trans_9 | They call me a baby driver [Open]

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They call me a baby driver [Open]

Sirius's investigation of the ship had been haphazard at first. Now that he was working with Moony on a map of Stacy, he planned to fix that. The Hangar was well explored as far as he knew, but he had yet to go there himself. At first glance it looked simple enough. Lots of vehicles of all kinds, most unrecognizable to him. Their unfamiliarity made up for the lack of secret passages of any kind.

It wasn't until he reached a motorcycle that a strange thought passed his mind. He hadn't expected anything of his to be here. After Azkaban he was grateful just to have his wand. The fact that Stacy had given him the Marauder's Map, his mirror, and enchanted knife had been mind blowing at first. Now he wondered if there was something else Stacy brought from his world.

He walked faster and scanned the Hangar. It was a long while before there it was. A Triumph Bonneville T120 that belonged to one Sirius Black.

"Oh, baby." He ran his hands over the handle and then down her body. His fingers found several dents but the damage was minimal. He could fix that.

He straddled the motorcycle and held his breath as he turned the keys that were still in the ignition. The engine revved. The bike sprung to life. Sirius laughed.

"That's my girl." He pressed a button and kicked off into the air.

Nearly an hour later anyone walking around the City would see a strange sight. A man on a motorcycle soaring over them. The motorcycle's engines masked his laughter. But he was still laughing when he set her down on a road and let the engine rest. He stroked the handlebars lovingly.

"We've both still got it."

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Anwei was wandering through the City, thinking sadly of all the buildings she'd never gone through, which were now so many heaps of rubble. She should have spent time here; she should have made time. Someone had gone to the trouble of bringing all these here; it couldn't be for no reason at all. If she'd studied them all more carefully, maybe she would have seen ... something.

She also was considering finding a place to live in the City. As cozy as the nostril-bunks were, they did not give you much room to dodge if someone attacked you. And she was getting tired of choosing a different random one every night.

The sound of an engine revving overhead, moving too slowly for an airplane (and how did she remember that, right off the top of her head? Oh yes, Earth) made her sidestep and look up, ready to dodge into a nearby doorway if some experimental aircraft was about to land on the street - or on her.

She didn't have any need to fear. Sirius came to a stop not far from her. He flashed her a grin. He grasped the handlebars of the still running motorcycle.

"Hey. Beautiful day, isn't it?"

"It is!" she agreed, with a smile only a little forced. Having a large heavy piece of machinery touch down in front of you like that was a little unnerving.

"I don't believe we've met. I'm Anwei Ayles. Do you fly around the City often?" She didn't remember seeing or hearing a flying motorcycle, but maybe she'd just been spending too much time in front of a computer screen.

"Sirius Black. And no, I haven't but I will. I only found her today." He saw some dirt on the front of the motorcycle and brushed it off. "I can't believe she was sitting in the hangar all this time."

"You must have woken up while I was in the pods. I just got out," she explained.

"It's a beautiful piece of machinery. Does it have anti-gravity on board, or does it use something else to fly?" She wondered if Fuyu could fly, with Zouichi.

"Antigravity? No, hovering charm." He petted his motorcycle, almost to make up for it being called a piece of machinery. "She is lovely, isn't she?"

~~Hey, some of her best acquaintances are pieces of machinery, technically.~~

"Yes. Did you charm her yourself?" Or, are you a magician?

~~Sirius had yet to meet one. It will surely be an interesting experience.~~

"I did. It's not an easy spell but once you get her in the air- it's worth it." Sirius was just going to keep lapping up any hint of a compliment for as long as he could.

"Does the spell run on fuel of some sort? Or do you just create it and it runs, I mean flies?"

She moved a few steps closer, eying the sleek chrome pipes. If it required sacrifice to make the motorcycle fly, she hoped the sacrifice wasn't sentient.

"I enchanted her and she flies. She still needs fuel." Sirius frowned as he realized that he would have to restock on fuel eventually. Aside from the hover charm and making the motorcycle more durable he hadn't touched it. There was something more... romantic about it, not that he would use that word. Now, however.

"I ought to fix that. We don't have a steady supply here, do we?"

"I don't think so", she said, her brows knitting. "Motorcycles run on petrochemicals, right? I remember that much from Earth. There's a lot of vehicles in the Hangar that are from Earth, so you would think there would be fuel as well."

Maybe Stacy could secrete diesel if you squeezed the right udder!

"Or you could try draining some vehicles already there."

