It wasn't often I wandered this far from the conclave, but hunts had been rough and I had people to feed. So somehow I found myself in one of the places I wanted to be least of all, Pont Ciel. The only thing keeping my identity hidden and myself safe from the city's guards, was that I appeared to be yet another armor clad nameless mercenary. And right now, I had found my quarry.

I was hunting an Impawimp, it was a small Pokemon like creature, but slightly different for copyright infringement purposes. They liked to hide in damp, dark and slightly slimy places. Dumpsters and Macht's basement were two of their favorite hiding places. Fortunately for myself, I had this one cornered in a dumpster. I had to be careful about making sudden movements or loud noises though, they'd set off the Impawimp, who were known for their speed. That was when I noticed a lady stepping out of a building and approaching the dumpster.

I tried to remain hidden from the dumpster, while simultaneously and silently trying to warn the lady. First I tried pointing at the dumpster, and then motioning no. I then tried motioning at her, and motioning back to the building she came from. What the hell could this lady want with a dumpster at this hour? I let out an internal sigh as to not alarm the Impawimp. I began to slowly approach the lady, still attempting to motion for her to stop or slow down. Unfortunately for me, I must have been too obscured from her vision and instead caused her to trip into the dumpster.

"Dank ferrik..."

I cursed quietly to myself as I began chasing after the dumpster as well. I was a few meters behind the lady, shield in one hand, and an obscure weapon in another. Had I slowed down to think how the situation might look, I would have realized how I may have appeared like a thug chasing a woman in her pajamas through the night.

Essi was walking down the street having just got off one of her dancing jobs. She would've loved to have a normal work schedule however there wasn't much demand for well paying gigs during the day. Since it was the only time she could she was going around to night grocers to get some essentials before going home. That's when she heard it, the sounds of trouble. As a dumpster rumbled toward she wondered what she had done to annoy Faelis as surely this goddess was laughing at her.

Eslia bolted out of the line of fire and then saw two people running after the dumpster. Sighing she started after them and shouted.

"You guys! Do we have a plan?"

Vivi turned her head and realized two different people had joined her in the high-stakes chase. One was an armed man with a shield and the other a red haired woman. The latter shouted to ask about a plan and Vivi's mind went blank. All she could do was mindlessly chase this thing. 

"You two!" she gestured to them as she ran, "Help me get this dumpster under control and I'll pay you! Hell, I'll buy you dinner too!"

Her words were slurred, giving away her slightly inebriated state. 

"But I have no plan!" she shouted, throwing her hands up. Vivi scanned her surroundings for something useful. She noticed some plastic trash cans with wheels leaning in an alleyway. Bingo.

"Aha! We have to beat it at its own game!"

 Vivi grabbed the smaller trash can which was thankfully mostly empty. After discarding the lid, she rolled it out onto the hill and jumped inside. Vivi began careening down the hill at a break neck-pace, but the dumpster still had a good head-start. The speed boost was well worth getting stanky.

@ Eslia sneeze

"Fine but my quarry was using it as shelter, the contents of that dumpster are mine."

I agreed to the unlikely team up, electing to not push about the warnings I had tried giving her. A job was a job. I wasn't surprised when the drunk didn't have a plan, but I was even more surprised when she did have a plan. I guess fight fire with fire right? Or in this case garbage. Either way, I wasn't going to stand around doing nothing. I raised my shield arm.

"FLOAT SHIELD!"

A shield of pure aether formed behind the drunk woman, giving her a swift push from behind in an attempt to increase her speed. I turned my head to the red head as I continued running in an attempt to keep up. "That's about all I can do right now, any ideas?"

Float Shield: T0 Remote Shield.

"Are you a dumpster diver?"

Eslia looked quizzically at the man for his statement and looking back at the women whom was now in a trashcan. Were they both dumpster divers? Watching him conjure a shield just to push the woman she face palmed. Looking back at the man she picked up her pace.

"Get out your shield and get on it. Do you know what sledding is?"

Her mind was racing as she tried to figure out what to do. She then jumped aiming to get on the man's back, piggyback style.

"Squat down and aim for her trash can prepare for lift off!"

