beside the door and two smaller ones on the second floor. The porch has several plants in the railings, which also acted as planters for the many flowers. The lights much to Silver's relief were on, meaning at least someone was still there.

"Finally, I home..." Silver said catching his breath. "I hope sis is still here."

Silver then walked up the steps and knocked on the door. He waited until he heard a familiar voice.

"Hello?" Said young female voice. "Who's there?"

"Who do you think it is?" Silver responded.

Without another word the door opened, and behind it was a teenage gray wolf. She was a little smaller than Silver, had short purple hair and eyes, and had a slim physique. She looked at the rocket knight with a curious look before speaking up.

"Brother!" She shouted happily while hugging Silver. "You're back!"



After Silver left for his house Summer listened to Eren's orders. She nodded in acknowledgement to his orders and soon began walking along thhe streets to talk to people. It wasn't really successful, most of the townsfolk ignored her and even acted impolite.

"Excuse me?" She asked a old opposum villager. "Do you know anything about the recent bandit activity here?

"Hmmm..." The old opposum pondered. "No. If there was I'd be staying indoors today."

"Okay, thanks for your time." Summer said dissappointedly before moving on to another villager.

"Hello? I'm here to get information about the bandi-" She was about to ask.

"No! I know nothing." said one male villager before running off leaving Summer shocked by his behaviour.

Summer then went up to another villager to ask the same question. However before she could ask her, she got quickly paranoid and ran off before Summer could even introduce herself. She got more and more frustrated to the point where she could get angry. However, she quickly reassured herself. "Calm down Summer. Keep it together. Just simply ask the guy you see." Afterwards Summer quickly kept moving to look for other villagers.

[KokoaMinto]

"Excuse me, Sir, are you... uhm... Pardon me, Miss, could you tell me about..."

It was no use for Mia. No matter who she tried to talk to, the people would just look at her in a weird way and walk off, or completely ignore her alltogether.

With a loud sigh of desperation she looked over to Bronco, Summer and Gadget. They faced the same fate as she did. What did those bandits do to make everyone act like frightened chickens? Does no one have a backbone anymore? They weren't even afraid once Bronco started to growl and swear out of frustration.

"What would Connie do if she wouldn't get the attention she wanted to have?" asked the opossum girl herself. Connie always found some ways to grasp the center of attention, no matter if it was by purpose or not. She looked around some more and looked at the well for quite some time. With a little smirk in her face she walked over to it, climbed up and whistled loudly to not only get the attention of her team members to join her idea, but to also get the citizens to notice them.

"Dear Citizens, allow me to introduce myself and my teammates! We were travelling all the way from Kingdom Zephyrus to support you and the guards to solve the misery about the bandits that are causing some troubles since a long while. We, as part of the Rocket Knights, see it as our duty not only to serve the Royal Family but to make sure that every person, rich or poor, get the security they deserve to have! Sparkster Sanjulo was sending us to protect all of you from harm, but to do so we need your trust and all the information we can gather so we are able to catch the bandits at the right time!"

Hopefully some of the citizens would come over their fears and start to speak...
------
While the others tried their hardest to get any clues about the bandits Consuela and Eren made their way to the local authorities of the town. Of course he was concerned about the overall situation, but if they would back off their parents and mentors would be disappointed for giving up this soon. A slight sigh came out of him while he brushed through his hair.

"I'm as worried as you are, but if we screw this up all the efforts of training us were for nothing. They never will trust us and take us serious if we place our tails between our legs and run off like the little kids we are... And none of us want to disappoint anyone, am I right?"

After some time they were reaching their destination. The dark blond opossum took a deep breath before knocking on the door of a small house. Enraged voices and shouting was already heard from the insides, and as soon as the young opossum knocked on the door three times it was opened. Instead of a warm welcome though the two young Knights went out of the way as fast as possible, as a broken chair was thrown out in a heated conversation.

Eren gulped and looked at the chairs condition. No wonder they needed some backup here. He looked at Consuela and nodded before entering the house, only to see two tall opossum guards discussing loudly about the current situation.

"Um... excuse the interruption, but... we were sent by Sparkster Sanjulo to support the guards in the case of robbery here...?"

But instead of getting any sort of attention the guards were ignoring them. Maybe it was the best to just let them 'discuss' first to let some steam off before talking to them? Eren wasn't too sure about it and was seemingly intimidated by their appearance. He looked so small in comparison to them that all the courage to open his mouth a second time was as good as gone. It somehow reminded him of Armor and his father if both were drunk and in a big disagreement, just with the difference that they were just shouting and growling at each other and never were trying to hurt the other with furniture.

He looked at Consuela and hoped that she could somehow get the attention of them. Girls always have it easier with all their charm.