What'd you dream about..

Safety First: Revamped - Rule #1: Always Have an Exit Strategy

flyingsoftly — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:47:18 GMT

*sighs* I'm kind of excited about this story ^-^ I decided to rewrite it (since I absolutely hated where it was going beforehand) and I'm posting it on here (as well as my Fictionpress) to see how people like it.

Rule #1: Always Have an Exit Strategy

It was moments like these that Air wished he hadn’t joined this job all those weeks ago, but when they had come to him he hadn’t been able to pass up the amount of money that it was going to procure. They had cornered him at his favorite hangout spot, a small bar in the darker part of Chicago; it was one of the only places he had found that the patrons spoke Romanian almost fluently. The first time he had stumbled upon the small building he had felt almost a crushing sense of home, and had immediately rented out the place on top.

He had just been sitting down to a nice beer when the bar’s door opened, letting in the last rays of light of the day before they were blocked by the body of the person entering the bar. Ari had ignored the stranger’s entrance for the moment, used to the random patron wandering by every once in awhile, wanting to know what the smaller building was. He didn’t look up from his drink until the stranger sat down on the stool next to him, ordering a beer for himself. Ari looked around at the empty seats, scattered about the bar before lighting upon the man sitting next to him, eyes widening at the sheer mass that occupied the space.

The man sitting next to him looked as if he could eat the entire contents of a supermarket and still be hungry a few minutes later. Ari rolled his eyes slightly before turning his gaze back to his drink, if this man was here for him then he damn well wasn’t going to speak up first. He had learned long ago that if you wanted to procure respect in his way of life, then it was better to stay silent and make the client talk to you. Something about the whole ‘strong and silent’ type got to these scumbags better than anything else and just made his job easier.

‘You Umbra?’ The stranger has turned on his stool to better face Ari, placing his left elbow on the bar next to the drink he had ordered. Instead, of responding Ari continued to look dead ahead, taking the occasional sip of his drink, his lack of response just caused the behemoth to grunt and continue to look at him.

‘Yeah, I suppose that answers that question. Well, we’ve got this job that me and my boys are thinking about hittin’ and we need someone with your, erm, talents to help us. Wonderin’ if you wouldn’t mind joinin’ us for a bit. We’ll make it worth your while.’ The man slid a folded piece of paper across the bar, moving it into Ari’s eye line; before he turned back to his drink and took a sip.

Ari glanced down at the piece of paper, before slowly reaching up with his gloved fingers and opening it. Written on the paper was the information of where and when the job was to take place, and the blueprints of the safe he would need to crack. Glancing at the info he saw that they were going to hit the Chicago National Bank a few weeks from now. Ari had gone after banks before, but never one of this size and was a bit intrigued as to why this group was interested in it.

Shrugging softly he folded the paper back up and slipped it into one of his jacket’s pockets, missing the smug grin that flitted across the other man’s face for a second before being wiped away as he took a drink from his beer.

‘We’ll be waiting for you at 25^th and Lex to go over the plans tomorrow. Can’t wait to see you there.’ The behemoth of a man finished up his beer and pushed himself off of the stool, turning to go before sneaking a glance back at the quiet man at the bar. ‘Be seeing you.’ With a wave he exited the bar in much the way he had entered, blocking out all of the light in the doorway with his sheer size. That had been weeks ago and now here he was, stuck with this group of buffoons as he tried to open up the vault as quick as he could.

Ari snorted softly as he turned the dial in front of him, trying to ignore the shuffling coming from behind him as the others in the group started to get restless. After a few meetings here or there to discuss their plans it had all culminated into this night. They had been able to break into the bank easily enough, hacking into the security system and disabling the alarms.

He had been a bit surprised by their proficiency, expecting to have to take over and accomplish everything by himself, but when they had easily gotten into the bank, he was glad to know that all he would have to do would be to open the vault. He wasn’t willing to give away all of his secrets to a bunch of people he wouldn’t trust with a ten foot pole.

‘C’mon, Umbra. We don’t have all day.’ One of the younger members of the group stood behind Ari’s shoulder, masked face glaring at him through the reflection of the bank’s vault. He was about to retaliate when one of the other members grabbed the younger man and pulled him away from the safecracker.

‘Tommy, don’t piss him off. None of us here can get it open but him and if he decides to leave we’re screwed.’ The other man pulled the irate Tommy away from Ari as he grumbled under his breath about ‘lousy safecrackers’. Ari just rolled his eyes before closing them to continue concentrating on the inner wirings of the vault’s door.

It had been awhile since he had encountered a safe this intricate and it was going to take all of his concentration if he was going to open it without any of the others knowing exactly how he did it. He was so busy visualizing the bank’s innards in his mind that he almost missed the slight beeping he could here from behind him, along with the sudden panicked whispers, alerting him to the fact that something had gone terribly wrong.

Sending out his senses he could feel that one of the other group members had hit a silent alarm that they had missed earlier and now all of the security guards were on their way up. Ari wasn’t too worried about the guards, knowing that most of them hadn’t lifted anything heavier than a jelly donut in the past five years, but he hadn’t counted on them having a new recruit that had just started that night.

Ari returned his attention the safe in front of him, feeling accomplished as the last tumblers slid into place with a soft click. Grinning in satisfaction underneath his mask he stood back from the vault door and started packing up his tools into his bag. Seeing Ari move away the others quickly moved over to the vault and opened the door fully, starting to stuff their bags full of as much money as they could before the guards arrived.

They all looked up as a door at the end of the hall slammed open, echoing down the corridor towards them, before returning to filling the bags faster than before. Ari moved silently over to the doorway leading into the vault room, plastering himself to the wall beside the opening. He waited there as he heard cautious footsteps moving down the hallway towards them, wondering who had been able to make it up the stairwells that quickly.

Tommy had been able to disable all of the elevators earlier; after, knowing that something like this might happen, Ari had suggested it. The others had looked at him oddly before finally deferring to his decision, knowing that he was one of the most successful thieves in the world right now and not willing to disregard one of the only suggestions he had given.

Ari watched as a young man slid open the door, watching cautiously for any of the criminals to be around, before hitting him in the back of the head with a lamp that Ari had picked up from a nearby desk. He caught the younger man in his arms as he slumped and slowly lowered him to the ground behind the door, using his body as a weight to wedge the door closed.

Wiping his gloved hands against his thighs he turned back around to see how far the others had gotten on packing up the vault’s contents. The others had gotten almost all of the money stuffed into bags that they stacked outside the vault’s doors, when Ari heard more footsteps rushing down the hallway.

Knowing that the younger guard’s body would only delay them for a few minutes he quickly scooped up his bag of tools and moved over to the stack of bags full of money. Grabbing one off the top he quickly tied it to his bag of tools and hung them on his back before silently moving to the other side of the room. None of the others noticed his absence, too busy trying to grab as much money as they could before the guards got there.

Walking quickly he moved towards a darkened hallway, where he knew lead to a fire escape, and inevitably his freedom. He had just reached the hallway’s opening when he heard the doorway, blocked by the guard’s body, bang open. Glancing back he watched as the medley of guards streamed through the open door, training on their guns on the robbers still in the vault. Ari chuckled as he moved into the shadows, blending seamlessly, and watched as each of the group members was handcuffed and forced to lie on the ground face down.

Deciding that this would be the time to go he turned around and headed silently down the dark hallway, towards the window at the end. Reaching it, he quickly slid open the pane, sticking his head out and looking around to make sure the way was clear. Seeing the empty alley he slid open the window the rest of the way and slipped through the opening, landing silently on the rickety metal, as he closed the window behind him.

Looking down he started down the creaking fire escape, sparing a glance up every once in awhile to see if anyone had noticed his exit. Reaching the bottom he dropped down silently into a crouch, looking around into the darkened alley for any surprises. He waited a few moments to make sure he was alone before moving quickly over to where he had left his bike, leaning up against the brick wall, covered in dirt and trash, obscured slightly by a few trash cans.

Wiping off the grime he swung his leg over the bike and kicked it on, feeling the thrum of the motor through his legs. Smiling slightly he bent over the body of the bike and sped out of the alley, leaving the dirt and grime behind. So focused on getting away as fast as he could he missed the pair of eyes that followed his movement down the street. The owner of the eyes smirked slightly before tossing down their cigarette, crushing the butt under the heel of their boot before sauntering down the street, hands in their jacket’s pockets.

Ari sped through the streets, taking a roundabout route to his place, just in case anyone was following him. Pulling into the back alley of the bar he parked the bike in the corner where Dave had said he could put it. Double checking to make sure that no one had followed him he turned to walk up the back stairwell that led to his apartment. This stairwell was one of the main reasons he had chosen the place, a quick getaway was always a plus when finding a place to live.

Sighing softly he unlocked the door, entering the darkened room; he ripped off his mask and tossed it to the side. He smiled softly, knowing that his black hair would be messed up more than it usually was, and sat down on the edge of his bed. His smile turned a little sad at the edges as he remembered how his sister used to fix his hair whenever he came home with it mussed. Grabbing him by his lapels to reach her level as she ran her fingers through his locks, threatening to shave it all off while he slept.

That had been almost eight years ago now, but it still felt like yesterday that she was running about the house, her laughter trailing after her. If he concentrated, he could almost hear the echo of her feet on the floor as she’d run past, smiling happily at whatever game she was doing. Shaking himself out of his thoughts he finished divesting himself of his gear and double-checked that all of the windows and doors were locked. He’d made the mistake once of not checking to make sure that he had locked everything up properly once and it had landed him with a knife in his side and a dead enemy at his feet.

Snorting softly he set his alarms, feeling the power thrum through his fingers as he trailed them along the walls. Years he had been at this and it still felt like yesterday when he had first gotten his first job that day. Slumping onto the bed he lay on his back, staring up at the darkened ceiling unable to sleep, thinking back on that day.

So consumed in his thoughts he almost missed the soft tapping against his window outside, a soft ‘Umbra’ floating through the air. Ari groaned softly knowing only one person who would bother him at this time of night, Jonathan.

Nano - Gone Ch 3

flyingsoftly — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:17:10 GMT

Here's the third installment of my Nano, I'm trying to keep ahead of myself posting on here, but I need to put these somewhere just in case my computer goes kablooie (it's happened ;-;) or I lose my jump drive...or my hard copy goes up in flames....yeah I'm paranoid, so what Xp

Chapter Three

Tori woke up disoriented and unable to find out where she was, her body felt as if it were on fire every move she made. Slowly, she sat up and noticed that even though it was dark outside she could see every detail of the room as if it were day. Looking down at her hands she saw that her fingernails had lengthened during her sleep and her hair now touched her shoulders, whereas before it was barely an inch long. She noticed her clothes folded up on a chair next to the bed and, gingerly, walked over to them to put them on. As she stood up she glanced herself in the mirror, causing her to stop and stare at the reflection that greeted her.

Her eyes had become even brighter than they had been before, almost glowing in the dark. Her hair had become even redder than it had been before, whereas it had been a more auburn before it had taken on a more blood red. Turning on the lamp, waiting for her eyes to adjust, she saw that in the light it almost looked like fire.

Freaked out she grabbed her clothes and got dressed, wandering out of the room in search of Thanial. She heard soft sounds coming from down the hall, so decided to follow them, hoping to find anyone who could tell her where she was. She reached the end of the hall and stopped outside of a doorway, where she could hear the voices emanating from. Pushing the door open slowly she was shocked by what she saw lying on the other side of the door.

‘Got any threes?’

‘Go fish.’

‘Damn’

‘Any kings?’

‘Dammit, Than. How do you always know what I have?’ The disgruntled man handed over the said card to the, now smirking Thanial who then proceeded to put down four of a kind next to a pile of other cards. Both men were bent over a beaten up table, Thanial’s stack considerably higher than the other man’s, who was now glaring forcefully at the hand he held.

‘Now, Mar. Any twos?’

‘Hah! Go fish!’ He threw his hand up in the air in victory, thinking that he had finally trumped the ‘infamous’ Thanial.

Thanial cursed softly under his breath and picked up a card from the nearly decimated pile before grinning victoriously and flashing the ‘two’ at ‘Mar’s’ disbelieving stare.

‘I can’t believe it. Every damn time.’ ‘Mar’ threw down his cards in disgust and crossed his arms while staring mutinously across the table at the still grinning Thanial.

‘Sorry, Mar. I can’t help it if you suck at Go Fish and can’t guess worth crap.’ Thanial took this moment to glance over at the cracked doorway, glimpsing her eyes peering out through the crack.

‘Tori! You’re awake.’ Thanial immediately stood up from his chair and crossed the doorway she was standing in, pulling the door all the way open he stood there in shock at the sight that greeted him. A soft ‘Jesus’ was heard behind Thanial as Tori was exposed to their views and they were able to see all of the changes that had come over her body as she slept.

‘What happened?’ Thanial reached out a hand to touch her darkened hair before thinking better of it and jerking his hand down to his side. Tori slowly entered the room and sat down at the table, glancing over the odd cards before looking back up and between the two men.

‘I’m not sure. I remember being in intense pain and then blacking out and then I just woke up like this.’ Tori gestured to her changed hair and eyes, hoping that one of them would have a better explanation for what was wrong with her. Now that she thought about it she wasn’t as sore as she had been when she woke up and she felt as if she were thrumming with energy with no way to get rid of it. Becoming antsy she began to tap out a song she had heard on the radio in her many hours spent listening to random stations while she drove.

‘Is that...Asia?’ Thanial was staring at her with a little, what looked like, respect in his eyes.

‘What?’ Tori glanced up at him in confusion as she stopped tapping her fingers on the table.

‘Never mind. So you don’t know how any of this,’ Thanial gestured to her appearance, ‘happened?’

‘All I remember is a voice yelling out, ‘Aosoth!’ and I passed out.’ A shocked gasp filled the room when she said the name.

‘Isn’t that what that guy called you at the motel too?’ Thanial crossed to sit down at the other empty chair and began to gather the cards together.

‘Aosoth?’ Tori turned to face the man who had spoken, wondering why he looked so freaked out.

‘Yes.’ The other man stood up from the table quickly and began to back away from the table where she sat. ‘That can’t be possible. Aosoth has been missing for centuries. There would be no way she would appear back on earth after all of these years.’ He began to shake uncontrollably as he stared at Tori in horror and backed himself into a wall.

‘Marcus, what’s wrong?’ Thanial stood up from the table and crossed to the freaking out ‘Marcus’, trying to comfort him.

‘She’s not supposed to be here.’ Marcus’ voice took on a hardened edge and he quickly turned around and headed out of the room. Thanial quickly followed him, trying to keep him from doing anything rash, while Tori just continued to stare on in confusion, wondering who this ‘Aosoth’ was and why he would react so badly to the name.

She had only been sitting there for a few moments before Marcus returned, but with a loaded shotgun pointed at his chest.

‘Get out, demon. I don’t know what you did to bewitch my friend, but I’m not going to let you try and corrupt me. I’ll give you the count of three and if you aren’t out of here I’m going to show you just how much shot gun shells soaked in Holy Water really hurt.’ Marcus stared at her with stony eyes as he stared down the barrel of the gun into her shocked eyes.

‘Marcus, what the Hell?!’ Thanial burst into the room and stood between Marcus and Tori with his hands outstretched in a placating manner.

‘Thanial, get out of the way before I accidentally shoot you.’ Marcus gestured with the shot gun for him to move as Thanial stared back at him resolutely.

‘Not until you tell me what the hell is wrong with you and you tell me why you’re pointing a loaded gun at Tori.’

‘Than, you don’t understand. If, that man really called her Aosoth, then we’re all fucked and it’s my duty to get rid of her before she fully wakens.’ Marcus gripped the shotgun in his hands tighter, motioning for Thanial to move.

‘Marcus, what are you talking about?!’ Throughout their conversation Tori had been slowly moving to the doorway she had come through, hoping to escape before Marcus noticed. She was stopped by a shotgun going off and a chunk of drywall flying off of the wall next to her head.

‘If you move again, it’ll be your head.’ Tori slowly turned around and noticed that Marcus had pushed Thanial to the side and shot at her head. ‘Now, why are you here demon?’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Tori’s voice was quiet, not wanting to anger Marcus anymore than he already was, not knowing if she’d be as lucky next time he decided to pull the trigger.

‘Yes you do. Now, why are you here? And what have you done to my friend to put him under your spell?’

‘Marcus, she hasn’t done anything, so put down the damn shotgun!’ Thanial moved to take the gun from Marcus’ grasp before he swung to point the gun in his face.

‘If I need to I’ll take you out too.’ As Marcus was distracted Tori moved silently behind him and grabbed the gun from his grasp, quickly emptied the shells with practiced moves, even though she had never touched a shotgun before that moment. She threw the empty gun off to the side and moved to stand next to Thanial as Marcus stared wide-eyed at her.

‘See?! Don’t you see what she is?’ Marcus gestured wildly at her as Thanial just continued to gaze confusedly at one of his best friends, who had just pointed a loaded gun at his face and threatened to use it.

‘No, I don’t.’ Thanial crossed his arms, waiting for Marcus’ reasoning as Tori stood silently by his side.

‘She’s a demon! She’s been playing you this whole time! Why else would she have demons following her around all the time and this sudden change brought on by a shock to her system. The spell I had placed on my house was used to ward off demons, Thanial. Why else would it react so violently towards her if she weren’t one?’ Marcus gestured wildly at Tori as she stood next to Thanial and stared stonily back into his crazed eyes.

‘Marcus. I’ve been tailing her for the past few weeks, and I may have only known her for a day, but I think I, of all people, would know if she were a demon.’ Thanial crossed his arms and stared dubiously at his friend. ‘You’re spell probably reacted to the residual energy left over from all of the demons that’ve been following her and from the three demon attacks we’ve had to deal with today.’

‘That wouldn’t explain her sudden change in hair and eye color. What she decided to run out and grab some hair dye and contacts while we thought she was passed out in my room? I don’t think so.’

‘Well, that I don’t know how to explain, but it can’t be something as crazy as calling her a demon.’

‘Thanial, just look through my research and see what I’m talking about. I’ve been studying ancient demon lore ever since you got me those tomes from Thebes and I’ve read a lot about Aosoth and her physical description is almost a perfect match to Tori’s.’ Even Tori looked shocked at this revelation as she shared a look with Thanial before looking back at the, noticeably, calmer Marcus.

‘Show me these tomes.’

Several hours later left Thanial with a crick in his neck and Tori shoved in the corner with the ever present watchful eye of Marcus watching her every move.

‘This isn’t good, Tor. I think Marcus might be right.’ Standing up from her perch on one of the ancient chairs littering the room she crossed over to stand behind Thanial to read over his shoulder. What she read there was even more disconcerting than having a gun shoved into her face. Apparently all that Marcus had been saying before was the truth. The legend of Aosoth tells of an ancient, powerful demon that only rises once every few centuries to wreak havoc and destruction over whatever major power was in control at the time. The last time she had been recorded being seen was during the War of the Spanish Succession almost three hundred years ago.

Most physical descriptions of the demon spoke of bright, blue eyes and hair the color of fire. Tori unconsciously stroked her hair as she read over the information in the book, not wanting to believe anything that she was reading.

‘There’s no way this is me.’ Tori stepped back from the desk Thanial was slumped over and crossed her arms protectively over her chest. Turning she stared out of the window, hoping that the sky outside would be able to give her an answer to what was happening to her.

‘It says that every few hundred the demon Aosoth rises from wherever she goes with no memory of the past and travels across whatever country she appears, leaving destruction in her wake, until she is finally awoken and starts the next big war. There are other things in here, but that’s basically the gist of it, and it fits you to a tee.’ Thanial turned around in his chair to face her prone form looking out the window. He hated seeing her like that, but when Marcus had literally thrown the stack of books at him and rushed out of the room muttering something about ‘preparations’ he had been unable to see the truth in the text.

She herself admitted to only waking up a month ago with no memory of who she was next to an Impala and an urge to get to the other side of the country. He figured she was being drawn there to either be ‘awoken’ or start the next great war of the world, like she had been doing off and on for centuries.

‘Is there any way I can stop it?’ Tori’s strained voice broke him out of his reverie and he quickly turned back to the notes that he had written before.

‘There wasn’t anything in here about stopping you’re awakening, but I’m sure if I keep looking I’ll be able to find something.’ Thanial quickly pushed aside the books he had been looking at and dragged another stack closer to his notes and started leafing through the one on top. Tori turned from the window to regard his stooped over form as he quickly scanned through the material of the book, flipping pages with one hand as he scribbled onto his notepad with the other. She didn’t understand why he was trying so hard to help her, but she appreciated it nonetheless, and felt bad for how harshly she had treated him before.

‘Thank you.’ Tori crossed around the table to stand in front of where Thanial was currently working.

‘For what?’ Glancing up from his work he looked into her violet eyes, man it was going to take awhile to get used to that.

‘Just...thanks.’ With that Tori turned away from him and exited the room, looking for something to eat, and if she just so happened to make more than she needed then she could always find someone to eat the excess. Thanial just shook his head back in forth in confusion before turning back to the book in front of him and continued flipping through it, writing notes the whole while.

About twenty minutes later Tori entered the room so quietly that Thanial barely even glanced up from the book he was currently looking through. He didn’t notice her until she was standing right next to him with a plate, with a sandwich on top, in one hand and glass in the other filled with water. Thanial grinned as he took in Tori trying to do something nice for him and turned to face her in his chair, noticing her cheeks starting to turn a slight pink.

‘Well, what’s this for?’ Tori just rolled her eyes and set down the plate and glass in an empty spot on the table and stared at him defiantly, daring him to say something.

‘I accidentally made too much and figured you hadn’t eaten anything in awhile.’ With that Tori turned to leave, but not before Thanial called for her to wait, causing her to turn back around and face him.

‘What?’

‘Thanks.’ Tori’s cheeks got even pinker as she just nodded her head and turned to head out the door, but just as she reached it she heard Marcus’ scream echo throughout the house. At his scream Thanial jerked and hit the table, causing the water in the glass to spill all over his notes and himself. Cursing he stood up and tried to brush off as much water as he could before he joined Tori in the hall she had run down.

‘Where is he?’

‘Last I saw he had locked himself away in that little room behind the fireplace.’ Cursing even more Thanial flew down the stairs, Tori close on his heels. Standing in front of the said fireplace he tried to remember how to open the secret door, when Tori reached around him and pressed on the little indentation of a duck in the corner of the mantel causing it to open. Raising an eyebrow at her actions Tori just shrugged and gestured for him to go ahead of her into the room where they guessed Marcus’ scream had come from.

‘Marcus?’ The two of them entered into a smaller room that was packed to the brim with guns and other implements of destruction. Tori gazed wide-eyed at the selection before glimpsing a pair of legs poking out from under one of the tables. Grabbing Thanial’s arm she pointed to Marcus’ prone form and they quickly crossed over to him, checking to see if he was dead.

Thanial felt for a pulse and breathed a sigh of relief when he felt one, but instantly realized they weren’t alone when he felt the cold barrel of a gun pressed against his neck.

