New Namek Neighbours

“Really now?” Nero looked over Uba just as Zhalla did, if she needed a second opinion both Nero and Zukha could provide one. “It isn’t abnormal for hatchlings to be like that sometimes. We Namekians do grow at varying rates, depending on how our eggs are spawned by a parent.”

Nero had no idea Uba was hesitant around newly introduced Saiyans, he just thought the kid was naturally shy and introverted. “Coulda’ fooled me.” He shrugged, guessing there was some deeper reason for it that he could ask about some other time.

“Think nothing of it dear, it was our pleasure! Now do take care, alright? See you soon!” Zukha smiled and waved to everyone as they left out the front door.

As far as the cafe went, Nero pointed back over past the shelter. “It’d just be past the shelter, like I said before, so not that far at all.” Nero started slowly making his way in that direction so that Uba had some time to wake up. As he had said, just past the shelter there was a small village, and near the outskirts on the side that was closest to the shelter there was a funny looking building that looked as though it was a giant cone-like shell. There was also a smaller dome-like shell attached to the side and there seemed to be a fenced off area around it as well, but nothing was currently in it. “See, there it is.”

“Yeah nah, that happens to be one of the closest villages, they have a lot of fun stuff there.” Such as this super special cafe that Nero hadn’t fully given every detail about. He himself was currently wondering just what special occasion was going on as his mother had mentioned.

Uba woke back up just in time, and quite quickly at that. As far as Nero could tell, the Namekian was reasonably healthy if he could bounce back from such an exertion of his abilities that fast. Nero gave Uba a little wave after he fully woke up, before leaving him to enjoy his fruit slices. Looks like that little preservation seal wasn’t needed for very long, so Nero just telekinetically retrieved it before Uba could possibly eat it by mistake.

As they got closer to the cafe, Zhalla had asked for more details. “See that’s the thing, I didn’t say anything, because I thought it was best as a surprise!” Nero glanced over to the dome-shell side building for a second. “Here, lemme show you.” Nero nodded, opening the front door to the cone-shell structure, the main building. The group would be greeted with an entrance way with another door— kind of like an airlock on a ship, which would only open once the first door was securely closed behind them.

Nero grinned and faced everyone as he moved to open the next door. “Everyone ready?” He awaited the anticipation then gently opened the door to reveal something extraordinary— yes, this was a cafe, as he had said, but there was something unique about it: a whole bunch of small dinosaur-like creatures were allowed to wander around certain sections of the cafe, and some patrons were even directly interacting with them! “Welcome... To Cafe Historia!”

The children couldn’t contain their joy and excitement— Max in particular, of course. They all had a lot of questions on what they would be allowed to do, but Zhalla quickly wrangled them, preventing them from causing well intentioned excited chaos. “Zhalla’s right, please do as she says and stay where one of us can see you.” Zhalla said it herself, they lived quite close by to this establishment now!

“What would I recommend? Hmm.” Nero leaned over to check the menu board quickly. “I’ve always liked the ‘Tri Croissants’ or the ‘Big Rex Fries’, things like that. They’re some of the first few things on the menu, always good to start with that. They also have fruit versions of either.” How on earth did they make fruity fries? Well, only one way to find out! “That aside, there’s a designated area for interacting with the critters over there.” Nero pointed over to the appropriate area as he lead everyone to the main counter. “I’m just wondering what mum was talking about—” Across the counter, an excited visibly aged human woman with very curly fuzzy yellow hair with very thick goggles on cut in. “Nero! Good gravy, you’ve picked the right day to rock up!” She chirped, looking at Zhalla and all the children. “Wowie, who’re they? Could I get anyone anything?” She said with a smile.

Nero chuckled. “Heheh, everyone, this is Uncle Bazu’s partner, aunty Weetly. Aunty Weetly, this is Zhalla; Uba, Max, Mosca, Alomora and Harper!” Nero said, gesturing to everyone as appropriate while introducing them. “Max especially loves dinosaurs!” Weetly nodded in understanding. “Welcome everyone! Please do excuse us being uh...” She looked out to the cafe, where there was a shortage of waiters and servers. “A bit all over the place, today is a special day.” Nero raised a brow, he definitely wanted to know why. “It’d be best to show you when it’s closer to happening.” Dang, still a surprise then? Nero just wanted to know what the big deal was. “If you guys have a bite to eat first, I’ll let Oatis know you’re here so you can be the first to see it!”

Alright, that sounded more like it! Nero nodded. “Fine by me, but the anticipation is really something else, yanno.” He chuckled. “Hmm. I think I’d like the Big Rex Meteor Lava Fries today. What about you guys?” Nero checked in with Zhalla and the others.

Nero looked around the establishment, things looked to be operating just fine from what he could tell aside from less staff being tending to orders— it didn’t look messy or anything. Maybe they all just kept up with demand super well despite having something apparently mega secret to handle. “That was the plan, so we may as well.”