"That will run out eventually." Besides, it sounded like a lot of work. And while he didn't mind getting his hands dirty, he would rather do in private with a motorcycle he loved and was in a committed relationship with.

"I have to repair her anyway. I may as well make a few upgrades while I'm at it."

"Upgrade her to use a different power source? That could work. You could talk with Lash down in Engineering; she's very good with mechanical things."

Because suggesting that Lash should upgrade a flying motorcycle could not possibly go ~~right~~wrong.

"There's also a man in Security, Kanoe Zouichi, who has a motorcycle. But his is a lot different from yours."

"Thanks for the advice but I was talking about magic." He didn't trust just anyone with his baby.

"There's another biker here? I'll have to talk to him some time. I wouldn't mind riding with someone. So a motorcycle is a common enough sight around here? Ah, I forget- you said you were in the pods recently?"

"Fair enough." She had no idea who handled making vehicles magical. So far as she could see, magic on Stacy moved on a sliding scale that went from 'within the bounds of reality' to 'takes physics out back and plants it under a rock.'

"He was there when I left the pods, so you should be able to find him. Tall, dark hair, wears black body armor. Oh, and his motorcycle is also where his AI partner lives, Fuyu. I haven't seen any other motorcyclists, I think."

Sirius nodded. "Out of curiosity, how long have you been here? Before you were repodded." He hadn't made it a point to find out very much about the meatship itself. He got information out of Harry or someone else. But not that Harry was gone, and after the Punishment incident, it was clear he needed to learn more.

She stretched her neck, muscles rippling for an instant. "That's hard to tell, because it's so easy to lose track of time here. I was trying to keep count of how many times I slept, and I was at around one hundred forty days, I think.

"I was podpopped just before Gondepetil, and I was awake for XaXing and that damned clock, and Galilee; I was injured at Lirath. There were two podpops while I was here, not counting Visitation Day. I was sent off at some point after that, I'm not quite sure when. Not long, I think."

She grins. "And now I'm back, in outer space."

He didn't recognize most of that but Lirath registered, at least. But something click in his head at that last line even if it took him a while to realize what. He might not have been able to if he hadn't cleared his head flying his bike.

"Oh, it's been over a year since I heard that song." Assuming Anwei was referring to 'I Will Survive,' which he did.

She shrugged, a little abashed. "I was on Earth before I came here. I remember having a hangar, and working on an engine; rain was running down the roof, and I played the radio to cover the sound."

A sigh. "And if the people here are the sort i could have met back on Earth, I feel the fool for staying in the hangar so often, and not going out and seeing them." Seeing them while Earth was still there.

"I've met a few people from Earth, some of them are even from my Earth. Sadly, I haven't asked if any of them are fans of..." A moment and her name would come to him.

Or not. "That song." Oh well, all things considered he was lucky to remember the song in the first place.

"So, you work on engines?" He hoped to cover his lapse in memory. "Are you a mechanic?" He knew he remembered that right, at least. He'd done enough research on motorcycles.

"I'm not really a mechanic," she confessed. "I'm an accountant. But I memorized how to build certain kinds of equipment as part of my training. On Earth, there was this satellite that I really needed to get to, and there wasn't any way to fly without attracting attention. And I did not have a flying motorcycle," with an envious glance at it. "So I had to build an antigravity engine and put it in an Earth airplane. And then I had to find a pilot...but I never did." A shrug. "Got snatched here, instead."

"An airplane? One of those Muggle things that goes up in the sky?" Sirius held out his arms to mimic the wings for a moment before letting them drop to his sides again. "Looks a bit like a big metal bird?"

It had taken enough effort to learn how a motorcycle worked. He had trouble fathoming how Muggles could have built something so large that was able to fly without the use of charms.

"Sort of, I guess. Mine was a small plane, so it was as though the bird's bill spun at the front. It was just supposed to take two people up into low Earth orbit, and hold enough air to keep us alive." She frowned; it would have worked, she thought.

"I think one of the words you used didn't translate though - 'Muggle'?"

"It wouldn't. It's English. It means someone who can't use magic." Technically that wasn't true. It was more specific than that but no need to confuse her.

"Wizards rely mostly on magic so we don't use airplanes. Most of us don't use motorcycles either, which is a shame. You can't feel the wind on your face on an airplane, can you?" From what he'd seen he very much doubted it.

That seemed a pretty useful word, she made a mental note of it.

"Well, my airplane had windows, but you couldn't open them in flight, no. You would be going too fast." And certainly you wouldn't open the windows in low Earth orbit.

"What do wizards use for transport then? Enchanted animals? Or do you just fly?"

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