‘Get up.’ Thanial put his hands up in the air as he slowly followed the deep voice’s instructions, looking over he saw that Tori was in the same predicament as she slowly stood up across from him over Marcus’ body.

‘Hey, now. We don’t want any trou-‘

‘Shut up.’ Thanial quickly followed the voice’s instructions as another jab of the gun to his spine reminded him who was in charge. ‘Now, where is it?’

‘Where is...what?’ Thanial tried to sneak a glance at his captor but was tapped with the gun again as he started to turn his head.

‘The amulet.’

‘Hey, man. I don’t know anything about an amulet. So why don’t you let me an’ mah girl go. We were only stoppin’ by when we heard someon’ scream an’ decided to investigate. Ai’n’t no crime ‘gainst that, is there?’ Thanial’s voice began to take a distinctively more hickish air as he spoke, hoping that the person with the gun would think he was just some stupid hick that had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

‘How did you know this man’s name?’

‘Was on the mailbox, wa’nnit honey?’ Tori just nodded her head warily as she tried to keep an eye on both Thanial and the man standing behind him. For some reason she wasn’t able to see him at all, even with her advanced eyesight. She figured the same must be for the man standing behind her, a gun at her back and guessed Thanial didn’t know who was up to this any more than she did.

‘Look, man. We didn’ mean any harm. So why don’ you jus’ put down the gun and we can all act civilized and I can go get drunk with mah sugar baby over there.’ Thanial gestured with one of his pinkies over at her, causing her to glare in response.

Thanial could feel the man behind him practically vibrating with indecision, feeling that his chance was soon he looked over at Tori, catching her eye, seeing there the same revelation he had reached, and nodded at her almost imperceptibly.

Quickly both of them were able to disarm and immobilize their captors before they even got a chance to touch the trigger of their guns. Thanial wrapped them up with a piece of rope he found conveniently located on the table next to where Marcus was still passed out next to. Next, they dragged the immobile people from the room into the living room and sat them down in the light where they could see them better.

Tori realized the reason she couldn’t see them well was because of the masks they had been wearing blended into the back and quickly ripped off the mask from both persons head. They looked almost exactly alike so she guessed that they were either twins or brothers of some sort. Both men were bleary-eyed and their platinum hair stood up in spikes from where the masks had been pulled off of their heads.

Thanial turned around, trusting Tori to watch over the two intruders as he went back into the room to check on their fallen friend. He returned moments later with a revived Marcus slumped over his shoulders, Thanial dropped him down on the couch next to the two tied up intruders and immediately dropped his head onto the closest one’s shoulder, causing the blonde to cringe, but no amount of shaking he produced dislodged the other man’s head from his appendage.

‘Now, that we’re all here. Would you two like to tell me exactly what you were doing here?’ Thanial held up a hand as one of the intruders opened his mouth, ‘besides the amulet you’re so stuck on getting.’

‘Amulet?’ Marcus’ groggy voice filled the silence after Thanial’s question. ‘You did all of this for an amulet?’ With that he dropped his head back onto the other man’s shoulder as it had gotten too heavy to hold up.

‘It’s not just any amulet. It’s the amulet.’ The other brother looked so earnest that Thanial almost felt like not punching him, almost.

‘Oh wow. Because italics make everything better.’ Thanial crossed his arms and glared at the two men sitting on the sofa, waiting for one of them to come up with a better reason as to why they had just broken into his friend’s house and injured him and pulled guns on him and Tori. He was not okay with that.

‘You don’t understand. There’s something big coming and the amulet is the only thing that will be able to stop it.’ The one on th eleft looked so earnestly at Thanial that he began to wonder what it was exactly they were trying to do.

‘What do you mean by ‘big’?’ Thanial crossed his arms over his chest waiting for them to give him an answer, and it better be a pretty good damn one.

‘We’ve been tracking the appearance of a force for the past month-’ As they spoke the twins began to trade off sentences of the explanation.

‘It’s been traveling across the country going from town to town creating havoc-‘

‘We lost track of it a few days ago and it seems as if it’s dropped off the radar-’

‘We figured since we had the time that we might as well try and get something to-

‘Help us if that thing tried to come after us.’

‘That’s when we remembered that we were in Indiana and that Marcus-’

‘Was one of the most prestigious creators of protective amulets and charms-’

‘And if there was anyone who would have something that would help.’

‘It would be him.’ The twins finished and stared imploringly at the two of them standing in front of them. Tori had watched the entire exchange with a sense of bemusement around her, wondering if they were for real. She thought people only switched off sentences like that in the movies, or at the least the ones she had glanced at in mirrors of electronics stores. She particularly remembered a pair of red head twins who spoke in a weird accent and carried around sticks. She had stopped to watch the movie for a few minutes before getting weirded out and moving on when they start shouting in Latin and waving their sticks and large grey creatures.

‘How did you know about the amulet? And how do you know it’ll help you?’ Thanial had moved to sit on the coffee table in front of the two brothers, a bit more interested in their story now that he knew they hadn’t come here to hurt them personally.

‘We follow the underground fairly well-’

‘Dealing in rare oddities and the like-‘

‘When we heard on the side that Marcus had acquired this amulet-’

‘We kept that information and figured it might aid us someday-’

‘And it did-’

‘So you’re bounty hunters.’ Thanial butt in, wondering just what was wrong with the two of them.

‘Call us professional acquisitioners of the rarer things in life.’

Thanial stood up from the table and crossed to stand next to Tori, keeping his eyes on the two men on the couch the whole time.

‘What do you think we should do with them?’ Tori gazed at him a little wide-eyed, wondering why he was asking for her opinion, but quickly hid her surprise and looked back at the other two.

‘Well, they hurt Marcus, though I’m not that put off by that, I think they should be punished for that a bit. But I don’t think they’re here to hurt anyone, just a little misguided and freaked out about something that’s not even there.’ Tori kept her voice low, so that they wouldn’t be able to pick up on what they were saying to each other.

‘What do you mean ‘not even there’? You heard what he-they said. They’ve been tracking something big for the past month. Don’t you find that a bit coincidental?’ Thanial’s voice started rise a bit, but a jab to the stomach from her elbow he quickly quieted down again. ‘They may have been tracking you, and if that’s the case they’re here to get rid of you.’

‘You don’t know that.’ Tori turned to face him, momentarily forgetting about the other two still in the room.

‘And you do? Tori, we have to figure out all that they know and keep them from finding out anything about you. So from now on you’re going to just be a friend of Marcus’ from when you were kids here on a visit, okay?’ Hearing her name come from his mouth caused a shiver to race down her spine, ignoring her reaction she turned a sour face onto Thanial when he said she had to be Marcus’ friend, but relented figuring it was their best course of action.

‘Alright, fine. But if they try anything I’m taking them down.’ Tori glared at the two sitting on the couch, that had started whispering to each other in lowered voices.

‘I’ll be right there next to you.’ Thanial smiled a feral grin and crossed over to the couch, planting a foot on the coffee table, causing the twins to jump in surprise.

‘Now, which on of you is the mastermind behind this whole plan?’ Thanial looked back and forth of the identical faces, trying to pin who would’ve been stupid enough to enter one of the most paranoid people on the planet, and someone who knew how to use those tendencies to his advantage. Marcus had more spells and amulets littering his house than even Thanial knew about, he doubted Marcus could remember them all, and figured one day that would come and bite him on the ass, but he had lasted this long.

At his question the twins pointed at each other, and seeing the other’s finger raised started shouting at each other.

‘Oi! Who you callin’’

‘It wasn’t me you wa-

‘You’re the one who said-‘

‘In your dreams! I never wanted-‘

‘Yeah, but you’re the one who researched-‘

‘That was one day! You can’t possibly-‘

‘Oh, yeah. If you one day equals almost two weeks of-‘

‘Two weeks my ass! You know I always-‘

‘Yeah, yeah it only takes you a day, which proves-‘

‘You lying cheat!’ The two became so incensed that they began to grapple on the couch, eventually falling off and almost hitting their heads on the couch.

‘Hey, hey! HEY!’ Thanial grabbed the two brothers by the arms and pulled them apart. ‘That’s enough!! Now, you’re going to sit down on that couch and act civil. If either of you so much as even move I’m going to show you just how ticked off I can really get.’ The two slowly sat down on the couch, looking at Thanial with wide-eyes, and remained silent.

As they sat down Thanial heard a groan come from behind him and Marcus slowly stumbled into the room and sat down on the couch next to the twins. Clutching his head he put his head in between his legs and moaned loudly, the twin next to him started to rub him comfortingly on his back, causing him to shoot up and clutch his head as another wave of pain shot through his head.

‘What the hell are you two doing here?’ Glaring at the twins next to him Marcus tried to get up but ended up flailing and falling back down on the couch clutching his head in both hands.

‘Hey, sorry about the head man.’ The one next to him grinned sheepishly as he continued to glare at them through the pain throbbing in his head.

‘Thanial, get them out of here.’ Marcus allowed his head to drop back down between his knees, figuring his friend would follow his directions and get rid of the two nuisances.

‘Hey, Marcus. Don’t be that way!’

‘It was only a tap!’

‘A tap! I feel as if my head is about to explode from where you hit me! Now go!’ Marcus pointed his arm haphazardly towards the door and waited for the two of them to move.

‘If we said we had something you needed-‘

‘Would you let us stay?’

‘What kind of something?’ Thanial stepped into the conversation, trying to diffuse Marcus, while at the same time gaining more information about what they were dealing with.

‘Well, that all depends on our dear friend-‘

‘Marcus here.’ The one closest to Marcus clapped him on the shoulder, causing him to groan and curl more into himself.

‘Fuck off, Brennan. We don’t need your help.’ Marcus’ words were muffled, but both of the twins looked wide-eyed at each other before looking back at the hurting man.

‘We’re always amazed at your ability-‘

‘To tell us apart-‘

‘Even when you’re incapacitated-‘

‘It’s quite refreshing-‘

‘Yeah, yeah whatever, Robin.’ Marcus flailed an arm in their direction. ‘Now why are you still here again?’

‘Because we have information-‘

‘On what’s coming.’

‘And without us-‘

‘You won’t be able to stop it.’

I'm not quite sure if I'm going to keep the twins where they switch off sentences or if I'm going to change it to where just one talks and the other's silent. Let me know what you think <3

Chapter Two</div>

Gone Chapter 2

flyingsoftly — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:53:24 GMT

I need inspiration so here's the next installment of my Nano for this year ^0^

Chapter Two

When they had gotten back to the hotel room Tori had quickly set aside her clothes and crawled into the bed furthest from the bed, turning her back on Thanial and falling asleep. Huffing he placed his hands on his hips and stared at her sleeping body burrowed into the covers. She wasn’t what he had been expecting when he had walked up on her earlier that day. From all of the stories he had heard of the demons following her around he had been expecting some all powerful summoner or something. Someone that was powerful enough to summon multiply demons to do his bidding, but what he had found was some girl who didn’t even remember who she was being chased by demons.

He guessed it due mostly to her unbelievable luck that she hadn’t been caught by the demons yet, and it seemed like today was the first time that they had even gotten close enough to reveal themselves. Which was another oddity in itself, demons never showed their true forms, if they could help it. That was why they took over humans, preferring their unassuming forms to get what they wanted, without having to worry about scaring off their prey.

Moving away from her sleeping form he rubbed his hand over his face feeling all of the tension in it that had built up during the day. He had only intended on finding the perpetrator and maybe tracking him to where he was summoning all of the demons from, instead he found a huge bundle of mystery and no way to figure out what any of it meant. Figuring that she should be safe for the time being he turned around and exited the hotel room, taking his bag with him.

Sitting on a bench he had noticed outside the hotel room before he began rummaging through his bag, checking and double-checking that he had all of the necessary materials he would need if he ran into another demon. He slowly took out each weapon he had stored in there laying them out on the bench beside him, and checking to make sure he had enough supplies.

Each of his weapons held a different story behind them, known only to him. Many other hunters had laughed at his array of knives and talismans, not understanding that many times they had been the difference between life and death. He ran his hands affectionately over each weapon before setting them down and moving onto the next.

He continued that practice until he reached the bottom of his bag, turning it over he started to empty out all of the dirt that had accumulated in the bottom of it. He almost missed it as something fell out during his shaking, a metallic glint cast from the sun reflecting off of it as it hit the ground.

Reaching down he picked up the object, not recognizing what it was or where it came from. As he got a closer look at it he realized it was a pendant attached to a leather thong, he recognized the symbol as that of protection, three interlocking crescents creating a three sided object. Rubbing the pewter between his fingers he wondered where the pendant had come from, shrugging it off to one of the many travels he had been on. It had been a long time since he had cleaned out his bag and random objects were bound to worm their way into his possession from time to time.

He slipped the pendant into his pocket to inspect at a later time and returned to cleaning all of his belongings, not knowing how much time he would have to himself. Just as he was finishing up putting his bag back together he heard the tinny sound of ‘Striptease’ rang from his pocket. Huffing over the fact that Dahlia had changed his ring tone, yet again, he pulled his phone out his pocket and answered it.

‘Thanial.’

‘Finally, do you know how long I’ve been trying to get a hold of you?’ The annoyed voice of his oldest friend, Marcus, sounded over the phone, causing him to hold the phone away from his ear as continued to rant. Thanial started humming a song to himself, waiting for Marcus to finish up his rant, knowing from experience he won’t be able to get a word in otherwise. Eventually he heard the tell-tale signs of Marcus winding down and decided now would be the time to butt in.

‘Mar, shut up.’ That effectively quieted the other man and allowed him to get his words out. ‘I’ve been out in the middle of nowhere for the past few weeks and been unable to get service so there’s no need to panic alright? Now, what do you need?’

Thanial stood up from the bench he was sitting in and started to pace as he listened to Mar tell him why he called.

‘There’s been some weird goings on, man. And apparently you’re smack dab in the middle of it. I just wanted to call to make sure you were alright and weren’t dead or anything, okay? I’ve lost too many friends to what it is we do and I don’t know if I can lose another one.’ Thanial quieted at that, remembering all of their friends who had met their end at the hands of the creatures they hunted on a day to day basis. Each and every one of them knew that this life was a dangerous one and had a short life expectancy, but most didn’t care. Their reasons behind joining pushing them forward and on to kill more of the things that had brought them into this world.

Thanial remembered his own experience and how he had come to the profession of killing demons and shivered. Slowly he clued back into what Mar was saying, ‘Mar, I already know about all of that. You’re the one who sent me out here remember?’

‘Well yeah Nial, but it’s gotten even hairier, I’ve got some new information that I gotta get to you. Do you think you swing by my place anytime soon?’

Thanial thought it over, if he walked to Mar’s it would take him days, noticing something out of the corner of his eye he smirked.

‘Yeah, Mar. I think I can get there. I’ll see you tomorrow, k?’ Thanial closed his phone on a muffled, ‘see ya’ and turned back to regard the Impala on the other side of the parking lot. She was a beaut he hadn’t been lying about that before when he was talking to Tori, he just wish that he would be able to drive it. Maybe if he kissed up enough she might let him take her for a drive later, especially if he wanted to get to Mar’s by tomorrow. Indiana wasn’t that far from Ohio, but they’d have to leave soon if they wanted to get there by the morning.

Turning back around he went to pick up his bag, but found it missing, spinning around quickly he cased the area trying to find any suspicious behavior. The parking lot was as empty as it had been when he had first come outside, but he noticed a flicker of movement around the edge of the hotel, where it stood next to a stand of trees. Which in itself was ironic when the hotel was called, ‘Desert Inn’. Snorting softly he quickly moved across the parking lot, silent footsteps covered up his approach as he neared the edge of the building. He didn’t know who had taken his stuff, but he was damn sure that he wasn’t going to let them keep it, no matter how much force it would take to get it back.

Steeling himself he rounded the corner quickly, expecting some hooligan who was trying to get a quick buck. What he didn’t expect was an almost emaciated young boy to be rummaging through his bag, looking for, what he guessed, was food.

‘You won’t find any food in there, kid. I ran out about a mile back down the road and haven’t been able to refuel yet.’ At the sound of his voice the kid stiffened, his back turned to Thanial, and slowly turned around to face him. As he got a glimpse of the kid’s face, he noticed that the kid was even thinner than he had at first seemed his cheeks sunken in and he could see under his threadbare shirt that his belly was distended.

Frowning, he slowly crept towards the sickly child, trying not to scare him off, putting his hands out in a placating matter as he kneeled down next to him.

‘I’m not going to hurt you kid, but if you come with me I know where we can get food, alright?’ The kid continued to stare at him suspiciously and slowly set down the bag in his hands and started to move away from Thanial. Unbeknownst to Thanial the kid had already pocketed the few mints he had found in the bottom of the bag and his money clip.

As Thanial tried to reach for the kid to bring him back to the room, the kid stood straight up and turned tail and fled into the woods next to the motel. Cursing softly he moved to follow the sickly child, who was uncannily fast for being so thin, but thought better of it as he saw the sun was beginning to set and he bet that the other kid most likely knew the woods better than him.

Irritated he bent down to pick up his bag and started to turn to go back to the room when he saw a scrap of paper lying on the ground. He quickly pocketed it and tied his bag back together before heading back to the room, his stomach feeling unsettled. He had seen way too many kids like that turn to a life of crime and drugs in his lifetime and hated to see it happen again. Every time it seemed that he’d try to help they always ran away, he had only been successful once, he felt a pang in his heart as he thought about Danny. He hadn’t seen Danny in years, as soon as he had deemed himself old enough he had struck out on his own, leaving Thanial behind without a backwards glance.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts he stepped up to the motel door, noticing that the door was slightly ajar he went on the defensive and pulled his gun out of where it rested at his back. Cocking it he slowly pushed at the door, hoping not to alert the intruder to his prescence, he would need all of the advantage he could get if it was a demon.

When he pushed open the door he did not expect to witness Tori standing in the middle of the room, gun cocked, and pointing it at an older gentleman who stared at her bemusedly.

‘Come on, Aosoth. Surely you remember me?’ The older man held out his arms in a placating gesture only causing Tori to grip her pistol tighter and aim it more at his heart, rather than his leg where she had had it before.

‘How do you know that name?’ Tori’s eyes flashed as she stared at the older man, begging an answer from him. He just smirked, a devilish smile and continued to stare at her with his arms stretched out at his sides.

‘Everything alright Tori?’ Thanial had crossed around to the stranger’s back, cutting off his mode of escape if he tried to disappear. He didn’t know what the other man had been talking about, but he figured it was important enough to have Tori on edge, it was important enough to keep this man alive at least long enough to figure out what was up.

At the sound of his voice the older man sneered and put his arms down at his side in frustration.

‘Darn, I had been hoping to get to you before this buffoon came back, but I suppose it’ll have to wait for another time. Till later my dear, Aosoth.’ And with that a cloud of black smoke forced itself out of the older man, coalescing on the ceiling before disappearing. Thanial barely had time to put his gun down before he lunged across the room to catch the now unconscious man.

Glancing up at the ceiling feeling a sense of trepidation, knowing that this wouldn’t be the last time that they crossed paths with that demon. He slowly set the sleeping man on the ground before straightening up and looking over at Tori, who was still standing with her arms up, staring at the place the demon had last been.

‘Tori?’ Slowly Thanial crossed over to the quiet woman, reaching out to take the gun out of her hands, he un-cocked it and placed it on the table next to a glass of water. He raised his eyebrow at the glass, not remembering seeing it before, before looking back at the silent woman.

‘Tori...’ The sound of her name seemed to snap her out of her trance and she finally turned to face him.

‘That name. Why do I know that name?’ Tori slowly moved to sit down on the bed, putting her head into her hands. At the sound of hopelessness in her voice he knew he had to do something to help her. Coming to a decision he started moving about the room, gathering their stuff together as fast as he could.

‘I don’t know, but what I do know is that we need to get out of here. I knew we shouldn’t’ve stayed here for this long, but you needed the rest. I know a place not far from here where we’ll be safe. It’ll be good to go somewhere else so we can try and figure out what the hell these demons are up to.’ His words seemed to energize her as she started helping him pack up their stuff. A few minutes later they were all packed up and ready to go and headed out to the Impala. They didn’t bother telling the manager they were leaving, preferring to not let anyone else know about their whereabouts, and headed across the parking lot to the Impala. Tori popped open the trunk and threw in their bags before rounding around the other side and getting into the driver seat, Thanial following close behind he got into the passenger seat. Without a backwards glance Tori turned on the Impala and drove out of the parking lot, following Thanial’s directions as he guided her to Marcus’ place.

They had only been driving for a few hours when he decided to look through his bag to double-check he had everything. They had been in such a rush before he hadn’t had a chance to look through and make sure he hadn’t left anything behind. He grabbed his bag from the backseat and opened it; slowly he started checking through everything, muttering under his breath as he did so.

‘.45, check. Butterfly knife, check. Dagger, check. Money...where’s my money?’ Incensed he began to check every pocket in his bag and duster trying to find his money clip. Cursing under his breath he realized his search was futile and that somewhere along the way he had lost the only money he had.

Oblivious to his antics Tori only noticed something was wrong with her passenger when he began to bash his head against the dashboard all the while cursing in what had to be ten different languages.

‘Thanial?’ Hesitant she waited for a response from the upset man. When he just continued to bash his head she slammed on her breaks, causing his head to smash into the dashboard extra hard.

‘Hey!’ Massaging his forehead he turned accusing eyes onto her, to which she gave him her most innocent look.

‘What? There was a squirrel.’ Grumbling he slowly started putting his stuff back together, every once in awhile she caught the words ‘money’ and ‘bitch’ which cased her to raise an eyebrow and try to figure out what was wrong, again.

‘What is it, Thanial?’ The other man just looked at her with defiant green eyes and replied, ‘nothing’ while continuing to shove things into his bag angrily. She just continued to stare at him from the corner of her eye waiting for him to crack. It took a lot less time than she had expected before Thanial caved beneath her stare.

‘Fine! I lost all of m money. Happy now?’ Irate he threw his now put together bag into the back and crossed his arms, staring out the window. Tori surreptitiously felt the few bills remaining in her pocket before coming to a decision.

‘How do we get more?’ Thanial glanced over at her suspiciously, wondering if she ws making fun of him. Seeing her serious face he realized that she honestly didn’t know how to get more money. Wondering where she had come about the money she currently had he turned in the seat to face her.

‘Well, the easiest way I know is to hustle some pool. I usually get most of my money doing the odd job for different hunters, but when I’m not on a job it’s easier just to head to the closest bar and swindle a few rednecks out of their beer money.’ Thanial grinned as he remembered some of his more victorious wins over said rednecks.

A little intrigued over what this ‘hustling’ entailed she decided they’d stop at the nearest bar and try and get some money, not knowing how far whatever she had would get them.

‘Okay, so if we stop at the next bar you’ll be able to ‘hustle’ us some money?’ Thanial just grinned at the dubious tone of her voice and sat back in his seat with his arms crossed.

