Please see the Chronicles of Buckaroo Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers for more Word Challenges.
Perfect Tommy followed Liz into the diner, and motioned her to the table where the core Cavaliers were seated. The diverse group gave the girl a once over, noting the take-out chopsticks holding her hair in a loose bun, the squint as she tried to pull the room into focus, and the total lack of make-up. Their second looks took in different things, like her eclectic, centuries-out-of-date clothing; the martial arts stance she took up as she placed herself in front of them.
"Hong Kong Cavaliers?" Her tone was a challenge, daring them to refute the name Tommy had given for them.
Rawhide answered, "Yup," for the group.
"Elizabeth Roxanne Markona," she sketched an elaborate bow, "at your service, friends."
She returned to her ready stance and returned their inspection. The cowboy, tall and solid, with floppy hair; the small, quick-looking hispanic-knife-man-type; the gangly geek; assorted normal-ish people; and their leader, a calm asian-extracted fellow with discerning blue eyes.
Liz pointed at New Jersey and opened her mouth as if to talk to him, then thought better of it and pivoted to Banzai instead, "Dr. Banzai I presume?"
"I am," he frowned lightly, "and you're Senator Markona's little girl. We've met several times, although you might have been a bit young to remember me." He rose smoothly from his seat, shook her hand, and pulled her gently to sit where Tommy had been a few minutes before, next to him.
As he mentioned her father, the young woman winced, but then smiled warmly, "Ah, I'm not surprised."
"At what?"
"That you and my father would know each other." She shook her head and chuckled to herself, them muttered under her breath in Latin, so low that Banzai almost didn't hear her, "I am going to be busted so fast."
Perfect Tommy stepped up behind her, gripping the chair back, so he wouldn't grab her shoulders, and addressed his friend, "You know her?"
"I know of her. She's a brilliant mathematician, and her parents are accomplished people in their own fields." Buckaroo shrugged, "I don't know them as well as I would like. We don't really have that much in common, although the Senator is a good friend of the President."
Tommy leaned over his enigma and growled, "And why didn't you tell me any of this?"
Liz turned in the chair enough to look him in the eye, "I don't need to explain who my parents are. They've got their own careers, I've got mine. Does this bother you?" The anger in her response practically forced him away from the chair and he glared at her for a moment. Then she continued, turning back to address the group with a shrug, "Besides, it's easier to torment people like him if they think I'm at least vaguely normal." She picked up an unattended glass of water and took a deep draught, unaware that Peggy was holding Tommy back from throttling her.
Please see the next chapter.