[hr][hr][i][h1][color=cornflowerblue]Shizuka Takashiro[/color], & [color=39b54a]Nick O'Connor[/color].[/h1]
[sup]([@tsukune] and [@TheWizardLizard])[/sup][/i][hr]
[b][code]Waterbridge Airport, Roseview_[/code][/b]

The touchdown felt surprisingly smooth after almost an entire day of turbulent ride from Taipei (and that was not even counting the shitstorm that turned a supposedly boring conference into a full-blown riot). Shizuka Takashiro let out a tired yawn and looked out of the window; even though it was only ten minutes to four, the sun was already setting, painting the sky with a reddish hue. Once the plane was docked and the passengers were ushered to the arrival hall, Shizuka dragged the compact spinner case with him and followed the crowd to the check-in area. He flicked open his passport and frowned - he had changed for a fresh book just two months ago, but he was now left with only a couple of visa-free pages.

[i]...Oh well.[/i]

Stepping out of the sliding doors of the airport, he was greeted with a cooling breeze - which also had brought the smell of the exhaust fumes from the taxicabs lining up at the stand nearby. Thankfully it wasn't crowded - considering the time - and it wasn't long before it's his turn.

"Greencrest Height, White Coast," he told the driver absentmindedly as he slipped into the taxi.

Nick glanced back at the passenger in halfhearted curiosity. The man in his taxi was obviously young and of Asian descent, and the driver felt an odd sense of curiosity about what brought him to Baybridge; especially odd because he made a point of not being curious about the business of strangers under any circumstances. Maybe it was the stir-craziness from living with a hive of insects.

"You got it, sir," he murmured as he peeled the taxi away from the airport and took off down the road with the practiced ease of someone who had driven those roads several times a day for the last few months. A faint clicking noise emitted from the glove compartment next to him, and Nick shot it a withering glance. "Shut up," he whispered forcefully, and the clicking died down. Hopefully the passenger wasn't paying attention.

"Greencrest, huh?" He asked, glancing in the mirror at the young man behind him. "That's residential. You visiting someone?"

Shizuka didn't hear the clicking noise, nor did he pay much attention to the odd way the driver seemed to hiss at the glove compartment - he had other things in mind. And one of those things was inside the case in the trunk behind him.

Something he had to get to a fellow agent he trusted most, Holly Hope, ASAP.

The driver's question pulled him out of his thoughts. "Uh, yeah, I guess." He had replied without thinking - but he would leave it as that. He wasn't on duty now, and there was no need to intimidate a cab driver about his identity as a RAVEN agent. The less people know about him, the better - though with the premature gray hair (which was pretty much silver-white now) that he was too prideful to dye it black, he was hard to miss.

Looking out of the window, he let out a sigh. "...Baybridge is never the same each time I come here."

"Yeah, I guess they did have the, what, Eco-terrorist attacks not long ago. Or, we did, that is." Nick furrowed his brow. He still didn't consider himself to be a real Baybridger, odd considering that he knew the town like the back of his hand from all the hours spent driving across it. He supposed in that case that he wasn't really 'from', considering how his last home had turned out, which was tragically not the most depressing thing about his life.  

Something about the man behind him occurred to Nick, and for once his curiosity outstripped his caution. "Sir," he began. "How long are you staying in Baybridge? Can't imagine there's enough in that little case for a real long visit. What's in there, tooth brush, change of clothes? ...Though I guess if you visit this person often, you might have some stuff there. Dumb question."

Shizuka's eyes went glassy when the driver asked about his case. "Technically I live in Baybridge now, but I'm often out of town - you can say that probably makes me no different from mere visitors of this city." He stared at the driver through the rearview mirror's reflection. "You sound like you're pretty new to this place. Just moved here not long ago?"

Nick's line of thought was interrupted when some douchebag in a green truck turned a blind corner and nearly crashed into the taxi, forcing Nick to slam on the breaks. "Asshole!" he shouted, before instinctively resting a hand on the glove compartment.

Shizuka quickly put out a hand onto the headrest of the driver's seat before him, and his head hit the back of his own hand; he had to control himself not to go intangible out of pure instinct. He looked up and opened his mouth, about to swear at the truck with Nick when his eyes fell onto the driver's hand on the glove compartment.

He raised an eyebrow. "Eh, I don't think we need to go that far to shoot a bullet at that jerk..." he tried to joke in a half-hearted way, but his sight was still trained on the glove compartment. Something about the driver's reaction made him felt that whatever's inside was probably [i]not[/i] a gun. He was beginning to feel curious about what the driver was hiding in the compartment, but in the end he decided not to poke his nose into other people's business (and in turn attracting more unnecessary troubles to himself).

Nick pulled his hand back slowly, letting out a breath of forced laughter. "Yeah, it's, ah... it's all good. Man, guess they'll give a license to damn near anyone these days, huh?"  He was silent for a moment, the strangeness of his actions becoming very apparent to him, before letting out a large breath and trying to frantically change the subject. "So... what do you do, like, for a living, sir?"

Shizuka watched Nick as the driver seemed to try regaining his composure - he was now more certain not to reveal too much about himself. "...Diplomatic stuff, so I travel around a lot," he said finally, shrugging. It wasn't a lie, just half of the whole truth.

"Cool, cool," Nick replied absentmindedly, eyes locked on the road ahead. The ride was going fairly quickly - they were getting close now, having just entered the bureau of White Coast. "So, is there an address you want me to leave you at, or...?"

Shizuka felt like smacking his own head now - the stress from the incident last week had really affected him more than he wanted to admit, so much that even the simplest things were slipping from his sluggish mind. "Yes, yes, the address," he muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose with a hand, while the other went for his jeans pocket. "It's at---" he began, pulling out his vibrating phone but stopped when he looked down at the screen of the mobile.

In a tone of suppressed frustration, he spoke to the driver again, "Change of plans - take me to the DOVE/RAVEN Headquarters."