‘You just wait; within a few games we’ll have more money than you can shake a stick at.’ Wondering why she would want to shake a stick at money she, nonetheless, turned the blinker on when she saw the flashing lights of a bar up ahead.

Four rounds later and three pool games Thanial had already managed to lose the remainder of her money, plus one of his prized colts. He was currently slumped over the bar of one of the dingiest bars that she had ever seen or even been in, as the ‘redneck’ who had won all of their money gloated on the other side of the bar. Tori could hear his slow, gloating drawl all the way over here. Every twang and ‘ain’t’ caused Thanial to twitch and draw in upon himself even more. She didn’t understand why he was so distraught, but she figured it might have to do with the loss of one of his guns that had drawn him into despair.

‘Hey, pretty boy.’ Thanial’s shoulders tensed at the epithet as the redneck came over and stood behind him. ‘I’m here for my pistol, boy.’ Thanial slowly sat up, looking angrier than she had ever seen, and slowly turned around to face the other man.

‘What did you call me?’ Standing up Thanial towered over the other man by a few inches, but what the redneck lacked in height he made up for in width. He was almost twice as large as Thanial packed with muscle and looked like he used everyone one of them. Noticing the situation was about to escalate she grabbed Thanial by the arm and started to pull him out of the bar.

‘It’s okay, Than. We can always get money from somewhere else and you can always get a new Colt.’ Thanial resisted at first, not wanting to let the whole ‘boy’ comment to go unanswered, but followed after a few jabs to the stomach. They were almost to the door when the hick from before decided to speak up again.

‘Oh, so you’re gonna let a little girl take you away like a coward?’ Tori stopped in her tracks incensed at being called a ‘little girl’ and slowly turned around, her eyes flashing red in the light.

‘Who’re you calling a little girl?’ Tori straightened up to her full height, which was about as tall as the hick and crossed her arms over her chest, standing defiantly in front of the other man.

‘Why you little chickie. You’re just about the nicest piece of ass in this joint I’m just wonderin’ what you’re doin’ with that wuss when you could have all of this.’ The hick gestured to his own self at his words. ‘Why be with a loser when you could be with a winner.’ At this he grabbed his crotch and stared lecherously at her. She became so angry at his words her mouth decided to run off by itself before she had a chance to stop it.

‘Why don’t you put your money where your mouth is?’ A bit shocked at her words she nonetheless kept a straight face and stared defiantly at the mullet-wearing man.

‘What could you possibly offer me, sweetie, besides the obvious?’ The man slid a lecherous glance up and down her body, causing her to cringe in disgust. Steeling her nerves she decided to put the man in his place and go ahead with her threat.

‘How about winner take all? I’ve got a .44 Winchester revolver that’s worth more than your entire wardrobe.’ She stared disdainfully at his beer-stained flannel shirt and dirt-smeared jeans accompanied by his beat-up cowboy boots.

‘If you add yourself to the pot it’s a deal.’ The man licked his lips as Thanial stepped forward, placing himself between Tori and him.

‘Tori, no. You don’t have to do this. You were right. We can get more money from somewhere else and I can always find another Colt. It’s not worth it.’ Tori just pushed him out of the way and stuck her hand out to shake his meaty fist. The man grinned at her as if she were one of his prize pigs and it was cold outside and grasped her smaller hand in his, pumping it a few times before letting go and crossing over to the pool table to set up. As he walked away Thanial stepped forward to stand next to her.

‘Have you ever played pool before?’

‘Nope.’

‘Great.’

Slowly they walked over to the crowded pool table, it seemed that their little skirmish had attracted a lot of attention, most of the bar wanting to be in on the action. Bets were being made left and right around the room as to who would win. She had no idea what she was going to do, but watching Thanial during his last few games she figured she had the basic concept down. Glancing over the pool cues she saw a dark blue one sitting off in the corner. It was decorated in swirls that matched her eyes so closely that she felt a compulsion to choose that one.

Quickly she chalked up her pool cue and began to survey the pool table in front of her, ignoring the jeers and laughter surrounding her. Thanial stood off to the side with his arms crossed, looking a mix between concerned and sullen as he watched her circle the pool table, a severe look of concentration upon her face.

‘You can break chickie.’ The hick leered at her as she crossed to the other end of the table and bent over, lining up the shot. Noticing where his look was straying Thanial stuck out a foot as the other man walked by, causing him to trip. Thanial quickly pulled back his foot before the hick caught his step and started looking around for the culprit. Not finding anyone he turned back to the game only to find that Tori had already completed her shot and was now standing on the other side of the table waiting for him.

‘You’re stripes.’ She smirked softly at his incredulous look and watched as he surveyed the balls spread about around the table. Cursing softly under his breath he saw that she had been able to get two balls in before missing. The game continued like that for a little while, each player being able to get one ball in but missing the next, neither really gaining an advantage over the other.

It was down to a ball each and the final eight ball nearly an hour later and both players were tense with nerves as they surveyed each other across the pool table. Thanial was still in the corner watching, his eyes tighter at the corner was the only indication of how stressed he was over who would win. He would be damned if he would let that man touch her, even if he had to break every one of his dam fingers to prevent him from doing it. He didn’t question the strong feelings for her, only pushed them to the back of his mind as he watched her bend over the table to make her next shot.

Everyone held their breath, waiting for her to make her shot, only letting out their air when they heard the solid ka-thunk of a ball falling into one of the holes. Thanial grinned along with Tori, only one more left and they’d be home free. What neither of them expected was for one of the hick’s friends to come up behind her and hit her cue as she went to hit the eight ball into the pocket, causing her shot to go wide and give the other man a chance at the win.

Tori cursed under her breath and looked about the room trying to find the culprit but coming up with nothing. Pissed she stood off to the side as she waited for the other man to take his turn, hoping that he missed as well. What she, and no one else in the room noticed, was Thanial crossing the room through the shadows to stand behind the man bent over the table. He slowly reached out with a cane he had found somewhere in the mass of people and knocked against his cue as he went to shoot, causing his shot to go wild and his cue to go crashing across the room.

The people in the way barely dodged out of the way before the cue went flying over their heads, Thanial disappeared back into the mass of the bodies, no one the wiser. He missed the smiling cerulean eyes that followed his progress through the crowd, beaming gratitude in his direction.

Looking back at the table Tori surveyed her options and saw that she had almost a direct shot to the hole and if she made this shot she might actually win. She had no idea how she had been able to get this far in the game without epically failing, but she had been following her instincts the entire time and it had served her well.

Sensing Thanial behind her, keeping watch, she bent over the table and lined up her shot, and sunk it. She felt a sense of disbelief over the fact that she had just won, standing up she looked around the raucous crowd as they either cheered or shouted curse words over the outcome and saw a man sprawled at her feet, with Thanial on top. Apparently they had tried to sabotage her again, but Thanial had been able to catch it in time and had knocked the man to the ground barely a foot away from her.

She grinned down at the smirking Thanial and looked up into the livid face of the redneck who was standing on the other side of the table with his fists clenched.

‘Time to pay up, pretty boy.’ Tori held out her hands to the livid man and waited for him to hand over the money he had won from Thanial before. Before she had a chance to blink both of her arms were seized and Thanial was wrenched off of the man he had pinned to the ground.

‘Not so fast, chickie. I don’t think you understand the contents of our bet. See, this is how I see it: If I’d won, I’d win you. If you’d won, I’d still win you.’ The man grinned maliciously at her and leered at her as she began to struggle within the grasp of the men holding her back.

‘That’s not what we agreed on and you know it!’ Tori began to struggle even more, seeing out of the corner of her eye Thanial doing the same.

The man walked closer to her struggling form and bent down to whisper in her ear, ‘Heh, well, you still agreed. We’re gonna teach you the proper way to handle, heh, ah, pool sticks if you get my meaning.’ His eyes roved her form, from crown to toe, appraising what was so pleasantly presented to him by his men.

At his words she seemed to see red and abruptly broke out of the men’s grasp, the feeling from before when she had taken down Thanial took over and she began to weave through the room of man punching and kicking whoever was in range. Within a matter of moments the entire bar was sprawled out on the ground, Thanial just finishing up with his captors as she stood there catching her breath.

‘What just happened, again?’ Thanial looked around at the carnage, surveying the damage to the room’s occupants and looked back over to her.

‘Don’t question it. I just saved our asses. Now let’s get out of here.’ Tori turned around and headed out of the door, Thanial started to follow her but thought better of it and started rummaging through the pockets of all of the unconscious people lying about. A few moments later he was laden down with a couple thousand in bills that he shoved into his pockets and rushed out the door after Tori, flicking all of the bodies off as he exited.

‘Man, I wish I had had you with me months ago. You’ll never guess how many fights I’ve been in where I could’ve used your help. It’s not so much fun when the entire bar wants to kick your ass and I’ve been on the wrong end of that situation too many times to count.’ Tori continued to ignore Thanial as they walked to the Impala, unlocking the door and sliding in she immediately smashed her head against the steering wheel. Thanial opened the passenger side door and slid in next to her, silently regarding her prone from slumped over the steering column.

‘If you hadn’t been back there, we would’ve gotten our asses kicked.’ Thanial’s almost serious voice floated across the space between them to reach Tori’s ears.

‘I know.’ With that she straightened up and turned the Impala on, quickly reversing out of the parking lot she pointed the car in the direction of Marcus’ place and floored the pedal, wanting this night to be over as fast as she could make it. It took them almost the whole night to make it to his place, but they eventually reached it at about three in the morning, both of them bleary eyed from lack of sleep and the events of that night.

Getting out of the car, stretching they grabbed their bags from the trunk and walked up the steps to the front door. Marcus’ house was one of those old farmhouses that you rarely saw anymore with a wraparound porch, a tidy little porch swing off to the right accented the innocent appeal of the house, but Thanial knew better. Etched into every available surface were wards and protection symbols that he used to ward off evil creatures. Thanial had even helped place a few for the more powerful demons, earning him a month of free beer and housing.

Marcus was always willing to have him come over if it meant that he would be getting better wards and spells. He had always been a paranoid bastard, but that was why, Thanial figured, he had been able to survive longer than anyone else. He rarely left his house except for the occasional food run or hunt, which forced him outside, but usually not without the usual accompaniment of amulets and spells on his body. Thanial had mocked him for it often, preferring the solidity of a gun in his hand to a word in the air, but Marcus’ power had proved him wrong time and time again, but Thanial’s gun had saved his ass just as much, which was why he guessed they had finally reached an understanding.

Thanial’s feet caused the stairs underneath him to squeak with every step, alerting anyone inside the house to his arrival. He guessed Marcus had left them in disrepair intentionally for that reason, never one to let fate get a one up on him. They walked up to the door and he raised his hand to knock before it was wrenched open unexpectedly.

‘Finally, do you know how long I’ve been waiting for you?’ The image of a short, dark skinned man stood in the open doorway in a white downy robe. Thanial raised his eyebrow at that, eyeing the other man up and down, causing him to realize what he was wearing and gather the robe closer to his body.

‘You only called this afternoon. You’re lucky I got here this soon.’ Thanial muscled his way into the house, feeling the spells checking him over for an enemy attributes before they seemed to slide off, deeming him not to be a threat

Looking around he saw the place was just as he remembered the last time he was here. Extensive bookshelves lined the walls, full almost to bursting with an overabundance of books, the rest of the house was a bit of a mess, but that was to be expected from Marcus. The man may be a brilliant hunter, but he was a crap housekeeper.

Thanial set down his bag near the door and turned around to see if Tori had followed him, only to turn around and see that she had gotten trapped in one of Marcus’ spells.

‘Tori!’ Rushing over he tried to figure out which one she was in, flashing through a list of counter spells at the same time.

‘Marcus, turn it off!’ Glancing over at his friend he was shocked at the anger he saw reflected in his eyes as he stood on the other side of the room with his arms crossed, glaring at the trapped Tori.

‘Why would you bring that thing into my house, Nial. I thought we were friends.’ Thanial was taken aback by the pure hatred he heard in the other man’s voice.

‘What’re you talking about, Mar? She hasn’t done anything to you, now let her go!’ He had already thought of every spell he knew and none of them worked. This must have been a new addition to Marcus’ place since he had last been here.

Tori had never been in this much pain before, or at least that she could remember. Endless jolts of electricity were flowing through her body, paralyzing her so much she couldn’t even scream in agony. Faintly she heard Thanial shouting something with faint replies from the home owner.

She didn’t even know how this happened, last she remembered was watching Thanial enter the house and just as he had turned to see if she followed she had stepped over the threshold and been paralyzed by the pain.

Suddenly one word sounding clear over the electricity running through her head, ‘Aosoth!’ causing her body to fall into convulsions. Abruptly, the electricity and convulsions stopped, causing her body to fall to the ground in an exhausted heap. She was saved by a pair of warm arms that wrapped around her, making her feel safe as she finally passed out.

As Thanial held the unconscious Tori in his arms, Thanial glared at the man standing shocked on the other side of the room.

‘What...just happened?’ Marcus’ voice was shaky as he slowly stepped closer.

‘I don’t know...but I plan to find out.’ Thanial unconsciously gathered the quiet Tori into his arms even more, as he stared defiantly out at the woods through the gaping wide doorway.

Chapter One
Chapter Three

I hope you like it ^-^

Nano, yet again.

flyingsoftly — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:52:00 GMT

Here's the rest of chapter one since apparently my post was 'too large' *rolls her eyes* bloody livejournal...

She glared a little at the shorter man causing him to shrink back before throwing a ‘have fun!’ over his shoulder and disappearing into the back room. Turning her glare onto the smirking man still in her presence she stalked over and snagged the key from his grasp before turning back around and heading out of the lobby. She had been running on a few days drive and could do with a nice shower and sleep, and she would be damned if this cheeky bastard was going to keep her from it.

Leaving the lobby she crossed over to her Impala, grabbing her bag from the back and walked over to room 13, snorting at the irony of having one of the unluckiest numbers for her room. Without a backwards glance she unlocked the door, entered, and slammed it in Thanial’s shocked face. Throwing her bag onto the bed furthest from the door she pulled out clothes that weren’t too dirty and entered the bathroom. It was a little bit dirty, but cleaner than some of the places she had been in before, shuddering slightly as the memories of indiscernible substances littering the walls and an uninhabitable shower stalls attacked her senses.

Shaking her head to rid it of the disturbing images she turned on the tap in the shower and stripped down as she waited for it to warm up. Catching sight of herself in the mirror she against caught herself wondering over who she was and where she was from. Running her hands through her short brown hair, her cerulean eyes following every move, she watched as the muscles in her arms moved beneath the skin.

She had been surprised the first time she had looked in a mirror, not expecting what she saw, it felt as if she was in someone else’s body and didn’t know how to use it, despite being able to drive, with no prior knowledge and the ability to handle a gun as if it were nothing. Gripping the sides of the sink she realized that she had begun to shake uncontrollably, latching onto the sink more she slowly sank to the floor into convulsions.

The first time this had happened she had freaked out, but slowly she had been able to gain control of them if she was able to catch them early enough. She must’ve been so distracted by everything that had happened today she had missed the tell-tale signs that one of these attacks was coming on.

She remained curled up in a fetal position for what felt like forever, until they finally started to fade and she was able to pull herself up by the sink. Looking at herself she noticed her eyes were a bit more bloodshot than they had been before and she looked dead on her feet. Shucking the rest of her clothes she slowly pulled herself into the shower and started to wash off all of the dirt and grime from the day.

It wasn’t until she was toweling herself off and putting on the marginally clean clothes she brought into the restroom that she gave a thought to what Thanial was doing. Hopefully, he had gone back to the pervy owner and gotten his own room, so she wouldn’t have to deal with him, but knowing her luck that wasn’t going to happen.

Her musings were proven right when she walked out of the steaming bathroom, toweling dry her hair, and saw him sitting on her bed lain out and flicking through the television channels, his muddy boots kicked up on the comforter. Glancing about the room she saw that he had put his bag next to the doorway and thrown his coat over one of the table’s chairs in the corner. Walking over to him she threw the wet towel over his head and started rummaging through her bag, looking for something to eat as she rubbed her grumbling stomach.

Instead of getting upset Thanial just threw the towel off of his head and onto the floor and continued to stare at the television. With a small cry of victory she pulled out a Star Crunch from her bag and tore into it. Moving to sit on the other bed with her legs crossed she sat there munching happily on the sugary treat, oblivious to curious stare she was receiving from the other bed.

‘Got any extras?’ At the sound of Thanial’s voice she was, unpleasantly, reminded that he was still there, allowing her eyes to fall on his prone position she raised a sardonic eyebrow and continued to munch on the food in her hands, not deigning to give him an answer.

When he received no reply he huffed and sat up to start rummaging through her bag to find more goodies. Rolling her eyes she turned back to the TV, trying to figure out where his channel surfing had gotten him. Her eyes were assaulted with brightly colored objects flashing across the screen for some random product promoting erectile dysfunction medicine. Snorting slightly she glanced over at Thanial, wondering if there was a reason they were watching that commercial when she noticed that he had gotten up on his knees and was now bent over her bag, his arms disappearing into the deep recesses.

‘Hey! Get out of there!’ Getting up she crossed over to the other bed where he was kneeling and snatched the bag out of his hands. Giving her a put upon expression he turned around and flopped back down onto the couch. As she started putting her bag together she didn’t notice the food he had been able to sneak out from before as he unwrapped it and started eating it behind her back.

‘You know you don’t really talk that much.’ Throwing him a look over her shoulder, she decided to ignore him and keep putting her stuff together. Noticing the state in which some of her clothes were in she really needed to wash them soon, she wondered if this motel had a small Laundromat in it, like she had found in other places. Separating the clothes on her bed she bundled together all of the dirty ones into one pile and slung the rest of her bag onto her back, not trusting to leave it alone in Thanial’s presence a moment longer.

With that she left the room, headed to the lobby entrance to ask the owner where the nearest laundry was. As the bell chimed above her head she felt a sense of apprehension take over, expecting a repeat of last time she had entered the room to occur, instead the owner just came out from the back with his sleazy smile in place, wiping his hands on a rag attached to his belt.

“Well, little lady. What can I do ya for so soon? Room not good enough?’ Glaring at the epithet she ignored his questions and just asked, ‘where can I do some laundry?’

Shrugging he nodded his head to the door on her right, not giving him a chance to try out some more of his ‘small talk’ she headed towards the door, opening it and closing it behind her. She felt some of the tension from before recede from her shoulders and the owner’s eyes were no longer on her. He made her feel nervous with his sleazy stare and she didn’t want to know if he would try anything on her so soon. She had made that mistake once when she was still trying to figure out where she was, inviting the motel employee to help her out with something in her room. He had tried to take advantage of her then and there, but thankfully another patron had happened by and noticed her screaming and burst into the room.

She never let herself be alone with motel employees anymore because of that, during her musings she glanced about the small room, noticing a stand of washers on one side of the room, while the dryers were on the other. Feeling for the stack of bills in her pocket she noticed the change machine in the corner and, setting down her clothes, she headed over to make some quarters for the machines.

Laundry, she had realized, was fairly relaxing in the long run, it allowed her to just focus on folding clothes and watching them move around in the washing machine without having to worry about anything else.

That was how Thanial found her an hour later, bent over a stack of dried clothes, folding them meticulously so that they would all fit perfectly in her bag alongside everything else in there.

‘So, this is where you disappeared to. I’ve been looking all over for you.’ She barely even glanced up at the sound of his voice, instead moving onto the stack of colors she had yet to fold.

‘You know, you’re going to have to talk to me eventually. It’s better to just get it over with quick. Like a Band-Aid.’ As he spoke he moved closer to where she stood on the far end of the room, coming to a stop on the other side of the table she was stationed at.

‘I don’t talk to people who pull guns on me.’ Her quiet voice filled the silence between the two as she kept on folding her clothes meticulously.

‘Aren’t you even a little bit curious as to what those things are that are following you?’ At that her hands faltered, showing a sign of weakness that he picked up and latched on to.

‘I know you want to know, so why don’t you tell me something about you and I’ll tell you what those things are that are chasing you.’ Thanial bent over the table placing his elbows onto the table to get closer to her. Tori remained silent for a few minutes, contemplating whether or not to take him up on his offer, but eventually her curiosity won out and she decided to tell him something, or in her case, nothing.

‘I don’t know anything.’ Thanial just raised an eyebrow at that and continued to look at her from her perch above his crossed arms.

‘No, really. The most I remember is up to a month ago, where I woke up next to that car with no idea who I was or where I was. I’ve been driving ever since with this urge to go out east and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do or find when I get out there, just that I need to as soon as possible.’ Thanial remained silent as she spoke, waiting until she had fallen silent, her hands bunched in her newly folded clothes as she seemed to go into her own little world.

Slowly he spoke up, ‘that thing back at the gas station, and the motel for that matter, is a creature called a demon and for some reason they’ve been following you around ever since you ‘woke up’’. Thanial continued to speak from his perch on his arms, watching her as she processed the information.

‘I’ve been following in your trail ever since I got a call a few weeks back from one of my contacts about recent demon sightings. You don’t see demons very much anymore, so they called me to try and figure out what was going on. I followed you to that motel back a week ago where that creepy hotel manager was trying to force himself on you. You didn’t even take a chance to see me, just rushed out the room as fast as you could without a look back. Just so you know I beat that fucker up good, it’s one thing to pull a gun on you when you can fight back, but when you’re unable to fight back he should be castrated for something like that.’

At his words she remembered a floppy haired man rushing into the hotel room and grabbing the employee off of her. He was right; she hadn’t wasted anytime gathering her stuff up and getting the hell out of there. She didn’t want to wait around and see if the random stranger who had come to save her would win the fight or not, not knowing what might happen. She hadn’t even given a second thought to the stranger, but now that she thought about it, he did remarkably resemble Thanial in the floppy hair department.

Thanial continued to talk as she thought about what had happened that day. ‘I lost your trail for awhile, before I was walking down the road and saw you on the side of the road in a fetal position, nice car by the way. Love the classics. At first I thought you were in on the whole, demon thing, but after I had asked you those questions I realized you had no idea what they hell I was talking about. I was just about to explain myself when you pulled out that nice sweep kick and got the hell of out dodge. I figured you would have been miles away by the time I reached the gas station. Lucky for both of us I got there in time to put a few bullets into that demon before it got to.’ Standing up Thanial crossed over to one of the other tables, hopping up onto it with a twist of his wrist and facing her, waiting for her reaction.

Looking down she noticed that the nice piles of clothes she had folded were now a gigantic mess, clenched in her hands. Slowly she smoothed them out, trying to make some order out of the chaos she had created in her musings. So he was the one that had saved her that one time, she supposed she should probably thank him, but remembered that he had been creepily stalking her for the past week, and that she should be angry about that fact.

Looking up she decided she should address his creepiness, ‘why were you following me this whole time?’

Sighing gustily he just stretched out on the table saying, ‘I already told you. I thought you were the one who was summoning the demons, I didn’t know they were following you.’ As he finished he finished laying out on the table, effectively cutting off her view of his face. Annoyed she crossed around her table and stood next to where his head was on the table.