The hope was they could pick up enough speed to use Vivi's trashcan like a ramp and take off and make it into the dumpster. She shouted to Vivi to let her know it was about to go down.

"I HAVE A PLAN! PROTECT YOUR HEAD!"

Vivi looked at the man she just bribed to catch her dumpster in disbelief. The contents of the dumpster were his? What the hell did that mean?

“Huh? Did you accidentally throw something —?” she started to ask, but the man created a construct that propelled her forward and she yelped. Her speed just continued to increase exponentially and she suddenly felt veeeery sober.

“OH MY GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—WHAT!?” Vivi yelled as she shot down the hill. The redhead shouted something about protecting her head. Vivi grabbed a pizza box and held it over her head before ducking down and disappearing inside the trashcan. Just before she went inside, she caught a glimpse of a lizard peeking out of the dumpster. Is that what this guy was looking for? His pet? This was getting more and more confusing by the second. 

@ Eslia sneeze

"No I'm-"

I began protesting against being a dumpster diver, but I began receiving instructions so I shut my mouth and listened. Sledding, on my shield? Was she talking about shield surfing? I could feel a faint warmness on my cheeks as I grew a little embarrassed for not thinking of it sooner. I nodded, but found the temperature inside of my helmet rising as the red head jumped onto my back. I forced myself not to worry about it right now as I lifted off the ground, moving my shield underneath me.

My shield connected with the ground as we began shield surfing/sledding and rapidly began picking up speed. Now the only strange part about it, is that my shield isn't really like a normal shield. It's kind of attuned to me? And that means no matter what, it'll always stay around to protect me. The downside of that is that it's always attached to my arm. Meaning, for us to shield surf down the street, I had to awkwardly hold my arm between my feet.

"Sorry, my shield doesn't move."

I apologized to the redhead on my back. I looked back forward finding that the drunk woman had decided to use of all things a pizza box as a lid cover. I began sweating under my helmet as I realized my shield would probably tear apart her box.

"Float Shield!"

I put a hand out, and a shield of aether bolstered the top of the pizza box, creating a surface not only for my shield to glide over, but a ramp to launch us into the air. Once we had reached the pinnacle of our flight, I spread my arms and legs out wide in a controlled dive. I reached my hand out towards the drunk woman's path.

"Aetherforce Shield! Float Shield!"

I launched out two more aether shields, one wedging itself under the drunk woman's garbage can. Then as her trash can was over one edge of the shield, a second aether shield would slam down on the edge of the first shield. The intent was to basically use the first shield to launch the drunk lady into the sky as well.

"DIVE FOR THE DUMPSTER!"

Eslia let go of Celestial and kind of used him like a launch pad as they were in the air. Lightly pushing off his back she laughed softly as she glided through the air. Looking down at the dumpster she saw a clapping, Ogroid? Whatever the little guy was it was kinda cute. As she descended toward the dumpster she opened her arms and spoke with The Voice making her voice gentle but loud enough for Sneeze to hear.

"Come here! Jump! I'll catch you!"

She didn't wanna smash sneeze under the three people that were quickly descending upon him. Essi was hoping to catch him and roll back into the dumpster while shielding his body with her own.

A harsh thump shook her trashcan and Vivi grabbed back onto her trash bag for balance. Suddenly, her trash vehicle launched her out into the sky. That was it—she promised herself she wouldn’t drink again for a whole week. Well, at least not a whole bottle of wine in one sitting. Maybe just half! Then stuff like this wouldn’t happen! The violet haired woman tumbled through the air with her trash bag, screaming all the way. Her allies instructed her to dive, and her gaze fell to the dumpster below. There WAS a lizard creature in it! It was kind of adorable but there wasn’t much time to appreciate seeing as she was about to—

BLAM.

Vivi fell headfirst into the dumpster, barely missing the lizard creature on impact. For a moment, she just laid there in a daze, gazing up at the sky as it zipped by like an abstract painting. At least her trash made it in. Vivi sat up and looked at the lizard.

“Um, hello? What are you doing in this dumpster?” she asked.

@ Eslia sneeze