Weetly found the growing anticipation somewhat amusing, but she could be certain of one thing. “It’ll be worth it, don’t you worry.” She listened to the whole order, and just to make sure she repeated it in kind so that Zhalla and the rest would know. “Okay, one Big Rex Meteor Lava fries, one Parasaur Punch fries, and one Big Rex Classic fries? Is that everything?” Nero nodded in response, easy!

Turning his attention back to Zhalla, he gave her a look that simply said it was no trouble, he was fine with it, but when she gave off that challenging vibe once again, Nero playfully rolled his eyes. “You’re only getting away with it because you couldn’t do anything to stop my mum’s kindness earlier, just so you know.” Aww, see, he could be nice after nearly witnessing Zhalla implode. Nero then took the order number that Weetly handed over to him and sought out the perfect table. Something near the shelled dinosaurs would be nice, they were slow and gentle compared to the more feisty reptile denizens of the cafe. “Hey, over here, this table should be good.”

Weetly snickered sweetly at the exchange between Nero and Zhalla before giving Nero a light bap on the forehead. “Hey now, don’t tease her too much, Blue.” Nero simply grinned in response. “Sorry, no promises~!” He added, giving Zhalla a wink as he passed by to find the right table.

“Hah, of course.” Hands on her hips, Weetly slowly shook her head, but she was smiling the whole time. “Sorry, Red. That was the best I could do.” She turned her attention back to Zhalla who would provide payment. It didn’t cost too much in fact, roughly equivalent value for some similar meal on Earth. “Alrighty, that’s what it’ll come to.” Weetly tapped a shell-like thing next to the mystically attuned screen— this was sort of similar to what Hilllyn an Hyllin had at Juice Pod actually. “It’ll be out in about fifteen to twenty minutes, I reckon.”

Nero, on the other hand, hearing that he was followed by the children, looked back on them and smiled. He turned his head up towards Zhalla who looked like she was about to lose her mind until she actually saw the group herself. Nero gave a thumbs up, gesturing to the children. Zhalla joined the group soon enough, attending to the children herself. “Oh, absolutely, I can do that. First things first though, what’s Max’s experience with telepathy? I don’t know his preferred sign language, but I would really like to communicate with him better for this.”

Nero listened to Zhalla’s explanation keenly. He supposed it made sense. “Hmm. Well, if that’s the case I’ll avoid talking through telepathy. I’ll see if feeling and projecting images works. Could you ask Max if that’s okay with him for me?” Nero asked, giving Zhalla a smile. “If Uba would like, could I also help him extend his telepathy to more than just a speech substitute?” Nero actually quite liked the idea of showing these kids new skills— it was a different yet uplifting feeling.

If Zhalla acting as a translator was the best bet for now, Nero was fine with that as well, so he nodded, agreeing with Zhalla’s suggestion. He filed away Zhalla’s interest in learning telepathy for later, but Nero’s expression seemed to light up at the idea. “Aw come on, it ain’t scary! Since when were you scared of anything?” Nero smirked, knowing full well who they were in the presence of. Could Zhalla get out of this one un-cute’d? Nero doubted it.

“Anyway, come on Max, watch me.” Nero waved to the little dude and spoke slower so that Max could have an easier time reading his lips alongside Zhalla’s translations. Nero moved over to the nearby enclosure that housed the docile shelled dinosaur-like creatures. Several of them were asleep, but a few were up and about, one of them was quite small— an obvious runt of the litter situation. “These guys are called Spierosaurus, named after their spiral armor plating and curled tongues. You mostly need to leave them alone when they are sleeping because they do it differently from almost anything else. Take a look at one of their shells.” Nero pointed to one of the sleeping Spierosaurs, and their shell was glowing white, and the rest of it looked like it had turned to solid stone, luckily it was in a special portion of the enclosure that nobody could reach without being an employee. “Especially that one there, when their shells get white hot like that and they look like a rock, they become incredibly ludicrously hot.” Nero then pointed out the rest of them, their shells glowing a mild green. “Those ones are safe to touch, but they’re resting so it’s best to leave them be.” Once Nero had finished explaining, and after Zhalla had finished translating, the littlest Spierosaurus had waddled over to the three of them and made a soft beeping sound, their tiny shell pulsating a calm cyan as they looked up at Nero, Max and Zhalla. “Cute, aren’t they? Would you like to pat or hold them?” As if Nero needed to ask, of course Max did, why else would he be going ballistic once he got here?

“So, watch how I do it, okay?” Nero said, holding his hand over a translucent green disk that was near the enclosure’s walls, the disk ‘scanned’ Nero’s hand and a sort of vaguely humanoid hologram appeared, like an automated carer of some kind perhaps? “Hey Aeon, can we interact with that little one there please?” The hologram nodded, gently and carefully telekinetically lifting the little Spierosaur over into Nero’s arms. “Thank you~” Nero then knelt down again, showing Max exactly how to properly pet and hold this critter. “Would you like to pet or hold them now?”