‘Why should I believe anything that you’re telling me right now?’ She crossed her arms defensively as he looked up into her eyes from his position on the table.

‘Because I’m the only one who can help you find out why they’re following you, and without me, you’ll probably get killed.’ With that he sat up and grasped her shoulders, she reflexively jerked out of his grasp and took a step back from him.

‘Don’t touch me!’

Holding his hands up in a placating manner he waited until she calmed down before continuing.

‘Alright, alright. I won’t touch you okay?’

‘So who are you? Or should I ask ‘what’ are you.’ He smirked a little at that and sat back on his hands.

‘I’m a hunter.’

‘A what?’ She looked at him as if he were crazy.

‘A hunter. I hunt things.’ Rolling her eyes at him she moved back to her table and started putting her clothes in her bag, not wanting to deal with his smart ass comments anymore.

‘Wait, come on. Will you just stop putting your clothes away for one second and just talk to me!’ Thanial had jumped off of the table and was pulling clothes out of her bag as fast as she was putting them in. He finally got so exasperated he ended up taking her entire bag and throwing it onto the other side of the room.

‘Hey!’ Pissed she moved to get the bag, that had fortunately been able to keep everything from sliding out from the throw. Thanial reached out to grab her arm, but thought better of it and quickly pulled his arm back.

‘I just want you to talk to me. I want to understand why these demons are following you, so I can get rid of them. Then I’ll be out of your hair, k?’ Standing still she slowly contemplated his words, debating whether to allow him into her life or if she should just strand his ass here to play with the demons he was so fond of.

‘Maybe, I’ll even be able to find out who you are.’ Thanial knew he had it then as he saw her bright eyes light up for a second before returning to their subdued blue. That brief second of blue managed to somehow take his breath away, not quite understanding it he chalked it up to exasperation at finally meeting someone as stubborn as him and wrote it off.

‘You could really find that out?’ Tori refused to look at him, staring at the floor, not wanting to hope too much, trying not to show how much it meant to her.

‘I can try.’ That seemed to cinch it as she finally turned to face him.

‘Alright, but you follow all of my rules and you keep your ass clean when you’re in my car. If I see one piece of dirt on that floor mat I’m kicking your ass to the curb so fast it’ll make that pretty little head of yours spin.’ With that Tori picked up her folded laundry and left the room, headed back to their room to maybe, finally, catch some shut eye.

She had been running on a few hours of sleep for too long and it was finally catching up to her. Slowly Thanial followed her in silence, not wanting to press his luck. He was just as curious as her as to her whereabouts and he wasn’t about to blow this perfect opportunity to find out who, or what, she was, and why demons seemed to be flocking to her like she was demon-nip. It had been years since he had seen this many demons in action, and even then they hadn’t centered around one person, preferring to reek as much havoc as they could in as many places possibly before they were found out.

Thanial knew enough about demons that this type of behavior usually meant they had an ulterior motive, he just hoped that he found out exactly what it was before it was too late.

Chapter One Part One
Chapter Two

Nano Is the Bane of my Existence

flyingsoftly — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:50:47 GMT

Okay, I've decided that I really need boosting up about my Nano so I'm going to post the first chapter I have of it so far up here.
It's unbetaed and probably utter crap, but I hope you like it anyways ^-^
Oh, and yes, yes I did put a Chevy Impala in there. Deal :D
And just so you know, I have no concept for how long a chapter should be so this is...long...O.O

Chapter One

Splat!

Frowning slightly she turned on the wipers of the Impala, hoping to erase the existence of the dead bug from her windshield. She watched the remains smear across the window as the wipers moved rhythmically back and forth, the landscape disappearing with each pass. She hadn’t been driving too long before she noticed that the trees outside her window seemed to be repeating, that was the third time she had passed that ‘Deer Xing’ sign.

Pulling over to the side of the road she got out of the car, which she had learned was an Impala in her earlier rummaging through the glove compartment and stood back to look at the roadside. She scuffed her boots into the dusty ground and surveyed her surroundings, trying to figure out what was going on. She had woken up beside the Impala almost a month ago, with no memories of who she was or where she was from, and with this strong urge to get into the car and drive.

Drive where? She didn’t know, but she had gotten in and had been driving ever since, with a few stops here or there at gas stations along the road, paying with money that she had found in her searches throughout the cab. So far she had found a few hundred dollars in a money clip, a few pieces of clothing and an ivory handled pistol. As soon as she had seen the gun she had stuffed it back under the seat where she had found it, not wanting to see the weapon, feeling an innate fear deep in her bones that kept her from grabbing the gun and putting it in her waistband like her instincts were telling her to do.

When she had rummaged through the clothing she had found that some of the underwear had ‘Victoria’ written on it and said something about her ‘secret’. With no other options she decided to call herself ‘Tori’ and had bundled all of the clothes into the backseat without a backwards glance.

Now here she was on the side of the road, with no idea where she was going, only a few bills left in her pocket and on her last pair of clean clothes. Sinking down to the ground, her back up against the front wheel of the Impala, she let her head fall to her knees, wrapping her arms around her legs. Tori wished she knew who she was and why she was there, not stuck on some dusty highway in day-old clothes with no end in sight.

Just as she was getting into a good funk she heard a foot scuffle to her right and without thinking she had grabbed the stranger’s leg, knocking their feet from under them and had straddled them, putting them into a chokehold.

‘Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!’ The man she had pinned to the ground was staring at her with wide green eyes, holding his hands up in prostration. ‘It’s alright! I’m not here to hurt you!’

Raising an eyebrow sardonically she looked where she had her arm placed over his throat and his prone form lying out on the ground.

‘Alright, maybe not hurt you, but I’m not going to do anything to you. So do you think you could let up a bit?’ Grinning weakly, he looked up into her bright eyes, pleading. Assessing her options, and wondering where her sudden reflexes had come from she slowly pulled away from the other man and stood up. Pulling into herself she watched as the man she had just knocked down without a thought stood up and dusted himself off. As he cleaned himself up, patting at his clothes, making dust clouds appear, she finally got a good look at him. He seemed to be a hitchhiker; a duffle bag lying on the ground next to where she had knocked him down, shaggy brown hair fell into his eyes, which she knew to be a bright green. His were a bit ragged, but seemed to well taken care of, a pair or cargo pants covered his legs, a black t-shirt covered his chest and over it all was a battered, black trench coat.

She was so busy taking in his details she didn’t notice that he had stopped cleaning himself off and was now staring at her in curiosity. Feeling self-conscious she ran her hand through her short hair and wrapped her other arm around her stomach, looking away.

‘Who are you?’ Startled she looked back up at the other man as he spoke, not expecting him to talk to her again after she had just attacked him for no real reason.

‘What’s it to you?’ Gaining back some of her confidence that she had lost from before she pulled herself back together and moved back to her car, planning on getting in and leaving this stranger in her rearview mirror and never think about him again.

Guessing her plans he quickly moved between her and the driver door, holding his hands up in supplication. ‘Wait, wait, wait. I was just wondering. It’s not every day where I can be taken down single-handedly by one girl and I just wanted to know who you are. No harm done, k?’ He stood there not moving, waiting for her answer as she contemplated telling him anything. She didn’t know anything about him, and when he should be pissed and freaked out that she had just trounced him without a second thought, instead he was wondering who she was, and not even trying for any retribution.

Coming to a decision, she figured if she at least told him her name he would move from her car and allow her to drive away.

‘Tori, now get out of my way.’ Smiling as if he had won a prize he stuck out his hand instead of moving, ‘My name’s Nathanial, or Thanial, for short. I know it’s not the shortest, but I didn’t want to be Nathan. Too many of those wandering around.’ Grinning cheekily he continued to stand in front of her only way out with his hand out between them.

‘Glancing around she wondered if she could possibly put him in another chokehold, if only it would get him out of her way, but decided against it, figuring she wouldn’t know how to do it again without provocation. Sighing in defeat she held out her hand for him to shake, wanting him to go away as fast as she could.

What she didn’t expect was for him to grab her hand and pull her into a hold faster than she could even think, pressing, what felt like, a gun into her side and growling into her ear in a voice she hadn’t heard from him yet, ‘what are you doing here, beast?’

Freaked out beyond belief she began to struggle in his grasp, finding that it was hard as steel, belying his thin countenance, and she could barely budge him.

‘Let me go!’ Flailing she hoped that one of her limbs might hit him in an unfortunate place that would allow her to get away from this psycho.

‘Why aren’t you using your strength from before? You were able to take me down with one blow. As a matter of fact, why didn’t you take me out then? I was at your mercy.’ He seemed to be in thought and didn’t notice as she slowly slid her foot into position.

Kicking at his instep she heard him grunt in pain as his hold loosened allowing her to slip out from his grip and run a few steps away from him. Turning back around she shouted, ‘what the fuck is wrong with you?!’ Touching her side where she could still feel the gun pressed to it she watched as he straightened up from his bent over position.

He just looked at her even more confused, ‘why aren’t you attacking me? You should be attacking me.’ She just continued to look at him as if he were crazy, edging herself to the other side of the car, trying to put as much room between the two of them as she could. ‘I don’t know what you’re on, and I’m sorry for earlier, but i really think you need to leave me alone now alright? Just let me get in my car and I’ll drive away and we never have to see each other again.’

Reaching into her pocket she felt for her keys, only then remembering that she hadn’t even bothered to take them out of the ignition when she had gone into her little mental breakdown from earlier. Glancing through the window she saw them sitting there happily oblivious to the chaos going on outside of the vehicle. Seeing where her eyes went he followed them and moved, without warning, to open the car door. Without thought she kicked the door closed and pushed him away, not wanting him to touch her car.

‘Don’t even,’ deep inside she felt something burning, that same thing that urged her to head east into the sun, was pushing her to keep this man as far away from her possessions as she could.

Recovering quickly he pulled the gun he had tucked back into his waistband and pointed it at her. ‘Try me honey.’ Glaring at her at being taken advantage of twice in as many minutes he was just waiting for her to give him an excuse to pull the trigger.

Faced with the cold barrel of the gun she didn’t know what to do, her only weapon was sitting in the backseat where she had shoved it the day before not wanting to see it. Bemoaning its loss she watched as the other man’s eyes gained a more steel tone and continued to stare at her down the barrel of the gun.

‘What do you want?!’ Fed up with all of his mysterious queries and the fact that he kept making something in her rise up, she just wanted answers to why this mysterious man she had met on the side of the road was pointing a gun at her and calling her a beast.

‘You know what I want!’ He couldn’t understand why she was being oblivious to the fact that he held a gun full of silver bullets, and didn’t know why she hadn’t run away screaming yet like any other person would’ve done. Instead she was just standing there, her hands clenched at her sides, glaring right back at him in exasperation.

‘If I knew what you wanted we wouldn’t be in this bloody situation, now stop pointing that gun at me. I already said sorry for before and you deserved the foot thing for pulling a gun on me in the first place!’ Putting her hands on her waist she stared stubbornly into his green eyes, waiting for him to put down his gun and give her a straight answer.

‘You...really don’t know?’ Even more confused he slowly lowered his gun and tucked it back into his waistband. Not giving him a chance to fish it back out she kicked his legs out from under him and pulled the car door open. Sliding into the passenger seat she quickly turned the car on and peeled out of the side of the road, leaving Thanial behind in a cloud of dust.

Glancing in her rearview mirror she saw as he picked himself up from the ground, dusting himself off again, and watching her as she drove away, getting smaller and smaller in her view until she drove down a bend in the road and lost sight of him. As she lost sight of him she was able to breathe easier without having to worry about him anymore and focused on where she was driving.

Now she had a reason to be driving somewhere, to get away from that psycho, she didn’t know why he had pulled a gun on her or said any of those weird things, but she wasn’t about to stop and ask him what he wanted again. Too afraid that he might actually pull the trigger this time if she let him think about it for too long. Coming to a decision she decided that she was going to pull the gun out from underneath the seat the next time she stopped and tuck it into her waistband, not wanting to be without a weapon the next time, if she ever saw him again.

She drove for what felt like hours, but was probably only a few minutes before she came up on a sign that said there was a gas station up ahead on the right. Glancing down at the fuel gauge she figured she could do with a refuel and maybe some food after all of that excitement. A few miles down the road she could see the sign for the gas station up on the right and put on her blinker to turn into the parking lot. She didn’t notice until she was pulling up that the station was suspiciously silent, the usual collection of cars and people milling about outside were absent, giving the air of the station of being abandoned. She almost drove out of the station before she saw the gas prices. It was cheaper here than anywhere else she had seen on her drive here and she figured it would let her money last longer until she found another source of revenue if she filled up here.

Parking the Impala she reached underneath the seat, grabbing for the pistol, and discretely tucked it into her jacket’s pocket. No need to alarm the gas station attendant, but it didn’t hurt to have a little bit more protection after her day. Getting out she turned to the nozzle and started filling up the Impala, looking around her at the silent building. Looking inside she could see some movement, but nothing definite, and decided to stay outside until it was absolutely necessary to go in and pay.

A few minutes later the Impala was topped off, so she put up the hose and, double-checking the gun in her pocket, she headed inside the building, hoping to get some food and to pay for the gas. As she pushed open the door a bell above her head chimed, alerting whoever was inside to her presence. Glancing around she headed towards the racks of food and drinks, selecting a few here or there that would hold her off for a few days, before she had to refuel again.

It wasn’t until she heard the scuffle of a boot that she looked up and noticed someone standing behind the counter in the shadows.

‘Hello?’ Gathering up her supplies she moved towards the counter, her arms full of goodies that she had found she really enjoyed the first time she had wandered into one of these places. It had been her first day driving, the Impala was almost out of gas and her stomach had been grumbling for the past hundred miles and she had seen the sign for a gas station up ahead. She had turned into the parking lot and wandered around the store looking at all of the packages, wondering at all of the packages, immediately knowing that her favorite were the Cooler Ranch Doritos and something called a Star Crunch. She grabbed as many different things as she could and had brought them to the counter to be rung up.

The man hadn’t look twice at her and just rung up all of the food she had piled there, putting them into individual bags for her to carry. When she had asked about gas he had given her an odd look but showed her how to fill up the car after she had paid for a full tank of gas. That had been her first experience with a person after waking up and she was still trying to get used to not knowing who she was.

Expecting the same treatment from the man in the shadows she walked up to the counter and dumped her food on the counter. From the shadows a menacing voice emitted, ‘will that be all for you today?’

A little unsure she replied, ‘yes.’ And stepped back from the counter, putting her hand into her jacket to feel for the gun she had placed there earlier. As she waited the man slowly emerged from the shadows to reach for her food and started ringing them up. His appearance was that of an unassuming gas station attendant, but she could feel something sinister lurking beneath his exterior just waiting to come out.

‘That’ll be fifteen dollars and eighty-four cents.’ The attendant’s voices caused a shiver to race down her back as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a twenty, placing it onto the counter. Not waiting for the change she grabbed the bags and turned around, wanting to get out of there as fast as she could. She had almost reached the door when the attendant’s voice reached out to her from the back of the store.

‘Oh, sweetie. You forgot something.’ Turning around she looked back at the attendant only to be presented with the most hideous creature she had ever seen. Instead, of the normal looking cashier there stood a tall column of billowing smoke, that had what seemed, tendrils coming out of it. She was paralyzed with fear, her arms laden down with bags she couldn’t even reach the gun in her pocket. As she stood there the creature started to expand, its tendrils reaching towards her, she was so paralyzed with fear she didn’t notice the ring of the bell of the door as it was opened behind her.

‘Get back!’ All of a sudden someone was standing in front of her, their back facing her as they pulled out a gun from their waistband and pointed it at the creature. It was the hitchhiker from before, Thanial; he was shielding her from the creature, why?

‘Tori get back!’ Noticing a sense of desperation in his voice she noticed that the creature had moved even closer to them, its tendrils almost reaching Thanial’s foot. Not waiting for it to get any closer she turned around and ran outside of the store, Thanial hot on her heels. They both raced to her car, Thanial letting loose a few rounds into the mass as they ran across the empty parking lot. When they reached the Impala she jumped into the driver’s seat, pulling out her keys as Thanial opened up the passenger side door.

Throwing the food in the backseat and putting her keys in the ignition she started the car, peeling out of the parking lot as fast as she could, trying to put the gas station in her rearview before the creature decided it wanted to chase after them. They were silent for a few minutes, both trying to get over what had just happened; suddenly she pulled the Impala onto the corner and turned it off.

‘Get out,’ not looking at the other side of the car she waited for Thanial to get out of her car.

‘What?’ Looking at her incredulously he turned to face her impassive face.

‘I said, get out.’ She started clenching the wheel so hard that her knuckles started to turn white.

‘I just saved your ass back there and you’re telling me to get out!’ At his shocked voice she finally turned to look at him incensed.

‘You’re the one who pulled a gun on me earlier, and I’m supposed to trust you now because you shot at a mass of clouds? I don’t think so. Now Get. Out!’ Her cerulean eyes flashed in anger as she waited for him to get out of her car, but he just continued to look at her in shock.

‘Okay for your information that wasn’t just a ‘mass of clouds’ that was a demon, and I just kept it from possessing you and killing you so a little gratitude would be nice right now. And second? I’m the one that should be pissed at you for hiding for so long and making me have to track you down on the side of a road in the middle of nowhere. And then after you attacked me and ran away, I find out you’ve antagonized a demon and I barely get there to save your ass. Now, start the car and get us the hell away from here!’ At the end of his speech he threw himself into the seat and crossed his arms, staring resolutely out the window, effectively ignoring her.

Seeing no other option she slowly turned the car back on, pulled onto the road, picking up to her earlier speed. She didn’t know exactly what to do, but she figured that the gun still tucked into her pocket gave her a little bit more leverage than she had in their first meeting.

They drove in silence for a few more miles before she saw a sign for a hotel up ahead, suddenly remembering that she hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours she figured now was as good a time as any to get some shut eye, and maybe if she ignored her passenger long enough he might go away.

She pulled into the dingy hotel at the far end of the parking lot out of habit, parking the Impala and getting out she headed to the front office to buy a room, not carrying if Thanial followed her or not. She entered the building, the door letting out a tinny ring, causing a shiver to go down her back, and looked around the deserted lobby. Nondescript furniture that looked like it had been sitting there for decades without a proper wash lined the walls, framing an off-white counter covered in various pamphlets for attractions that no one had been to in years.

Tori moved closer to the counter hearing the bell go off again as Thanial followed her into the lobby, causing a grimace to cross her face before she schooled her features into impassiveness. Seeing a bell on the counter she hit it, a sharp ding carrying into the backroom, where she guessed the owner of the hotel to be. She filtered through a few of the pamphlets waiting, until she heard the tell-tale cocking of a gun behind her. Turning around she saw that Thanial had pulled out his gun and was pointing it somewhere behind her shoulder. Spinning back around she was faced with another one of those creatures, demons Thanial had called them, staring back at her.

Through the billowy black smoke she could still see the shape of the owner flicker in and out of sight as the smoke moved around him. Before she could blink a few of the tendrils reached out for her, but not before Thanial let out a few rounds of his gun, causing the demon to let out an unearthly screech and withdrew its tendrils.

‘What do you want from her?’ Thanial’s gravelly voice had lowered a few octaves, taking on an ominous tone. Tori shivered a little at it, he hadn’t even been that angry in the car, and she never wanted that anger pointed at her, ever.

The demon opened, what she guessed was its mouth, the owner’s moving in a sick parody as it spoke. ‘She is ours, hunter. You know that.’ At that the demon started to reach out its tendrils to her again, this time she pulled out her gun and poured a few rounds into the demon. Her bullets seemed to be different effect on the demon, instead of just hurting it, the demon started to convulse and seemed to catch on fire, pulling in on itself. She took a few steps back as it slowly sank to the floor, disappearing in a cloud of fire, leaving the motel owner standing there in a daze, thankfully, unharmed.

‘Wha...What happened?’ The man put a hand up to his head as Thanial vaulted over the counter to catch him before he fell, easing him into the chair behind the counter.

‘You just had a bit of a dizzy spell, sir. Nothing to worry about.’ Putting on that innocent air that he had had the first time Tori had met him Thanial continued to talk the motel owner down into making him believe that he had just been daydreaming and that they were just here to buy a room when he had collapsed.

Tori barely listened to them, staring down at the gun in her hands, running her fingertips over the indentations in the barrel. Before, when she had found it under the seat she hadn’t looked at it too closely, just wanting to get it as far away from her, but now in the light of fluorescent lighting she was able to see that the entire gun was covered in engravings. The handle was made of ivory and felt smooth beneath her palm; the rest of the gun was made of some dark metal she was unfamiliar with.

Somewhere deep down she felt as if she knew what all of the different etchings meant, but couldn’t quite remember them. Frustrated with her inability to remember anything she pushed the gun into her waistband and looked up at Thanial and the owner. Thanial was still grinning his stupid smile, while the own just nodded along and handed over a key, sliding a sly glance over to her as he did.

Part Two

Make Me a Mixtape [DeanF/Priestly]

flyingsoftly — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:50:56 GMT

This was written for queenklu 's Reverse Drabble Meme.

She gave me the prompt DeanF/Priestly, UMMMMMMMM....Priestly makes Dean a mixtape! And this is what happens when I get bored in Computer Science class Xp

nyah I need a DeanF/Priestly icon...

‘Aerosmith? N’Sync....SPICE GIRLS?!’ A soft thump followed each exclamation as CDs were thrown haphazardly across the room.

Dean slowly entered the room where the mumbling was coming from; entering to see a jean covered bottom hanging out of a box, the upper part of the body disguised by the box’s edges. Chuckling slightly he watched as CDs and tapes flew around the room, ducking every once in awhile as a wayward disk flew towards his head.

Dean could see from this angle that Priestly was wearing his ‘Surf Naked’ t-shirt that he had been particularly fond of wearing lately. He had been devastated when Dean had told him that no one surfed in Connecticut, but had bucked right up and proceeded to show him all the other things you could do naked.

‘How can I be in love with someone with such crap taste in music?’ Grumbling to himself Priestly continued to rummage through the box, oblivious to Dean standing in the doorway, watching with a soft smirk on his face, that he had inherently picked up from Priestly himself.

‘They’re actually all my ex-wife’s.’ Priestly started at his deep voice and slowly turned around to face him, a CD in each hand, with an innocent look in his eyes. Pushing off of the doorjamb he had been leaning on he crossed the room to get a better look at what Priestly was doing.

‘When we split all of our stuff got mashed up and she left this box behind. I just never bothered to get rid of it.’ Shrugging slightly he stood next to the opened box, staring into the chaos that had come from the other man’s rummaging. Priestly just continued to stare at him with wide-eyes, slowly trying to hide the stack of CDs he had set aside behind him.

‘What are you doing?’ Dean squatted down next to the silent man, trying to get a better look at the CDs he was trying, and failing, to hide.

‘Nothing.’ Casting a dubious glance around the destroyed room Dean just raised an eyebrow, yet another look he had learned from the other man, at him and waited for the real reason he had decided to make their spare room into a disaster zone. Wilting under his stare Priestly seemed to fall in upon himself, muttering something under his breath as he finally set down the CDs in his hands onto the stack he had collected.

‘What?’ Dean leaned closer to the shorter man, trying to hear what he was mumbling under his breath.

Lowly Priestly replied, ‘I was going to make you a mixtape...’ At his admission his eyes fell to the floor not daring to look at Dean.

Dean’s eyes widened at his admission and got a warm feeling in the pit of his stomach. Smiling softly he wrapped the shorter man in his arms, recognizing his insecurity at being caught doing something so ‘girly’, Priestly’s words, not his.

‘Find any good songs?’ Priestly’s eyes widened as he realized he wasn’t about to be made fun of for doing something so domestic. Smirking slightly he brought out the stack of CDs from behind him into Dean’s view, gaining back his confidence.

‘You’re wife had crap taste in music,’ Priestly smirked unrepentantly, causing Dean to laugh and pull him closer, smiling softly.

‘Yeah, I know, but you don’t.’

Safety First

flyingsoftly — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 07:21:18 GMT

What? I have a story? O.O *gasps* ne!
Haha I'm tired and so I say weird things but here's one of the stories that I'm working on. Hopefully I'll write more (I've been distracted lately) or maybe I'll save it for NaNo I'm not sure yet...

Title: Safety First
Summary: Ari had always been different, keeping to himself and avoiding others until one day his sister issnatched out from under him. Will he be able to save her or fail in the process? MxM Slash

Bah, not very good at summaries ;-;

Safety First

Chapter One

A little left…no, wait, or was it right? Blasted safes, they’re never the same. It‘s always a different combination every time, when one of the inventors think they‘ve found a way to ‘stop all of those annoying thieves‘. Yeah, right. Like any new combination could stop him. Sighing softly at his thoughts he moved his hand minutely closer to the vaults center, visualizing the inner wirings of the vault in his mind. The soft shifting of fabric echoed in the silent room as one of the other men shifted restlessly, waiting for him to be finished.

He always hated doing these types of jobs with a crew tagging along, watching his every move. All they ever did was piss and moan about how long it took him to open the vaults, never satisfied with his work. Usually they were so unprofessional and stupid that the job ended with them all stuck in jail. Well, all of them but him. You don’t make it this far in his line of work by getting caught that easily.

“Psst! Come on, mate. Can’t you go any faster?” A masked face leaned over his shoulder, invading his personal space, trying to see what exactly his fingers were doing with the lock. Pushing down a faint sense of irritation at the man’s proximity he avoided looking at the other man, continuing to try and open the safe without alerting the other man to his movements. As he continued to stand there, unperturbed by his silence, his anger got the best of him causing him break his earlier vow to speak as little to these people as possible.

“If you continue to rush me, I’ll mess up, trip the alarm, and you’ll all end up in jail. So why don’t you let me do my job, and you can go off and do your own, (Okay in Romanian)?” His softly accented voice traveled the short distance to the other man’s ear causing him to jerk back in surprise and stumble away from the ornery man.

The quiet safecracker rarely spoke to anyone but when he did, it always shocked the others when they heard the foreign sound coming out of his mouth. They had only known him for a few weeks, but according to other people that he had worked with he was the best there was, so they let him be, usually.

It didn’t help their anxiety that there were a bunch of guards running up the building stairwells as fast as they could. Alerted by someone’s accidental brush with a security trip wire. No one had come forward and said anything, but he suspected it was Eddy’s fault, as the larger man was never known for being light of foot. The only reason for him being in the crew was his sheer mass, making him a formidable ally when the wayward guard or dog crept upon the group. Luckily, though, the guards were unable to use the elevators to reach their floor, being disabled earlier by the ever handy, Tommy.

“Come on, Ari. They’ve already hit the third floor. If you don‘t finish soon they‘ll reach us in no time.” Tommy’s voice floated softly from the other side of the room as Ari muttered as soft idiot under his breath and continued to work.. Tommy’s masked face was riveted to a tiny screen, which showed a progression of blips moving quickly up a blueprint of the building they were in. Even though he was their resident “computer genius” Ari always thought he was a bit of an imbecil never able to figure out how newer security systems worked and allowing things like this to happen.

Ignoring them he uttered a soft, “I know.” And with a soft click, which resonated throughout the room, he opened the vault, causing the others to take notice. “Done.” He quickly stood back from the opening and began packing up his tools as Eddy and Fred finished opening the vault’s door.

As soon as the door was open, the rest of the men entered the vault and began to pack up the money into black canvas bags as fast as they could. Hoping that they could gather up as much money as they could before the guards hit their floor.

As the others continued to rush, Ari slowly packed up the tools he had used to open the safe, hoping that none of the others had noticed he hadn‘t even used any of them. He wasn’t too worried about the guards, knowing exactly how long it would take them reach the fifteenth floor running up the stairs, especially if it was the ones that looked like the heaviest thing they had picked up in the last five years was a donut. What he hadn’t counted on was the new recruit who had just started that night. A fresh high school dropout who used to be on the varsity football team, all bright and bubbling on his first day of work.

Suddenly the door slammed open at the end of the hall, shocking everyone to a halt, before they resumed at triple speed from before, even Ari. He had just closed his case when the young guard turned the corner, entering the large room, and catching the thieves in the act. “Freeze!” He held up his…was that a taser? Ari sighed, placing his bag softly onto the ground and walked towards the newbie guard. He had so been hoping to avoid something like this tonight, rolling his stiff shoulders he put on his coldest expression, or as cold as you could get with a mask covering half your face.

“Do you really wish to do this?” Realizing that Ari wasn’t afraid of him, the trainee noticed that there was something off about the mysterious figure walking towards him.

“F-freeze?” The guard’s exclamation held less authority as Ari continued to move closer, stopping right at the tip of the other man’s taser.

“I vill ask you vun more time. Do shu really vish to do zis?” Ari let his Romanian accent slip into his words in order to unnerve the guard further, which worked well if the slight shake in the guard’s arms was any indication.

“I have alvays vondered vhat it feels like to be tasered. I figure it to be much less painful zan being shot. Vhich I must tell you iz not pleasant.” The guard’s eyes widened at his statement, which distracted him enough to lower his gun arm slightly giving Ari the perfect opportunity. He quickly hit the guard’s wrist with a karate chop, causing him to drop the gun to the floor and with a quick roundhouse to his head the guard followed his gun in mere seconds.

“There.” Turning, he wiped off his hands and looked at his companions, who were all staring at him in awe and a little bit of shock. “What?”

All at once they scattered, quickly returning to stuffing the bags full of money and avoiding eye contact with him as much as they could. They had almost the whole vault packed away when the door at the end of the hall slammed open making them all jump, again.

“They’re here!” Tommy yelled and ran to the safe to grab as many bags as he could. The others copied him, except for Ari, who grabbed one bag, along with his bag of tools, and began heading towards a hallway in the opposite direction of the vault. He heard shouting erupt from behind him, but didn‘t glance back. He simply continued on down the empty hallway at a quick pace, allowing his dark clothes to blend in with his surroundings to lessen the chance of the guards noticing him.

As he reached the opening, he chanced a look back and saw that the other security guards had the rest of his companions held at taser point. He snorted softly; he still couldn’t get over the fact that they were just using tasers. It was a testament to how much the world had changed from when he was younger, where every other person had a gun, and knew how to use it. He shifted his shoulder as the phantom pain of a bullet piercing his flesh caused him to return to just that time. He rarely felt it anymore, it was only when he thought back to that day, that he could remember the smell and feel of the bullet passing through his skin.

Ari noticed that one of the robbers had decided to walk up to the guards as he had earlier, hoping that it would garner the same results. He snorted softly, realizing it was Eddy, probably figuring that his large size would be enough to intimidate the guard. Only this one looked more sure of himself and as soon as Eddy was a foot away from the man he shot his taser. Eddy never knew what hit him as he began convulsing on the ground in tremors, with two strands reaching from the taser to his chest. Seeing their last hope writhing on the ground the rest decided to give up. They dropped their tools and bags and laid down on the ground with their arms above their heads.

Scoffing slightly at their ability to give up so easily, Ari turned around and headed back down the darkened hallway. He had almost reached the end, where he knew there was an empty stairwell he could use to escape, when a hand came out of an open doorway and pulled him into a darkened room.

“You may not want to go that way, mate. I hear there are guards on the other side.” The mysterious man had him pressed against the inside of the door holding both of his arms in a vice-like grip. His long life as a thief was the only thing that kept him from dropping the bags, but it now left him with no way to get out of the situation without dropping them.

“Now, why on earth would you be over here when all of your buddies are out there getting shocked to death by the rent-a-cops?” The man’s face was covered just like his, but his bright blue eyes stood out in the gloom of the darkened room. They stared at him with unveiled curiosity; unlike the animosity Ari was expecting from the man who had just cornered him. It wasn’t everyday he was pulled into an empty room and pressed up against a wall, well, at least, involuntarily. He remained quiet, not quite trusting the curious man holding him at such a disadvantage, waiting to see what was going to happen.

“Oh, come on. I just saved your arse and you’re not even going to talk to me?” Ari continued to stare back stone-faced as the other man searched for any sign of comprehension.

Letting out an irritated breath, the other man‘s eyes narrowed. “Right, fine. I’ll just take you back to the boss and see what he wants to do with you.” Getting fed up with Ari’s silence the mysterious man pulled him away from the wall by his arm and led him over to an open window on the other side of the room.

Resisting a bit, he nevertheless allowed himself to be pulled over to the window and pressed up against the ledge.

“Want me to take those bags for you?” Flashing a cheeky grin he sat down on the ledge and swung him legs out onto the fire escape, not waiting for an answer. Ari just glared at the other man who glanced back, catching his disgruntled expression and chuckled in response.

Not knowing what else to do he followed the other man onto the fire escape, noticing it was the exact same one he had been planning on using for his original escape. Although, this one seemed to be on the wrong side of the building from where the blueprints had indicated. Narrowing his eyes as the man sketched a mocking bow, gesturing for him to go first, he quickly tied his two bags together and slung them across his back, and started down.

Moving quickly, in a vain hope that he could out climb the other man, he nonetheless listened as his ’rescuer’ kept pace with his fast descent. It took them only a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity to Ari, so used to quick and seamless getaways, he didn’t like this new addition, ruining his plans.

Dropping down to the ground he realized that they were in the alleyway on the total opposite of the building from where the fire escape was supposed to be. Grunting softly at this mystery he watched as the other man dropped silently from the stairs and moved closer to him, latching onto his arm and pulling him further down the alley, all the while with his insufferable grin in place.

Looking around Ari couldn’t fathom why the other man was bringing him to a dead end until he began looking at the debris more closely. Concealed within the dirt and grim was a dark brown car, surrounded by trashcans and more banana peels than was believably healthy for any one person. As they approached, one of the back doors popped open and Ari was pushed into the backseat, the other man following quickly and shutting the door behind them. Immediately he felt the car move beneath him and saw that they were driving sedately out of the alleyway. Expecting a bit more haste he raised an eyebrow and watched them drive past the congregation of cops that had appeared outside the bank he had been robbing.

He waited a few moments, watching out the back window to make sure they weren’t followed, before looking about the car’s interior at what was waiting for him. He noticed that there were two other occupants besides the blue-eyed man in the car, and jerked back at the intense stare he encountered from the front seat.

A platinum haired girl was sitting shotgun, with her entire upper body twisted around to stare at him, but instead of the hostility he was expecting the girl smiled at him and reached out to softly touch the arm of the man beside her driving. Watching her movement he caught a glimpse of a smile come across the driver’s face before it resumed it’s stoic façade from before.

They were both dressed in navies and dark browns, as he was, making him wonder what exactly they had been doing there at the same time when he was. Turning to the man beside him, he realized the other man had taken off his mask and was smiling amusedly at Ari from across the car.

His brown hair, mussed by the mask, stuck up at odd angles but he continued smile as much as he had been earlier in the room, unruffled by his unkempt appearance. The girl was just as cheery with her platinum blonde hair swept back into a pony tail, but the raven-haired driver remained silent, driving through the unending streets to some destination that Ari didn’t know.

“Well, here we are.” The smiling man said as he stretched out against the backseat “Wasn’t that loads easier than your original plan?” Ari glanced sharply at the other man who continued to smile, unperturbed by his blazing green eyes.

“It is none of your concern.” Ari’s softly accented voice filled the silent car as he turned his still covered face to stare out the window. They were now driving past warehouses that he knew to be on the opposite side of town from where the bank was. How had they gotten onto this side of town this quickly? The driver must be better at finding the back roads and alleys than he was ever able too. He was snapped out of his musings by the girl in the front seat, who he was beginning to realize was older than he had at first assumed, close to her early twenties.

“Does he always talk like that?” She was staring wide-eyed at Ari but seemed to be directing her question to the man beside him.

“As far as I can tell. He didn’t say anything to me on the way down here. Even after I saved his butt from a load of those wanna-be mall cops.” His ‘rescuer’ reached beneath his seat and grabbed a bag of chips that had been lying there for, who knows how long. Opening it up he began munching on them. Every few he handed one to the still wide-eyed girl who ate them absentmindedly still staring complacently at the bewildered Ari.

“Why would they want to be mall cops? Isn’t a security guard higher up on the copper scale?” Forgoing her never-ending staring contest with him she shifted her gaze to the man beside him, munching on the chips he handed her.

“Who wouldn’t want to be a mall cop? You get to drive around on those Seg-ees all day and get to meet hot chicks. Not to mention the all access pass to the arcade that they’ve got going.” Content with his answer the other man lounged back into his seat and smiled sweetly at the girl in the passenger seat.

“What’s a seg-ee?” Crossing her arms over the top of the seat she turned her body fully around, getting into the conversation.

“You know, one of those two wheeled things that they always drive around in, in circles.” He flapped his arm about trying to describe the vehicle he was talking about.

“Don’t you mean Segue?” She arced her eyebrow looking at the disgruntled look that came to his face at getting rebuked.

“Seg-ee, segue. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is I’d rather do that then be a rent-a-cop at one of those lame ass banks any day. They always get blamed for letting people steal from them all the time.” Grabbing a handful of chips he quickly shoved them all into his mouth and began munching noisily on them.

“Aren’t we the ones that steal from them all the time?” The girl giggled softly at the other man’s actions.
“Thasss nob the pont.” He gestured wildly scattering chips across the backseat, a few dropping from his open mouth, causing Ari to grimace in disgust.

This continued for awhile until the car finally slowed down and stopped outside of an abandoned warehouse. Realizing where they were, the others quickly exited the car, the other man quickly reaching in and pulling him along, when he realized Ari wasn‘t going to follow them. As he was dragged closer to the warehouse he tried to see as much of it as he could, not knowing if he would have to break out of it later or not.

It appeared to be a large broken and decrepit warehouse on the outside, but if you knew where to look, you could see the steel reinforced door and the bars across the windows that didn’t seem to be on any of the surrounding warehouses. He wondered silently why they would be so far outside of town, guessing they were at the harbor that had to be about 20 miles out of town. Any thief worth his salt wouldn’t bother with a place like this, so he couldn’t guess at why they needed this much security.

The others walked over to the steel doors that seemed to be the entrance to the warehouse. Being pulled along he watched silently as they entered the code into a keypad on the side of the door, and entered, quickly memorizing the code, for recreational purposes only, of course, he was pulled along. Sighing silently at the others’ stupidity he only got a glimpse of the inside before a sudden darkness started to overtake his vision.

Ghetze Meu! They drugged me! Was the last thought he got out before he slumped to the ground in a heap, a blonde haired man with a syringe standing above his silent body, smiling softly.

A/N: Most of his exclamations will be in Romanian. I may throw in some other languages to display his diversity and the fact that he’s traveled a lot. And plus I just like finding curse words in other languages ^-^

Imbecil - Imbecile

Ghetzu Meu! - Fucking Hell!

Rewrite of Seven, Chapter Eight, and Nine

flyingsoftly — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:22:39 GMT

Here's The Invisible ^-^

Chapter Seven

“Why are we doing this,” Sasha asked, walking backwards to be able to better see Erick and Jeremy. They were all decked out in “civilian” clothes, so as not to stand out in the crowds. They were going to observe St. James and they didn’t want him to be able to see them in a crowd. It was the first time he had ever been on a mission and Sasha was a bit nervous about what was to come. Everything he learned about St. James from Grim, led him to believe that St. James wasn’t a very good man.

From what Grim had told him St. James became the “bad” guy after a traumatic experience when he was 15. No one had ever found out what that experience was but ever since he created his own crime syndicate, running everything from drugs, to guns, to pirated movies. He had started out slowly, only a few runs every week or so, but slowly he took over almost all of the criminal side of the whole west coast of America. According to Erick, St. James had become Newald’s worst enemy ever since he took over STEAM. For some unknown reason St. James had resented Newald and didn’t spare any expense to make his life hell whenever he could. Sasha could only imagine what Newald could have done to piss a crime boss off so bad.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts Sasha looked at them expectantly, waiting for an answer. “We’re doing it because boss man ordered it. That’s all you need to know Sasha,” Jeremy said cheekily, sauntering down the sidewalk they were on. They were currently in the busiest part of the city, they were told that was where St. James was getting his shipment of guns. Sasha didn’t quite understand why it was happening in the middle of the city, used to movies full of mobsters meeting down at the docks, trunks full of guns and cinder blocks.

Erick, as if knew what he was thinking, chuckled and continued to walk alongside Jeremy. “You better turn around or you’re going to run into someo-” at that Sasha bumped into someone knocking both of them over. Scrambling to get back up Sasha said hurriedly, “I’m so sorry! I’m not usually that clumsy, I just-”

“Be quiet. I’m fine.” Helping the figure stand up Sasha stood back as the girl stood up to her full height. She was a tall, curvy woman, he saw, with reddish brown hair cut to her shoulders. As she swiped her bangs out of her face he was shown blue eyes that seemed to switch between blue and green as her eyes moved around the circle of men surrounding her. She was covered in freckles, that seemed to accent her eyes and make her seem innocent, but her eyes betrayed a sense of mischief, as if she were constantly up to something no one else was privy to. Behind her lagged a shorter blonde haired girl with blue eyes hopping up and down on her heels. She seemed to be in a hurry and was urging the auburn haired girl to move, grabbing her arm and pulling, trying to get her to move until she noticed us standing there.

Standing up straight the blonde-haired girl turned to us and smiled a blazing smile, “Why hello!” Moving to stand next to the auburn haired girl she looked at each of us critically, watching us with a skill that Sasha hadn’t noticed before. As soon as he saw it the look was replaced by one of emptiness, putting on an air of a ditzy blonde.

Smiling slightly Sasha just stared at the girls as Jeremy puffed out his chest like a peacock presenting his feathers. “Why, hello,” Erick snorted at Jeremy’s attempt to be smooth and moved to stand next to Sasha as Jeremy moved closer to the girls.

“Hello,” smiling brightly the auburn haired girl moved closer to Jeremy, as she got closer Sasha noticed that she was a few inches taller then Jeremy. She wasn’t as tall as he was, but she was close, the blonde was the same height as Jeremy.

“My name’s Annabelle and this is my friend Beth. We were just heading to a local coffee shop. Do you guys want to come with?” The girl, Beth, looked a little shocked at this but quickly replaced it with they dumb, blonde look.

“ Oh lovely, we would love to but unfortunately we’re heading over to my grandmother’s house to bring her some company. You see she’s been sick lately and…” Jeremy placed his arms around each girl’s shoulders and started moving them down the street, talking excitedly about his sick “grandmother”. Shaking his head softly, smirking Erick followed him down the street, gesturing for Sasha to come too.

They walked down the street, Sasha and Erick still watching everything, looking for St. James’ agents as Jeremy continued to lead the girls, talking animatedly. Sasha didn’t really understand why they were bringing these girls along, but one look at Erick warned him not to mention anything. They continued that way for a few more minutes before they reached the meeting spot Newald had directed them to go to. Jeremy stopped walking at the junction of the streets and turned to the girls. “Well, ladies. This is where we stop. We have to catch a cab to my grandma’s. It was nice talking to you for this fine morning, but it is now time to say adieu.”

Bowing Jeremy turned away from the girls and headed towards where Sasha and Erick were standing, a few feet down the street. Not looking behind themselves they all turned towards the street and walked a few feet before they quickly turned down an alley. If, someone hadn’t been watching carefully it would have appeared that they had all disappeared into thin air. The girls themselves stood still, waiting, watching everything and didn’t notice that they had disappeared from sight. The girls didn’t move as Sasha and the others watched them from the alleyway in which they had run down. Waiting for something that he didn’t understand. Sasha didn’t know why Jeremy and Erick were so interested in the girls, but was too afraid to ask them aloud for fear of giving away their positions. This was still his first position and he didn’t want to ruin it on his first chance out and return to Harvey’s smug face, gloating in the idea that Sasha had messed up on his first time.

What seemed like hours, but was probably only minutes, Erick and Jeremy tensed in their stances, causing Sasha to look back at the girls on the street below. The girls hadn’t moved an inch from where they were, waiting for something, and it appeared that someone had arrived, a man dressed in a trench coat, Sasha rolled his eyes at that one, and a cap pulled over his eyes. The man walked over to the girls and started talking to them, instead of looking shocked the girls listened to him and followed him when he gestured for them to follow him.

Jeremy and Erick moved stealthily across the rooftop and followed the girls along the building tops, not quite understanding Sasha followed at a slower pace, not used to running across rooftops. They followed them below for a few minutes before ending up in the darker part of town, it appeared to be the proverbial “docks” that he had originally imagined. They were now in an area full of warehouses. The girls didn’t look the slightest ill at ease and the trench coated man continued to lead them into one of the warehouses.

Instead of following them inside Jeremy and Erick led Sasha to the building’s roof where they found a skylight that allowed them to see directly into the warehouse. Rolling his eyes at the predictability Sasha lay down next to Erick and peered inside. The women were clustered around a crate, peering into it with interest as the unknown man stood to the side looking smug. They exchanged a few words before the women started to open the crate, on opening a whole slew of guns was revealed with the removal of the lid and the women became even happier. As they were busy looking at the guns the man reached into his coat and pulled out a gun, aiming it at the girls.

Not thinking Sasha called out to the girls through the sky light to look behind them, startled they glanced up and, seeing the man’s gun, pulled out their own firearms. Shocked Jeremy and Erick only looked at him before shrugging and breaking through the glass and jumping down into the building to join in the fray. Three more men had appeared from behind crates dressed just as conspicuously as the other man and bearing guns started firing at the girls, and the three men as they jumped in.

Pulling out his gun Sasha hid behind a crate, trying not to get hit and gauged where everyone else was. The two girls had taken refuge behind the crate full of guns while Jeremy and Erick were firing at the men from some stairs on the other side of the building. Seeing that no one was watching him Sasha decided to make one of the hardest decisions he had ever had to make. He never liked using his power whenever he was young, feeling like it left him out of what is considered “normal” and so didn’t use it. As he grew older he began to experiment with it, but never around anyone else for fear of being discovered.

Closing his eyes Sasha concentrated on the feeling he got whenever he went invisible, the weightless, quiet, calm feeling he always got when he knew it was working. Opening his eyes he saw, or rather didn’t see, that it had worked and even the gun he held was invisible. Standing he stalked towards the men and started shooting them in the knees or arms, wherever he could hit without horribly damaging them. They fell one by one as they looked around, not able to see this mysterious gunman. As the last one fell Sasha quickly walked towards a nearby crate and quickly became visible, not noticing the green eyes staring at him in curiosity.

Once Sasha turned visible again he double-checked to make sure no one was watching him. He sighed with relief and sat back down only to turn and see one of the men in trench coats from before in front of him. He barely moved his arm up before the man was on him, holding him down and wrestled the gun out of his hand.

The man gagged and bound him before pulling him out and out of the warehouse through a door Sasha hadn’t seen before. He only got a glimpse of the warehouse before he was yanked through the door. His glimpse revealed Erick and Jeremy fighting with the girls, he only got out a muffled cry before he was yanked out by his shirt collar, causing him to wince at the bruise that would leave. The man pulled him out to a black limo, the door opened quickly for them to open, before shutting behind them as the man pushed him into the opening and quickly followed behind. Sasha was settled into a leather covered seat, uncomfortable sitting on his hands as he was pressed back into the seat.

“Well hello Mr. Boden, or should I say Grueller,” said a low, gravely voice across him, looking up Sasha was faced with a silver-haired man in an expensive. The man sat in the seat across from him in a way that stated he would be obeyed at any cost or else. He tried to mumble out a reply but was prevented by the gag in his mouth. A look from the man across from him caused his captor to untie the gag. He spit It out and sent a glare at the man across from him.

“Who are you,” he asked, glaring at the fancily dressed man, smirking back at him. With a fake look of shock the man raised a hand to his chest and said, “ why, Sasha. I’m hurt that you don’t remember me. Don’t you recognize your old Uncle James?” Smirking the man chuckled as his jaw dropped, unable to reconcile the fact that the man sitting across from him was the man he knew from his past.

In his youngest memories Sasha remembered a happy, smiling man who always came over to see his parents and give him presents. Uncle James had always been Sasha’s favorite relative, he wasn’t blood-related to either of his parents, he had always been their oldest friend. Many times when his parents had gone on a field trip the had left him with his Uncle James, who spoiled him rotten, taking him to the movies or ice cream parlours. The man from his memories was nothing like the cold-hearted man across from him now. His Uncle had always been a simple man, never wearing more than a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. His hair had been a dirty-blonde, only turning silver at the edges, but the man in the tailored suit and fully silver hair with his devilish smirk barely resembled Sasha’ memory.

“Uncle James? What’re you doing here?” All of the pain that he had pushed to the side when his parents had dided and no one had claimed him, not even his Uncle, flared up causing his chest to ache. “Why did you leave me to be all alone when my parents died? Why weren’t you there?” His eyes began to mist, but he quickly shut his eyes to prevent the man, his uncle, from seeing it.

“Oh, my dear Sasha. I’m St. James.” For a second the silver-haired man look sad, but it was quickly replaced with his smirk.

“You killed my parents,” he said quietly, eyes widening, not quite believing what he just heard.

“Yes, I did,” St. James said, still with that same calm expression.

“But, why? They were your friends. They treated you like family! They even got you out of jail that time when I was eight!” Sasha progressively got louder and more aggressive as he spoke. Leaning forward St. James said, “why did you think I was in jail?” With a smirk he reclined back against the seat. “I was truing to build up my empire when I had been placed in jail by some STEAM agents, and unwittingly your parents undid all of their own hard work. Now, I must say that I at first didn’t know that your parents were Flam and Ice. I just thought that they were a couple of comely teachers, as everyone else apparent did, but when I figured it out I saw what and who they really were. Liars.”

“My parents were not liars,” Sasha shouted out and tried to lunge across the seat to attack St. James, but he was pulled back by the forgotten henchman. He pulled Sasha back against the seat and knocked him on the head. Dazed Sasha blinked his eyes and tried to focus on St. James’ soft chuckles. Weakly he said,” they were not liars.”

“Oh, but weren’t they? Saying they were teachers at a private school in the next town over?? Constantly saying that they were going on ‘field trips’ when they were really going on secret missions? Not even telling their own son they were secret agents of a spy organization they created? Please, stop me when I’m getting warm. Face it Sasha. They lied to you and everyone else they ever met.” With a self-satisfied smirk he lounged back against his seat.

“At least they weren’t killers,” Sasha mumbled out, not quite looking at St. James. “Not killers? What exactly is it you think your parents did on their little ‘field trips’? Go visit the nearest museum?” With a sick feeling in his gut Sasha remembered the way the gun had felt in his hand as he had shot those men. Did his parent’s do that? But instead of the knee caps and arms did his parents aim instead for hearts and skill. He lowered his eyes, hanging his head in sadness as he thought over all that his parents could have done during their missions.

“What do you want,” Sasha said quietly, still thinking over all of the horrible things his parents could have done that he didn’t know about. “I’m going to use you as leverage. I heard that you are now part of the STEAM agency, but cleverly you didn’t tell them who you really were. Smart thing there because Newald is a shrewd man and probably wouldn’t stop at the idea of killing you to keep his hold over his little ‘agency’” With a soft snort, a sound Sasha didn’t expect to here from him, St. James reached over and picked up a picture that had been lying next to him on the seat. “Have a look little one.”

Realizing his arms had been undone as well Sasha reached out to take the picture from St. James, his eyes widened at the image, not quite believing yet another shock to his system. It revealed an image that he knew he would never be able to forget, Newald and St. James shaking hands over the burning wreckage of his parents car. The flames from the car illuminating the self-satisfied smiles on both of their faces. His hands shaking Sasha dropped the picture and dropped his head into his hands, too sick to look at St. James. He didn’t look up again until he heard the car veer off and head down a dirt road, a look out the window revealed a large mansion. “Oh, hell,” he uttered softly and quickly sat back in his seat, awaiting what would happen to him next at the home of St. James. Closing his eyes again Sasha’s head fell against the back of the headrest.

“Welcome home, Sasha.” A soft, smug voice spoke from the other side of the vehicle.

Chapter Eight

Looking away from where he had just seen Sasha disappear and reappear Erick walked quickly down the stairs, followed by Jeremy, and headed towards where the girls were huddled behind their crate. “What the hell is going on,” he demanded of the two women, who were just standing up and brushing their clothes off. “What’s it look like? We were just screwed out of a butt load of money.” Gruffly Annabelle crossed to the crate, lifting the lid and checking to make sure its contents were okay. Beth stood between her and the two men, acting more as a bodyguard, then the dumb, blonde she had portrayed before. “Who are you? And why were those men shooting at you?” Jeremy came up to stand next to him, glaring at Beth, giving as good as he got.

Seemingly satisfied Annabelle came up to stand next to Beth, “we’re two free lance agents. We were hired to retrieve a package today from those men, and apparently we were set-up.” Snorting Jeremy looked derisively at her, ”well no shit Sherlock. Did you honestly think St. James’ men would be fair?”

“Those were St. James’ men,” this was spoken vehemently by Beth, who shared a look at Annabelle before pulling out her cell phone and immediately talking to someone on the other line. She spoke quickly and quietly for a few minutes before walking back to the group of people and nodding at Annabelle. With a satisfied smile Annabelle walked back to crate saying, “well thank you for your help. We’d love to stay longer, but Beth and I need to get the goods back to our employer so if you wouldn’t min-”

“You’re not going anywhere until you tell us why we almost got shot down trying to help you,” Erick said interrupting her and grabbing her by the arm to stop her from touching the crate. “Are you always this rough with the girls or is it just me?” Yanking her arm out of his grip she stepped back a few paces to put the crate between her and the two men, Beth joining her a moment later. “Even if those were St. James’ men, it is no matter to us. Our only objective was to retain the goods and return them to our employer as quickly as possible. We have the goods. Now all we have to do is return them. Now, if you two would kindly please, leave us the hell alone.” Annabelle glared at them, crossing her arms, her blue-green eyes flashing at them.

“Wait, two? Erick, where’s Sasha?” Jeremy turned to face Erick, just realizing that the black-haired man wasn’t with them. Panicked Erick looked around, trying to find him. He rushed to the area he had last seen Sasha when he had….reappeared, finding only Sasha’s gun lying on the ground and an open door. “He’s gone!” Erick ran through the open door, leading into an empty alleyway, he rushed to the alley’s opening seeing nothing but an empty street and a black rose lying on the ground. Cursing he picked up the rose and ran back inside the warehouse rushing to Jeremy, showing him the rose. “Called Headquarters. St. James has taken Sasha! We have to get him back!” Jeremy quickly took out his cell phone and spoke quickly with someone on the other line. Hanging up a few minutes later he said, “they’ll be here in a few minutes. Control is already on the lookout for him, following traffic footage from the area in the last ten minutes. They think they may be able to get a visual on him.”

“Dammit!” Erick kicked a lonesome can lying about and sat down on a crate, putting his head in his hands. “I should have watched him! It was his first mission, I shouldn’t have let him out of my sight for a second!” Wrenching his hair Erick continued to berate himself, but was stopped by a soft hand on his. “It wasn’t your fault.” Looking up Erick saw Annabelle standing above him, trying to comfort him. Not quite understanding Erick just stared at her as she continued to rub his head. A few minutes later they were interrupted by the sound of a car approaching outside. Jeremy exited the warehouse, returning with Mae in tow. She quickly walked over to Erick, “what happened?”

Standing up Erick tried to compose himself, “we arrived at the correct time and place as was said. There the contacts met with the supplier and proceeded to an abandoned warehouse. We followed by rooftops and quickly obtained a vantage point from a skylight in the roof. We watched as the contacts met with the supplier and viewed the goods. As soon as their backs were turned though the supplier pulled out a gun. We then quickly broke through the skylight and proceeded to shoot at the man and his colleagues who had been hiding behind other crates. Sasha, Jeremy and I were separated in the fight, but as soon as it was finished Jeremy and I quickly walked to the contacts to find out what happened. After a few minutes of talking with them we realized that Sasha hadn’t made contact with us, and we found out that he had been taken through a door in the side of the warehouse without our knowledge. Outside on the pavement was this.” Erick handed the black rose to Mae who hissed, “St. James. What would that bastard want with a trainee?” Her gray eyes flashed in anger, an emotion rarely seen on her features. “I don’t know but I’m going to find out.” Erick narrowed his eyes in anger at the man who had taken Sasha from him.

Moving quickly Erick began to head out of the warehouse, but was stopped by a hand on his arm. He turned and looked into Annabelle’s blue-green eyes, so much like Sasha’s that his heart began to hurt. “Let us help you,” she said quietly. “Why would you want to help us,” he asked, not quite understanding why they would want to help him get Sasha back. “I can see how much you care about him and if it hadn’t been for him I know that Beth and I would be dead right now. We’ve finished what we were asked, all I have to do is call my employer and have them pick up the goods and we can help you. Sometimes its better to have help outside of an organization,” she said eyeing Mae standing next to Jeremy, Beth still standing behind them, watching everything. Grudgingly he nodded his head and walked back over to Jeremy and Mae. “Beth and Annabelle are going to help us find Sasha.”

“And who exactly are these women,” Mae said impassively. “They’re freelance agents who have decided to help us and just be happy about it,” Erick replied gruffly. Mae’s eyes widened a bit at that, a little taken aback, before she returned back to her impassive state and nodded. Beth quickly got out her cell phone again and a few moments later she was standing next the Annabelle whispering in her ear. Nodding Annabelle said, “my employer will be by momentarily to take his goods and we will be able to help you.” She moved to sit on the crate, Beth joining her, and sat quietly talking with each other, waiting.

Jeremy grinned, “alright. Rest time,” and sat down on another crate, lying down on it with his legs hanging off the edge. Erick continued to pace the warehouse, not quite able to sit still enough to wait for the mysterious employer. Mae stood to the side quietly waiting as still as a statue, only her gray eyes giving away movement as they watched everything and everyone around her.

A few minutes later the sound of another car approaching echoed through the warehouse. Beth and Annabelle stood up in front of their crate and waited for the person to enter the warehouse. Erick stopped pacing and watched the door, not quite expecting a person wearing a habit to enter through the door. He watched as a nun walked quickly across the warehouse to the girls and started to talk quietly in Italian. Jeremy had sat up and was lounging on his crate watching the women with a perplexed look on his face.

As they continued to talk in Italian the girls quickly lifted the lid off of the crate and revealed that it was full of medicinal supplies. The nun lit up at the crate’s contents and started speaking even quicker. A few men had followed her in and they lifted up the crate, carrying it out of the warehouse and to, presumably, their car. A few words later and some money exchanged and the nun left the warehouse also, leaving the three STEAM agents to stare confused at the two women left behind.

“A nun?” Jeremy asked incredulously, standing up from his crate to stand next to Erick. “Hey, we’re freelance agents, not criminals.” Beth said, smirking. Shaking his head and sighing Erick just said, “whatever. Let’s go back to headquarters and see if control found out anything about where St. James may have taken Sasha.” Walking briskly out of the warehouse Erick sat behind the drivers seat and waited for everyone to follow him. With a shrug Jeremy followed him, Mae behind him and the girls bringing up the rear. Jeremy sat in the passenger seat while the women took up the back seat, Mae behind the drivers, Beth in the middle and Annabelle behind Jeremy.

Driving quickly back to headquarters Erick took a few ‘shortcuts’. Nothing too serious, but everyone’s knuckles were a bit white by the time they reached the facility. Driving down into the underground garage Erick parked in Mae’s spot and got out. Not waiting for everyone else he sped through security and rushed down to the control room. Entering the large room filled wall to wall with computers, a large screen filling up part of one wall, he rushed to one of the computer techs. “Do you have an update on where St. James has taken Sasha,” he asked the green-haired man. “No, sir. We’ve hacked into all traffic cameras and haven’t been able to find him anywhere. He’s disappeared from our radar. We didn’t even get time to put in the customary tracking device into Agent Boden before he went on his first mission.” Cursing Erick turned away, running a hand through his hair, breathing loudly before turning back to the tech. “What about his cell phone? We gave him a new one, would you be able to triangulate his whereabouts with that?”

“We might,” the tech said slowly. “But it will only work if he is near any cell towers and has it turned on.” The man quickly set to work typing away at his computer as everyone else arrived at the control room. The other computer techs looked oddly at Beth and Annabelle, but with a quick look from Erick they went back to working. “What’s the status report,” Jeremy asked him. “They couldn’t find him on any traffic cameras and they don’t have a tracking device in him like they do us.” Erick and Jeremy both looked at the scars on their left forearms left over from their operations to have the tracking device placed in their bodies. “They’re going to try and triangulate his position by using his cell phone. Hopefully St. James hasn’t found it yet and he still has it on.” Erick sat down in an empty chair, Jeremy joined him as the others just stood around watching. “I’m going to take them to the boss,” Mae said quietly, gesturing to the two women who had now become their allies. “I’ll update him on your mission and explain why they are now going to be helping us.” Gesturing for them to follow her, Mae left the room through a separate door. The girls looked at Erick questioningly, he nodded to tell them that it would be alright, before quickly following her out of the room.

“He’ll be alright, Erick. You taught him all you know and he already knew almost as much as you. St. James won’t be able to hurt him. He’s strong.” Jeremy placed his hand on Erick’s shoulder to try to comfort him, instead of replying Erick raised his hand to place it on top of Jeremy’s, squeezing it to say thank you. They sat that way for a few more minutes before the green-haired tech called out excitedly, “I’ve got him!” Rushing quickly to his side Erick shouted, “where is he?” “Dude no need to shout in my ear, I’m right here.” Growling Erick just glared at him until the tech turned back to the computer contrite. “I was able to track down his cell signal. Apparently he has it on, good for me, and I’ve traced it to the address: 486 Greenwood Hill. It’s just on the other side of the city, about an hour away. If you give me about a half hour I’ll be able to get you specs and blueprints on the entire property and have them sent to the conference room.” Placing his hand on the man’s shoulder Erick said quietly, “thank you.” And turned quickly to exit the room. Grinning Jeremy asked, “by the way, what’s your name?” Smiling happily the man replied, “Albert Taylor.” “Well thank you Albert. You just helped keep him from losing his head and going on a rampage.”

“Yeah, why is he so stressed out anyways? We’ve had agents taken before? I’ve never seen our weapons master that freaked out.” The tech looked questioningly at the door Erick had exited from. “Let’s just say that Agent Boden is very special to Agent Cirila. More so than anyone else you’ll ever meet, k?” Waving Jeremy left the room, leaving the tech to puzzle out the hidden meaning in his words before his eyes brightened in understanding. Grinning he turned back to his work, typing feverishly, now with even more incentive to help out with getting Sasha back.

Chapter Nine

Sasha took a deep breath as the limousine slowed down, stopping in front of the large steps leading to the front door. The mansion looked like it had leapt straight out of the Victorian Era, columns surrounded the front door, a large yard surrounded the whole property. The yard was characterized by an elaborate garden stretching from end to end throughout the whole area. Looking up at the mansion he saw that it had to house nearly a hundred rooms all of them had to be as lavish as the outside was.

Opening the door the henchman ushered Sasha out of the limo, he was forced to stand to the side as St. James exited the limo after him. Upon standing Sasha saw that St. James was a few inches shorter then him, he gulped as he remembered when this man used to carry him around on his shoulders as a child. Turning his eyes away from him Sasha again looked up at the building in front of him. “Beautiful isn’t it? I bought it from an old plantation owner. He still owned all of the land and the house was a bit shoddy, but with a little DYI I was able to get it back into top form.” St. James walked towards the house, Sasha was pressed forward by the man in the trench coat to follow St. James up the steps.

Opening the door Sasha was pelted with the idea that the interior looked like an antique shop. From floor to ceiling all of the rooms were filled with old pieces of furniture, odds and ends. It looked nothing like what the head of bad guy organization would have for decorations, more like a little old lady too afraid to get rid of her belongings. Distracted by looking around at all of the things Sasha was jolted back into the present by the henchman pushing him forward. He looked around and saw that St. James had already passed halfway down the hallway and he hurried to catch up. St. James led him to a room that seemed to be his study. The walls were covered in bookshelves from floor to ceiling. There was a large desk in the middle, with windows at its back. The windows opened up onto a balcony which showed a wide view of the city. Sasha was able to see that they were just north of the city on a hill overlooking all of the other houses in the vicinity.

St. James moved over to sit in the chair behind the desk, as the henchman pushed Sasha into a chair across from him before moving to stand behind St. James. St. James steepled his fingers on top of the desk and fixed his gaze on Sasha as he settled into the chair. “Now, Sasha. I need you to realize that you are now my prisoner. I’m going to use you as leverage against Newald. He wouldn’t want his newest recruit, so highly regarded by both his technical crew and weapons master, to suddenly go missing, now would he. I may tell him who you really are, depending upon how well you cooperate with me. I know you don’t want Newald finding out about your true identity so you better do all that I ask. You know his little secret now, and I’m hoping you use that against him in the future. For now I will keep you in one of my rooms, until I decide further of what to do with you.” Gesturing to someone behind Sasha, St. James smirked as he was grasped by each arm and led out of the room.

He was quickly led to another room where he was pushed into, before he got a chance to turn around he heard the lock click behind him. St. James knew enough about him that he was smart enough not to have given him a room with an electronic lock, instead it was a serious of deadbolts that locked from the outside. And from the lack of receding footsteps it seemed that St. James had also posted guards outside his room.

Sighing he turned around and surveyed the room he was going to be spending an indeterminate amount of time in. It was as lavish as the rest of the place, only this room wasn’t filled with clutter. He figured St. James didn’t want him to have anything that may be used to break him out or as a weapon. The large bed was pressed to the side of the room, a dresser beside it with a desk and chair on the other side. There were a pair of doors that seemed to lead to a balcony, but Sasha didn’t even waste time checking if they were locked, knowing his ‘Uncle James’ enough that he would have had the doors welded shut. There was another door that he assumed led to a bathroom, and after further inspection he noticed that there was a bookshelf in the corner filled to bursting with a myriad of different titles.

Not knowing what else to do Sasha walked over to the bookshelf and picked a book at random, carrying it to the bed and lying down to start reading. He was interrupted a few hours later, almost halfway done with the book that he had surprisingly found interesting, by a knock on the door. Rising from the bed he waited as the door was opened and a brown-haired boy, carrying a tray filled with food, entered. The boy placed the tray on the desk and smiled at Sasha before exiting as quickly as he had come.

He walked over the tray wondering what exactly St. James would feed him, gruel maybe? But upon inspection he saw that the tray contained collection of some of his favorite foods as a child. Scowling he threw the tray against the door and stalked back to the bed. Too angry to read Sasha threw off his clothes and lay under the blankets, hoping to get a few hours of sleep before St. James finally decided what he would do with him. Hours later he was still tossing and turning, unable to sleep, before he passed out from exhaustion and heartache, imagining a pair of green eyes watching him from a stairwell in a dark warehouse.

He was awoken by another knock upon his door, sitting up he quickly pulled on some clothes as the door was opened and the same brown-haired boy from yesterday entered. The boy’s smile faltered as he saw the food and tray strewn upon the floor, but brought it back to full power as he set down another tray on the desk. He turned back around and tried to clean up the mess Sasha had made last night the best he could before leaving the room, with barely a glance behind him.

Not wanting to look at the food Sasha crossed to the dresser in search of some clean clothes, not sure how clean his clothes were from rolling around in a warehouse yesterday. He opened up the top drawer and saw it was full of socks and underwear. Rolling his eyes at that he opened up the second drawer which was filled with t-shirts. The third was full of pajama pants and shirts, while the fourth one was full of pants. Searching quickly through the drawers Sasha was able to piece together a dark blue, long-sleeved shirt, a pair of black pants, some underwear and his own boots. Carrying them to the bathroom with him he quickly showered with the products he found there and dressed.

He didn’t know why he was cleaning himself up, not sure who he was trying to impress, it was just that if he was going to be a prisoner again, he was going to use all of the facilities he had, not sure when they would be taken away. His thoughts soured at the memories of being held in STEAM’s prisons and the thought that Grim was still down there with no help.

Turning his thoughts away Sasha walked back over to the bookshelf, selecting another book, but instead of sitting on the bed he sat behind the desk. Glancing at the tray he saw that it just held regular breakfast materials, nothing like last night’s meal, so he picked up an apple and began eating while he read.

He continued this way for a few more days, waking up to a knock on his door and the brown-haired boy, reading a book all day with a meal interspersed here or there. He tried to keep himself occupied with practicing different drills that Erick had taught him, but that only kept him busy for so long. Occasionally he would take to pacing the room, unable to stand still the longer he was kept captive. At least in the STEAM prison he had Grim to talk to, here not even the man who brought his food would talk to him.

He had double-checked all of the doors and windows for any indiscrepencies in St. James’ designs to keep him locked in. Hoping that someone had been careless enough in the construction that he would be able to find a weak spot, but no luck. St. James was just as methodical as Sasha would have been in his spot. Sadly he remembered that his parents always said that he was more Uncle James’ son then there’s because he would always mimic whatever his Uncle would do. He used to follow James around the house whenever he spent the night, repeating his every word and movement, trying to be just like him.

Shaking himself out of the memory Sasha resumed his current set of drills. This new style of fighting had been one of his favorites and he didn’t want to get lax on it just because he was being held prisoner. He was dressed in a pair of sweats and sneakers with nothing else, covered in sweat. Although they kept the air conditioning on, the inability to open his window sometimes left Sasha’s room hotter then it was supposed to be.

That was where the boy found him when he entered the room, carrying a tray laden with food for lunch. He hadn’t knocked this time, his arms too full of food so caught Sasha by surprise in the middle of a roundhouse kick barely missing the kid by an inch. If the boy had been a few inches taller he would have been knocked out cold. Shocked the boy just stood there, eyes wide, staring at the sweaty Sasha breathing heavily in the middle of the room. He quickly set down his tray full of food and continued to stare at Sasha.

“What,” Sasha asked gruffly, still a little out of breath from his heavy workout. He reached out for a towel and quickly wiped off most of the sweat from his body before pulling a shirt over his head. He had almost forgotten about the boy before a small voice floated over to him from the boy’s direction. “How do you do that?” Sasha looked over to the wide-eyed boy and raised an eyebrow. “Do what?” “That, that kick thing? How did you get so high? Whenever I try to kick I can only get a few inches off of the ground.” Encouraged by Sasha’s response the boy moved closer to Sasha, not more then a few feet, but it was closer then he had ever been. Still perplexed Sasha just stared at the boy, “practice.”

Looking a little put out by Sasha’s response the boy pouted out, “that’s what everyone says but I do practice and I still can’t do anything cool like that.” Chuckling slightly Sasha said, “I’ve been practicing since I was eight. It takes hard work and dedication to become good at anything you want to do.” Looking a little brighter the boy said excitedly, “Do you think you coul-” “Oi! Boy! What’s taking you so long,” a voice shouted out from the other side of the door. The boy squeaked out, “be right there!” Before turning back to Sasha, “my name’s Charlie. I’ll see you later!” He quickly raced out of the room slamming the door behind him. A little bemused Sasha slowly sat down to eat his food. St. James had since given up on trying to feed him any of his favorite foods, every time Sasha had just thrown them against the door. He figured St. James was just tired of having to send someone up to clean it, rather then any nostalgic reasons.

He still couldn’t reconcile the idea that his Uncle was the head of a bad guy organization, but as he thought about it, just as he had done with his parents, he saw discrepancies in his past. Times when his Uncle had disappeared only to hear on the news that the mysterious ‘St. James’ had just been taken into custody, only to be bailed out an hour later by his mass of lawyers. He didn’t understand why St. James had pretended to be friends with his parents, even if he didn’t know his parents were the head of STEAM it still didn’t make any sense.

Shaking his head Sasha turned back to his meal, quickly finishing it and heading to take a shower. He stripped out of his sweaty clothes and entered the shower stall. He had found out that if he put his clothes through a shoot in the bathroom that they would come up clean to his room the next day. He quickly showered and got dressed, placing his dirty clothes down the shoot and went back into his room to be presented with St. James sitting at his desk. He stopped walking and narrowed his eyes at the man in front of him, wondering what he wanted next.

“Ah, Sasha. Have a lovely shower?” Smirking St. James continued to sit in his seat and gestured for Sasha to sit down in the other chair. He moved slowly to the chair before sitting down in it, eyeing St. James the whole time. “Now, I bet you’re wondering why I’ve come to call on you. It’s quite simple actually. I’ve talked to Newald and it seems he really doesn’t want you back,” He smirked as Sasha’s eyes widened. “Although it was to much protest from a few people, it seems that all of those years in the orphanages didn’t damage your social skills very much. Quite a loyal group of friends you have there.” Sasha glared at St. James as he talked about Erick and Jeremy. He didn’t know who else St. James would be talking about, but was hoping that they had enough sway over Newald to help get him out of here.

“Now, since it seems that Newald has no interest in your well-being I am going to be able to do whatever I wish with you.” St. James’ eyes took on an evil glint as he looked over Sasha, who shifted in his chair from the intense scrutiny. “You are going to work for me now.” Holding a hand up to stop Sasha’s protest he snapped his fingers. His door opened showing Charlie being held up by one of the guards at his door. “It seems that this boy has taken quite a shine to you. It would be a shame if something happened to him, now wouldn’t it Sasha.” Glaring hatefully at St. James, Sasha could do nothing but nod as he watched Charlie wriggling in the grasp of the much larger man. “Now, you will obey my every command and the boy doesn’t get hurt. Deal?” Reaching out a hand to Sasha St. James smiled victoriously as Sasha begrudgingly shook his hand. Not quite able to say anything Sasha watched as St. James stood and headed towards the door. “Good. You will receive your first mission tomorrow at 0800. I expect you to be up by then and ready. Oh,” turning back around St. James regarded Sasha with a pensive glance. “And don’t forget about our little friend here.” St. James patted Charlie on the head before leaving with an evil chuckle. The guard followed after him, taking Charlie with him.

Feeling more at a loss then before Sasha crossed over to the bed and flopped down into it, not wanting to know what tomorrow would hold in store for him.

NaNo 7

flyingsoftly — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:14:52 GMT

The Invisible Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

As the last gunshot fell everyone peered out of their hiding spots, seeing the gunmen on the floor writhing in pain, clutching arms and legs, sometimes both. The girls stood up warily looking at Erick, Sasha and Jeremy as they headed towards them.

“You’re St. James’ people,” Jeremy said lightly, grinning at the two girls. The auburn-haired girl’s eyes narrowed slightly at Jeremy’s statement, looking suspiciously at the three of them. “What happened to your grandmother,” the girl asked staring mutinously back at Jeremy.

“Ah, you know how old people are. One second they’re sick, the next they’re playing backgammon at the local bar scene,” grinning cheekily, Jeremy walked closer to the girls, surrounding them with Erick at their front, Jeremy at their back and Sasha standing on the side, watching quietly.

“Who are you people?” Exasperated the blonde girl dropped the façade and glared at Erick standing in front of them.

“Special agents of STEAM at your service,” Erick bowed gracefully while grinning at their anger.

“So what? You going to take us in?” Annabelle crossed her arms, glaring at Erick, trying to keep Jeremy within her sights.

“I don’t know. What do you think Jeremy? Should we take them in?” Eyes glinting mischievously he looked at Jeremy’s laughing eyes.

“I don’t know, Erick. It’s quite a big decision. I mean, they may just be being forced to work for St. James, or they could be his top level agents. What about you, Sasha? Should we bring them in?” Turning Jeremy looked at Sasha, in that second Beth took his moment of carelessness and kicked him in the knee, causing him to grunt and fall to the floor.

“Ow,” Jeremy winced in pain from the floor, while Erick just laughed loudly as Sasha let a small smile grace his face. “I guess I deserved that.” Wincing he stood up again, but with considerably more distance between him and the blonde girl.

“What are STEAM’s agents doing here? How did you even find out about the drop off?” Annabelle demanded, moving closer to Erick threateningly.

“We have our ways,” Erick answered mysteriously, moving away from Annabelle as she stepped forward. “And now it is time to bring you and the guns back to the boss.” Grinning cheekily he stepped around Annabelle and Beth to the crate full of guns. Once he had his back turned Beth went to strike him on the back, she didn’t get a chance because quick as lightning Sasha had her arm gripped in his hand and pulled it behind her back in a hole. Jeremy looked surprised at his quick reflexes, but Erick just smiled and went back to looking in the crate.

“What the-” Erick sounded shocked, causing Jeremy to walk over and peer into the crate while Sasha stayed holding Beth’s hands behind her back and watch Annabelle in case she tried to do anything. “It’s medicine. Needles and vials of medicine.” Lifting a vial out of the crate Erick turned and showed it to Sasha. “Why are you two trying to get a crate full of medicine?”

Erick walked over to Annabelle who had been standing there with her arms crossed glaring at everyone. “They’re for our family,” Annabelle said looking away from Erick as he moved closer. “Family? How much family could you possibly have that would constitute you have to take an entire crate full of medicine for?” Erick crossed to stand in front of her and flashed the vial of penicillin at her.

“It’s none of your business. Just let us go and give us the medicine. It isn’t your problem to deal with.” Frowning Erick moved back to the crate, replacing the vial and hammering the lid back into place. “We’re not going to let you go. There is some reason why St. James’ men would give us false information and then try to kill you during a delivery and we’re not letting you two go until we get to the bottom of it. Jeremy call the head quarters and have them send someone over to clean up this mess and have them bring the medicine back to the facility.”

Moving quickly Jeremy pulled out his cell phone and began talking softly to someone on the other side. “Sasha I want you to take Beth and I will take Annabelle. There will be a car by soon and we will take them back to the facility until we know what to do with them.”

About ten minutes later, of awkward silence, a car drove up outside of the warehouse. Five men exited the car and immediately started grabbing the dead bodies and closing up the crates. They also started searching all of the other crates and boxes, looking for anything illegal or of interest. Sasha and Erick led the girls to the back seat of the car as Jeremy sat in the driver seat. They drove back to the facility and the girls were quickly placed into cells, Erick and Sasha protested but Newald overruled them and had them placed into a cell together. As they watched the girls be taken away Erick pulled Sasha over to the side. “I need to talk to you…in private.” Erick led Sasha out of the main room and into the hallways. “I saw you,” Erick whispered into Sasha’s ear. Startled Sasha looked at him ending up entirely too close to his face. Stepping back he whispered, “saw what?” Eyeing him suspiciously Sasha continued to walk down the hall, Erick following close behind.

“I saw you disappear.”

NaNoWriMo 5 + 6

flyingsoftly — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:18:45 GMT

Chapter Five

            After taking another shower in the washroom and getting more clothes from Mae, she led Sasha down more hallways. Only this time she led him to a darkened room filled wall to wall with computers. If, Sasha hadn’t been so apprehensive about his upcoming test he would have been in heaven. Every make, model and caliber of technology was placed within this room, leaving Sasha starry eyed at the prospects.
            Noticing them Harvey walked over to Mae and Sasha and welcomed them.
            “Welcome to my little paradise. I would ask that you didn’t touch anything. This is very important equipment that I wouldn’t want dirtied by wandering hands,” Harvey sniffed disdainfully, eyeing Sasha through his glasses. Sasha narrowed his eyes at Harvey’s disdain, but kept silent, not wanting to jeopardize his chance at finding out more things about his parents.
            “I will first set you up with a basic programming test. Depending on the result I will increase the difficulty of your tests and evaluate you.”
            Turning sharply Harvey led Sasha to a set of computers against the far wall. They were empty of people and seemed to be one of the newer models here. Harvey gestured to the computer on the farthest left and said, “This will be your first test. I want you to program software for a game based upon a computer geek turned spy.”
            Harvey smirked at Sasha but instead of looking good, it became garish on his pimpled face. Sasha sat down calmly, booted the computer up and set to work.
            An hour later he called Harvey over and showed him his completed program. Smirking he stood as Harvey quickly sat down in his vacated seat to test it out. Glaring at Sasha’s expression Harvery quickly completed the game.
            “It is sufficient,” he muttered. “But you’re next test won’t be so easy.” Standing he strode over to the next computer turning around he gestured for Sasha to sit down. Sitting Sasha sat watching Harvey expectantly.
            “You’re next test will be to hack into the FBI and find a file on me that I hid in there. You will have 30 minutes. Go.” Hitting a stopwatch Harvey walked away, leaving Sasha alone with the computer. Quickly he turned it on and started hacking into the FBI. He snorted at the easiness of this test. He had already hacked into the FBI plenty of times in search of information, and he knew finding Harvey’s file would be a piece of cake. A few minutes later led to a hidden file that Harvey had created deep within the system. Opening it Sasha glanced through the files, finding nothing significant. A little disappointed Sasha decided to root around in STEAM’s files.
            Locating his parent’s files only took him a few seconds, ‘Frost’ flashed across the screen and Sasha was presented with a picture of his father. He was tall with ice-blonde hair and matching eyes. Wearing the same black clothes as everyone else his father smiled out of the picture at Sasha. Sasha couldn’t believe that the calm, sure father that Sasha associated the memory in his mind with was the same one who was the head of a secret spy organization. Eyes widening he quickly clicked on his mother’s file. The same blazing green eyes shown out at him behind a mass of curly red hair.
            Sasha scanned through their files, reading about all of their missions and contributions they had made. Every ‘field’ trip his parents had made for school coincided with mission that they had been on. The only thing it didn’t show was the mission before his parent’s death. He remembered they had left for a few days, but had come back anxious. That was when they had begun looking for someone to take Sasha before they died.
            Hearing Harvey come back Sasha quickly exited out of his search and opened up a free cell game.
            “What’re you doing? My file too hard for you to find,” Harvey spoke with a smirk.
            “Nope, I just finished and got bored,” Sasha replied calmly opening up Harvey’s file with a time stamp of two minutes after Harvey had left. Growling Harvey pushed Sasha out of the way and looked at Sasha’s search.
            “How did you…never mind. We’ll head onto the next test.” Standing Harvey walked to a door in the wall, placing his hand on the scanner, Harvey strode through the open door not waiting for Sasha. Sighing Sasha stood up and followed Harvey through the open door.
            The door opened up on a large empty room. The walls were gray and devoid of any ornamentation. There was a small box-like room on the left with a mirror.
            “This is your next test. This is our virtual training facility. Agents who are unable to keep up with our resident “weapon’s master’s” regime are sent here to train. It is a virtual training room. There will be 3-D images that will train you to shoot, run dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge. I’ll start you out on an easier test to see how well you perform.”
            Turning on his heel Harvey walked briskly to the room and entered leaving Sasha alone in the training room. He looked around, not imagining how this could possibly teach a person anything when all of a sudden he saw a man run across the room to a pillar that hadn’t been there before. Looking around Sasha noticed that the entire landscape of the room now looked like an old western town, with shops and horses meandering about. There were even men running about the town shooting at each other. When one finally noticed Sasha he shouted, “Hey!” And started shooting at him.
            Dodging quickly to hide behind a nearby barrel Sasha shouted, “Harvey! What is this?!” Covering his head Sasha curled into a ball and tried to avoid getting hit by a stray bullet. Bullets flew over his head for a few more minutes before a voice over an intercom said, “fight back. The bullets can’t hurt you its only virtual.” Sounding annoyed Harvey’s voice cut off and Sasha was left with the sound of gunshots in the air.
            Looking around Sasha noticed a pistol lying on the ground next to him. Picking it up Sasha peeked out from behind the barrel to check on the other people, or at least what he thought were people. He didn’t quite understand this whole ‘virtual’ training thing, but he wasn’t about to risk his neck believing in Harvey.
            Sasha noticed that there were five men shooting at each other from either side of the street. Two on one side three on the other. The side who more members seemed to consist of robbers or bandits, covered in black clothes, their faces were obscured by bandanas. On the other side was the sheriff and deputy, their badges flashing in the ‘sun’. Watching for a few minutes Sasha noticed that none of their bullets landed. Although, they were continually shooting at each other as they ran around, no shots were landed. They just continued to run about and fire their pistols at each other.
            While Sasha was watching them one of the bandits noticed him hiding behind the barrel. Turning his pistol towards Sasha he took aim, noticing the bandit’s movement Sasha barely got out of the way before the bandit fired. Popping back up from the barrel he had just dodged behind Sasha fired at the bandit. Catching him in the arm the bandit dropped his gun and fell to the ground.
            Standing Sasha raced to the side of a nearby building. He dodged down the alley hoping to get away from all of the gun fire only to exit out of the other side of the alley back into the street he had just left. Looking around Sasha saw the hurt bandit on the ground and the other men running around the town.
            Groaning Sasha decided to go back to his barrel, attempting to hide again, but as he exited the alley all of the other men caught sight of him. Shouting out all of the bandits started shooting at him. Sasha ran back down the alley trying to escape, but the bandits followed him shouting for him to stop. Attempting to shoot behind him with one hand Sasha raced down the alley. He eventually reached the end, but instead of opening up into the street again he was met with a series of darkened alleys. Turning left Sasha ran, hoping to outrun the bandits, wondering why they were chasing him.
            After a few more turns Sasha stopped hearing the bandits chasing after him, so he slowed down and stopped hoping to catch his breath. After a few minutes he began walking again, hoping to find a way out of the maze he had just gotten himself into.
            He kept wandering down random alleys before finally reaching, what he guessed, was the center. He ended up in a small area setup to look like the middle of a garden maze. A small wire table sat in the middle with two wire chairs, set with a tea set and small sandwiches. Sitting in one of the chairs was Erick, sipping delicately at a tea cup. Glancing up at Sasha as he enetered Erick’s eyes danced with mirth. Grinning slightly he gestured Sasha over to sit in the chair across from him.
            Walking over to the chair slowly Sasha eyes Erick cautiously, not know if he was part of this ‘virtual’ world or not.
            “I’m not part of Greenwald’s little world,” Erick said rolling his eyes at Sasha as he sat down. “I just heard you had killed Greenwald’s tests and wanted to check it out for myself. He thinks his little ‘play room’ is impenetrable to anyone but him, but I’m not only a mater of the fighting arts, I also have many other skills.” Waving his hands about Erick grinned devilishly, causing Sasha to let out a small chuckle. Erick’s eyes brightened at the sounds, smile widening he gestured to the food while saying, “here eat some food. I bet Mae didn’t bring you any food after our sparring and Greenwald’s too much of an ass to care about anything other than his computers.”
            Reaching out slowly Sasha took a sandwich and started eating it, realizing he was ravenous. Erick chuckled as Sasha’s movements sped up as he began eating more of the sandwiches. Slowing down for a second Sasha mumbled out, “how did I get here?”
            Grinning devilishly Erick merely said, “Greenwald isn’t the only one who knows his way around a computer.”
            They sat that way for awhile, simply eating and drinking tea before a shout broke the silence. Quickly followed by a bandit appearing from the alley opening. It was the one that Sasha had injured before, clutching his arm as he stalked towards their table followed quickly by the other two bandits. Erick snatched up Sasha’s pistol, which he had placed upon the table, and fired off three shits, hitting each man squarely in the chest. They all dropped to the ground before getting the chance to fully enter the garden. Dropping to the ground they all turned to pixels and disappeared.
            “Damn,” Erick growled. “I was hoping it would take him longer to find this place, but I guess not.” Moving quickly Rick made the table and chairs disappear with a wave of his hand and placed the pistol into Sasha’s hand before turning to him.
            “Do not tell Greenwald I was here. You were the one to kill his bandits alright,” Erick asked with a grin. “I’ll see you later, (nickname)” Erick quickly exited through a door that appeared when he waved his hand.
            As soon as the door had closed behind him the hologram collapsed around Sasha and he was once again left in the large gray room. Exiting the control room Harvey walked towards Sasha. “Well you disappeared from me for a few minutes in a blind spot I hadn’t been aware of.” Narrowing his eyes Harvey circled Sasha assessing him. Murmuring quietly to himself Harvey eventually said aloud, “well I thing it will be a few more sessions before you are ready for a real mission.” Turning away quickly Harvey exited the room, Sasha followed quickly behind not wanting to be left behind in that room.
            Exiting the room Sasha was met with Erick lounging back in one of the computers surfing the web. Seeing him Harvey started scowling hatefully at the redhead, who only smiled jovially at Sasha as he noticed them entering, and stood up.
            “Time to go (nickname). Dinner time.” Shooting one more grin Harvey’s way Erick gestured for Sasha to go ahead of him out the door. As they left Erick started to talk, “Mae would have come to get you, but she had some weird committee thing to go to so she sent me instead. She was the one I learned all about your little tests that Greenwald had done.” Winking at Sasha, Erick led them down the hallways as he spoke.
            “Very impressive. I must say hacking into the FBI and finding Greenwald’s hidden file in under two minutes is not an easy feat,” Erick said with a hint of respect in his eyes.
            “It wasn’t that hard,” Sasha said with a soft smile. “I’ve hacked into the FBI plenty of times and their tactics never change no matter how many times they’ve tried to catch me.” Erick’s eyes widened slightly before glinting in mischief. “Where exactly else have you hacked into,” Erick asked staring at Sasha.
            Sasha took a few seconds to think before counting away on his fingers as he said, “CIA, FBI, NSA, NCIS, banks, insurance agencies, Quantico, a few other government agencies and I was in the middle of hacking into the Pentagon when you guys stopped me.”
            Instead of looking shocked Erick just shook his head and chuckled, “my my my (nickname) you are just full of surprises. A great fighter and an A-class hacker. Where on earth did you come from?”
            Sasha just smiles at Erick and continued walking, leaving Erick behind to wonder about this new development in the black-haired man’s life.

Chapter Six

            Sasha’s days passed in much the same manner. He was awoken by Erick, ate breakfast with their mish mash of a table, sparred with Erick for a few hours and then he was sent to the cyber unit to help out wherever he was needed.
            It took a few days, but eventually everyone at their mess hall table stopped looking at him as an anomaly and welcomed him into their folds. The mousy-looking girl turned out to be one of the computer analysts he had to work with. Her name was Hannah Wright and she had been working for STEAM for two years. The green-haired man was on of Erick’s helpers in the combat facility, named Seth Rusby. He helped people with building up their strength, as was shown by his large muscles. Joking to Sasha he said he was going to turn his “little muscles into something bigger by the time he was down with them,” which caused Sasha to grimace in apprehension. The older man was the only one who no one knew what exactly it was he did. He just showed up occasionally to their table and other days disappeared. His name was Jonathan White and he was the oldest out of the group.
            Sitting there Sasha eventually began to open up and make new friends out of these people. He was still quiet, but eventually he would let out a small smile. Hannah was, surprisingly, the most talkative one of the group, never ceasing to talk, even as she ate. Seth was just as hyper as her and after a few days Sasha learned that they were a couple. Sasha boggled at this revelation, but afterwards he could see how they interacted with each other that showed him how much they cared for each other. The only one who was even more quiet the Sasha was Jonathan. He rarely ever spoke aloud, merely listening and every once in awhile putting in his own two cents. Erick and Jeremy were just as active as they had been when Sasha had first met them, talking loudly over everyone and bickering constantly.
            Watching Erick Sasha found it harder and harder to look away from him. Erick always looked so alive when he spoke and argues with Jeremy. His green eyes brightening and his red hair spiking up precariously. Every once in awhile Erick would catch Sasha staring at him, causing Sasha to look away a blush lightly.
            He didn’t understand these feelings he had that made his stomach rumble, making him unable to not think about Erick. Not wanting to think about them he ignored his feelings and focused on his training with Erick.
            Every day Erick focused on a different weapon or style of fighting, trying to see how good he was at them. If, Sasha wasn’t good at it or didn’t even know what it was Erick would spend a few more days teaching him long enough for Sasha to master it.
            He had already learned bow and arrows, a few guns that he had never seen before and a secret style of fighting that was found only in the deepest reaches of Taiwan, or at least that’s what Erick said.
            Harvey on the other hand was still irked about Sasha showing him up during his tests. Instead, of putting him to work on helping with missions, Harvey had him filing case reports in the back room of the cyber unit. He was a bit mad at first being denied the pretty computers, but Sasha soon found out that the room didn’t only hold case files, it held every file for the entire facility. After a bit of searching Sasha was able to find the personnel files, in them his parent’s, which he snuck away into his room. Although he had them he was kept so busy that he hadn’t had the chance yet to look over them.
            It was after a hard day of work and Sasha was collapsed against a file cabinet waiting for a new stack of papers when Erick found him. Erick chuckled at the sight of the black-haired man nearly falling over from exhaustion, the sound caused Sasha to jolt up and knock over a pile of paper that had been sitting next to his hand. Blushing slightly he stooped to pick them up, trying not to look at the redheaded man in front of him.
            Erick just chuckled some more and bent down to help him. “Tired,” Erick asked Sasha, noticing the bags under his eyes. Sasha just glanced at him and went back to sorting through the papers.
            “I’m just trying to get used to it all,” Sasha responded quietly. “Everything is still really new and my body isn’t used to this much activity.”
            “Really? I thought, what with how will you fight, that you had been practicing every day since you were young.” Erick looked at Sasha inquisitively as he stood up and placed the papers into Sasha’s outstretched arms.
            “I do, but ever since I left I haven’t been on as strict a regimen as my sensei had me originally on.” Placing the papers back onto their pile he turned to stare at the man before him. Sasha always felt safe with him, more so then he had with anyone else he had ever met. Erick always made Sasha feel better about himself enough that he would tell him anything, but Sasha realized he didn’t know that much about the spiky haired man.
            “How did you ever become the head of combat at a top secret spy facility anyways,” Sasha crossed his arms, leaning against the filing cabinet, looking at Erick questioningly. Grinning Erick went to sit down across from Sasha, seeing his movements Sasha slid to the floor, crossing his legs.
            Once they were settled Erick started up with his story, “there once was this young boy who, as a baby was left on the doorstep of a kind old man. Everyone knew he had always wanted children, but he had never married so was never able to have them. He thought he would always remain childless until this basket appeared at his doorstop, full of a child. Not seeing a note he took the child into his home and raised him as his own, although he was too old to be considered a father the young child took to him as one does to a grandparent.
            “From a young age the he started to teach the young boy the art of fighting. You see the man had once been one of the best fighters in the country, some say the world, but age and fame had eventually wore him down, that one day he disappeared from the cameras escaping to a smaller city on the other side of the country. Hoping the boy would one day become a great fighter, he taught him something new every morning expecting the child to have it mastered by nightfall.
            “This went on for many years, the child growing up and becoming just as skilled, if not more then, his grandfather. Until one day the child, now a teenager came home to find the old man was ill and in bed. He was dying,” Here Erick became more solemn.
            “The boy tried everything to try and save his grandfather, doctors, TV remedies, priests, but nothing worked. The doctors said his kidney was failing and that they couldn’t find a suitable donor. Ailing to he wasn’t a blood relation to the only family he knew the boy sat beside his grandfather.
            “The last words his grand father said to him were, ‘don’t forget to always fight for those who deserve it, not who pays the most.’ The boy would always remember those words for soon after his grandfather passed away in his sleep. A peaceful death that he knew his grandfather would have hated.” Erick chuckled and glanced at Sasha then.
            “He was always a stubborn-headed old fool who didn’t know when to stop and would constantly get int ofights to help other. He never lost an fight except against his grandson, whom he loved with all of his heart and vice versa. They were all the other had and always emphasized the fact.
            “After his grandfather’s death the boy was kicked out of their house because he couldn’t afford it. Instead of despairing though the boy took to the streets and took up fighting as a profession. He learned more fighting styles and became good friends with some, enemies of others. At the age of eighteen the boy, unfortunately, got on the wrong side of a particularly nasty gain in the area after playing a very funny prank on them. They chased down the boy and cornered him in an alley, where he in turn attacked them. Catching them off guard he was able to drop three of them before they even knew what was happening. That didn’t last long when the remaining five attacked the boy all at once.
            “Unbeknownst to him a lone STEAM member was perched on the roof of the buildings on either side of the alley watch the redheaded teenager take on five men twice the size of him. Astonished that the boy hadn’t yet been defeated he watched as gang member after gang member was knocked out, until only the boy and the gang leader remained.
            “They circled each other, both searching for an opening in the other’s guard to take the kill shot. Surprised neither had drawn a weapon the agent watched, mesmerized by the sight. Catching the opening, just as the boy below him did, he watched as the redhead lunged in quickly and knock out the leader with a chop to the back of the neck.
            “Clapping the STEAM agent dropped down from his perch and landed beside the boy, thoroughly amused. Startled the boy whirled around breathing heavily and brought up his hands in a defensive stance. Bringing his arms up in a placating manner the man explained who he was and where he was from. A huge breach of policy, he had said, but worth it if he could have the boy’s talent on his team. The boy asked him what he meant, but the man just asked the boy to follow him and headed out of the alley opening.
            “The boy was then taken to the STEAM headquarters and the leader who then offered the boy a place in their combat facility and a stop as a field agent. Seeing no other possibilities the boy accepted and quickly rose in the ranks, it took him three years, but the boy eventually bested the head of the combat training facility. Realizing that this new agent was better then him the old master resigned and left the position to the boy.
            “Two years the boy has been the head of the combat training facility and has been bested by no one until a new black-haired man came and clipped him in an alley. Later, he was taken to STEAM where, after a few weeks in prison, he was allowed into STEAM. On his first ‘official’ day he bested the boy in a fight and sparked an interest in the master fighter that could not be quenched, he had to know who this new boy was, so followed him constantly, assessing him as he fought.
            “One day, it led to a filing room with the new boy slumped against a filing cabinet and the grandson becoming extremely amuse.” Ending Erick smiled softly at Sash as he relaxed back against the filing cabinets, staring at the astonished man before him. He didn’t quite understand this infatuation he had for the black-haired man, but he was damn well going to find out.
            Sasha stared at Erick, not quite sure what to say to him after his story. He had never heard of someone who had gone through that before, so didn’t know what to say. Instead of replying he started on his own story, “my parents died when I was ten and I was shipped off to an orphanage not even long enough for their bodies to become cold in the ground. I had no other family and my parents didn’t have any close friends who would be willing to adopt me.
            “I spent years of my life cowering in corners from the larger boys until my body started growing larger then I could control. Finding a local martial arts master I offered to do all of the business aspects of his dojo if he would give me free lessons. He agreed and taught me mainly what I know of fighting now.
            “He pushed me hard and long, seeing a strength in me that even I didn’t see. I spent years at he dojo, avoiding my life back at the orphanage the best I could.
            “When I turned eighteen I finally left to just wander the country. I used my computer skills to get money and tried to learn different fighting techniques from all over. This continued for five years until you guys found me and brought me here.” Sasha finished waving his arm about to encompass the whole room.
            Erick smiled across from him and nudged his stretched out leg with his foot. “You have many more layers then just computer geek. I’m impressed.” Erick grinned mischievously as Sasha rolled his eyes.
            “I like to learn new things,” Sasha grew quiet just staring at Erick as the redheaded man’s eyes twinkled.
            They stayed that way for a few more minutes before they were interrupted by knocking on the door and the abrupt entrance of Harvey. Scowling he looked at Sasha and Erick slouched upon the floor of the file room. Jumping up Sasha tried to straighten things up from before as Rick rose more slowly with the usual grace he always exhibited.
            “If you two are done conversing like school girls, the boss wants us in the main room now.” Turning to leave he was stopped by Sasha, “us? You mean me too?”
            Giving Sasha a glare he replied, “that is what I said,” and strode out of the room. Sharing a look with Erick Sasha moved to follow Harvey down the hall. Arriving in the same room from when Sasha first arrived he was directed to stand against the wall. Everyone in the room was focused on Newald, waiting to heat what this meeting was about.
            “There has been new information collected on James St. James.” Murmers broke out amongst the room, but were soon quieted by a glare from Newald. “It seams that he is receiving a shipment of guns this weekend and I’m putting up a few of you to find that shipment and destroy it. We must not allow St. James to gain anymore firepower than he already has against us.
            “I am sending Cirila, Langley, and Boden out on this mission to investigate and destroy the guns. They will be given more information tomorrow once we have acquired more data. Adjourned.”
            Standing Newald left the room, quickly followed by the remaining occupants except for Sasha, Erick, Mae and Jeremy. Jeremy walked over to where Sasha was standing and clapped him on the shoulder saying, “this is going to be the ride of your life,” and walked away whistling.
            Sasha just stood there staring at where Newald had sat not quite believing that he was soon to be sent on his first mission and it was up against James St. James.

</div></div>

NaNoWriMo Post 2

flyingsoftly — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 14:24:27 GMT

Here are chapter Three and Four of my NaNoWriMo.

Chapter Three

Sasha just stared at Grim not able to believe what Grim had just said.

“Zachary Grueller,” Sasha exclaimed breathlessly. Grim just nodded his head and said, “well, most off the time he preferred to be called ‘Frost’. Others thought him to be a bit cold, no pun intended, but I knew the man on the inside. He was a strict and caring leader to this little organization. He was the one who started this other place up you know. He and his lovely wife, Anna. Well, she wasn’t his wife at the time, she was just his ‘comrade in arms’, but even from the beginning I could see that there was something special between the two of them. Her codename was ‘Blaze’. I know, opposites attract and all of the drivel, but the sight of those two together was something to behold. They never failed a mission that they went out on. I even heard that they had a son, although they kept his identity and whereabouts unknown to everyone, not wanting any of their enemies to find him. I always wondered what happened to that child after the accident. You see, both Zachary and Anna were killed in a car accident eleven years ago, or that’s what the authorities say. We at Steam knew different. When Anna and Zachary first created this place they got on the wrong side of a very evil man names James St. James, redundant, I know, but that’s beside the point. The point is that ever since a run-in that Zachary and Anna had with St. James he had been gunning for the two. No one quite knows what happened, all we knew was that St. James was a very angry man afterwards. St. James is the head of Ice and by that time had gained themselves a very bad reputation. They were on the up and coming and Zachary and Anna were in his way.

I had noticed that they had become more agitated a few days before their deaths, but I was still surprised when they were dragged out of the wreckage. It was one of the saddest days of my life.”

At that Grim became silent, leaving Sasha alone with his thoughts. He now knew more about his parents then he had ever thought to find out from hacking. His parents weren’t the simple teachers that he had thought they were, they were spies.

Sasha couldn’t quite wrap his head around the idea that the people he remembered as a child were now strangers, but Grim’s raspy voice drew him out before he could get lost.

“After that day John Newald took over. Steam has never been the same. At first Newald seemed as if he would keep Anna and Zachary’s ideals, but slowly he began changing everything. When I began to fight back against him he had me jailed. It has been nines years now since I was placed in here.” Grim’s voice trailed off leaving the room empty of any sound other then the sound of their clothing rustling.

“What did you do to get thrown in here,” Sasha asked quietly.

“I found out Newald’s secret.” After that Grim stood up and climbed upon the top bunk. Sash lay back down up his bed, his aches and pains from earlier coming back with more urgency after being ignored all day. Left alone with his thoughts Sasha tossed and turned upon the bed before finally passing out from exhaustion.

Days passed like this with Grim telling Sasha stories of his parents. Occaisionally either Jeremy or Erick would stop by bringing food and a kind word. They never stayed for more than a few minutes, not wanted to get caught talking to prisoners. Although Erick never seemed to worried about it, his eyes still sparkling with his mischief every time he talked to Sasha.

After about a weed had gone by Jeremy and Erick returned to Sasha’s cell with grim expressions.

“Boss man’s calling,” Jeremy said lowly looking at Sasha with a look of sadness on his face. Both men grabbed Sasha by an arm and started to lead him back down the darkened hallway. Once they passed through the doorway Sasha winced and closed his eyes, not used to the light. Eyes watering Sasha was led once more through the confusing maze of hallways.

Entering through the same door as before, Sasha was hit with a sense of déjà vu and he was met with the same room with the large table in the center or it. The only difference between this time and the last was the absence of people. The only ones sitting at the table were Newald, the twitchy man from before and a pink-haired woman who sat calmly in her chair on Newald’s right side. There was something different about her but Sasha couldn’t quite grasp it.

Newald gestured to Jeremy and Erick who then sat Sasha down at the empty end of the table across from Newald. Instead, of moving down to sit on the other side of the table with Newald though, Jeremy and Erick sat on either side of Sasha. Jeremy on his left, Erick on his right. This seemed to upset Newald, but he remained quiet, only narrowing his eyes at the two.

“Well, Mr. Boden. It seems as if you have been having a good time in our facilities,” Newald spoke with a smirk upon his face.

Sasha grimaces just imagining all of the grime that must have acuumulated on his body. Grim had said that they only allowed the prisoners a shower every two weeks. Saying that it added to the ‘grim’ aspect of the prisons.

Everyone at the table seemed grim at the hearing their boss say this to Sasha, all except the pink-haired woman. She seemed to be perpetually calm, never moving a muscle at what was happening around her. Sasha continued to stare at her, unnerved by the feeling he got from her.

“Although, I don’t believe you should know, I’ve been approached to consider you’re circumstances and felt as if I should introduce ourselves.” The pink-haired woman’s eyes glances at Newald as he spoke before quickly returning to Sasha.

“I am Gregory Newald. I am the head of Steam and have been for the past eleven years. To my left is Harvey Greenwald. He is our resident leader of the cyber unit. He will be watching over all of your movements within the cyber world, until I deem it unnecessary. The woman to my right is Mae Granya. She will be teaching you all about our facility, what it is we do here and shadowing your movements. You will listen to both Agent Greenwald and Agent Granya and if I hear one word to the contrary I will not be afraid to take drastic measures.” Newald narrowed his eyes at Sasha across the table.

“Wait, what,” Sasha asked incredulously, not quite understanding what Newald had just said.

“You are now a part of Steam. You will follow my orders and those of your superiors or else I will throw you back down into your cell with Grim. I am setting you up as part of the cyber unit until I find a suitable place for you.” Newald smirked at Sasha’s shocked expression, leaning back in his chair waiting for Sasha’s response. Jeremy and Erick seemed just as shocked as Sasha, not expecting anything good to come of this meeting. Jeremy smiled brightly after overcoming his shock and clapped Sasha on the shoulder. “Welcome aboard,” he exclaimed excitedly. Erick’s eyes just continued to glint at Sasha with mischief.

“No.” Everyone at the table turned to Sasha in shock at his quiet exclamation.

“What,” Newald growled menacingly.

“I won’t join your agency.” Sasha stared at Newald rebelliously with his calm expression from before.

“You have no choice!” Newald looked as if he were about to jump across the table and strangle Sasha.
“I won’t be forced to work for you. You’re a horrible person who doesn’t deserve to run this place and I’m not going to work for you.”

Erick’s eyes began to sparkle even more as he looked between his boss and Sasha. He had never seen anyone defy the boss this much, other than himself and Jeremy, and with such a calm demeanor, at that. Erick knew that this new guy would certainly bring about a change, he just wasn’t sure how big it would actually be.

“I do not care. I own this facility and everyone in it and if I say you are going to work for me you will.”

“On one condition,” Sasha said calmly.

“You do not get to barter wi-”

Sasha spoke loudly trying to overcome Newald’s enraged voice, “if you want my expertise you will agree with my terms. Otherwise I can break out of here in two seconds and go work for St. James. Now you wouldn’t want that, would you?”

Sasha stared at Newald silently his eyes full of steel. Newald glared back hatefully, not believing that Sasha would dare defy him.

Eventually, after several minutes of stony silence Newald relented and said, “what do you want?”

Sasha let out a small smirk of victory before resuming his calm expression.

“You will allow me full access to the agency’s records and files. I wish to know what exactly it is I’m going to be working for. Also I want full access to the facility. I should be allowed to go where I want when I want.”

Newald grimaced, but nodded his head in consent gritting out, “anything else?”

“No that’s all.” Sasha allowed a small smirk to grace his face as he realized he had won.

“Fine, but now that you are part of Steam you will do everything and anything that I tell you to do. At the first sign of insubordination I will send you to St. James myself, and we’ll see how much he likes finding your body on his doormat.” Newald slapped the table as he stood and strode out of the room, a heavy cloud of anger following in his wake. Harvey scurried after him trying to catch up, but not willing to risk Newald’s anger by calling out.

Jeremy and Erick rose after Newald and left shooting Sasha matching grins.

“Way to go mate. I was sure he was going to lop you’re head off after that last comment. Glad you’re still breathing.” He clapped Sasha on the should and exited the room from a doorway that Sasha hadn’t noticed before. Erick didn’t say anything as he exited, just smirked and left the room with that same leonine grace that Sasha was beginning to attribute with him.

By the time the room had fallen silent once more Sasha was left with only the pink-haired woman, Mae. She continued to stare at Sasha before standing up and crossing to an unopened door. Once there gestured for Sasha to follow her and quickly exited the room. Not wanting to be left behind Sasha quickly got up from his seat and hurried through the open doorway.

Mae was already quite a ways down the hallway making Sasha sprint to catch up with her before she had gotten the chance to turn a corner and be lost to Sasha. Quietly Mae led Sasha, not once glancing back to see if he was still following her.

Finally, Mae stopped at another gray door, it looked a bit like the door to the prison, complete with a scan pad, but not as ominous. Placing her hand on the pad Mae opened the door and stood to the side. Not looking at Sasha she gestured inside and waited for him to enter.

Cautiously Sasha moved forward and entered the room to find a communal washroom. There were showers all along the right side with a line of sinks and mirrors down the other side. It seemed empty to Sasha so he went to one of the shower stalls, gratefully stripping from his dingy clothes. Snagging a towel from a nearby rack Sasha entered the stall and turned on the water.

After almost a half an hour Sasha exited the stall much cleaner, from the shampoo and soap placed in a small alcove he had found, and much feeling much happier then he had in a long time. Running his hand through his wet hair Sasha looked for his discarded clothes, only to find them gone with a stack of black clothes placed upon the sink in their place.

Grumbling quietly Sasha crossed to the pile of clothes and examined them. They seemed to be the same clothes that everyone else wore here. A long-sleeved black shirt with a strip of white around the trim, black cargo pants with a bunch of pockets, black combat boots, a belt with more accoutrements then he could count and even a pair of black boxers with, oddly enough, silver duckies on them. Raising an eyebrow at the boxers Sasha began to put the clothes on.

Getting himself situated the best he could Sasha exited the bathroom, hoping that Mae was still there, not wanting to brave the hallways by himself. Mae was still there looking as if she hadn’t budged an inch. Once she noticed Sasha had finally left the washroom she began to walk down the hall. Sasha followed, resigning himself the another long quiet walk through the confusing hallways..

Not long after Mae stopped at another door, this one didn’t have a scan pad only a doorknob. Mae turned the knob and enter, Sasha following quickly behind wanting to know what this new room was.

They entered into a bedroom much like the one that Sasha had woke up in all those days ago. A twin-bed was pressed up against one wall with a table and a lamp beside it. A dresser was placed upon the opposite wall. There was also a bookshelf, placed against the farthest wall, that hadn’t been present in the previous room.

“There is a bathroom down the hall. Turn right down the corridor and it is the third door on your right. You will be issued more clothes tomorrow and will be able to regain whatever possessions you had before coming here. Morning wake up is at six and room check is at eleven o’clock in the evening. Make sure you are present in the mess hall every morning at 7:30. I will send someone down in the mornings until you learn your way around the facility. You will listen to me and Agent Greenwald when we give you orders. You will begin training tomorrow starting at 8:30 after you have had breakfast,” Mae’s voice was soft as her eyes bored into Sasha’s.

“Are there any questions?”

“Yes, what exactly is my training,” Sasha inquired quietly.

Mae’s eyes seemed to brighten at Sasha’s question but he wasn’t exactly sure, the warmth gone almost as fast as it appeared.

“You are going to become a spy.” Mae turned and left after that leaving Sasha to sit on the bed to think.

Hours later he finally slipped into unconsciousness, wondering what awaited him on the morrow.

Chapter Four

Sasha was awoken by a loud knocking on his door. Jolting up from the bed it took Sasha a few minutes to figure out where he was. Shoulders slumping as realization set in, Sasha stoop up and crossed over to door and opened it. Erick was standing on the other side with his trademark smirk in place waiting for him.

“Time to go to breakfast. I am your resident escort,” Erick winked at Sasha and continued, “ and am here to bring you to replenishing nourishment, post hast.” Snapping to attention and saluting Sasha Erick waited for Sasha to get ready.

Chuckling softly, running his hand through his tousled hair, not really caring enough to check his reflection in the mirror, Sasha exited the room to join Erick in the hallway.

“Lead on,” gesturing with his hand and bowing Sasha waited for Erick to start moving. Grinning slightly Erick broke his stance and started marching down the hall, creating his own chants and shouting them throughout the halls. Rolling his eyes Sasha followed, occasionally dodging a flailing limb here or there.

A few turns later led to a large room reminiscent of those Sasha had gone to in high school. Rows upon rows of tables filled to the brim with people. This facility was full of a lot more people than Sasha could have imagined that this facility had. People of all different sizes, colors, races and ages populated the tables. Sasha thought he even saw a boy of about ten hopping up and down on a table, but he was swallowed up by the crush of people before he got a good look.

Erick led him to one the food lines, nearly losing sight of him Sasha followed the red spikes peeking out from within the crowd. Standing behind Erick in line Sasha looked around the room, still amazed at the sheer amount of people in it. Not even some of his biggest high schools had this many people.

“There usually aren’t this many agents here as there are now. Most of them get sent out on missions all over the globe. It’s not a very good idea to keep a bunch of agents all clustered up together without something disastrous happening.” Erick winked at Sasha again, grinning as he began telling Sasha horror stories as they moved along the line.

Gathering their trays Erick led Sasha to a full table, containing a very hyper blonde who was currently hopping up and down while waving at Sasha as they headed over.

“Sasha,” Jeremy exclaimed excitedly. “I’ve been waiting for you!” Erick rolled his eyes at Jeremy’s antics and sat down across from Jeremy. Taking the empty seat next to Erick Sasha sat down slowly eyeing the other inhabitants of the table. Once he sat down the rest of the table fell silent and began staring at Sasha. Currently Jeremy and Erick were too busy shoveling food into their mouths to notice the quiet, so Sasha was left on his own.

“Is is true what they say,” a mousy looking girl on Sasha’s left asked him. She seemed like the quiet bookish type with glasses and stringy brown hair.

“Depends on what it is they’re says,” Sasha answered cautiously.

“You know, that you beat the boss in a fight and so to protect his manliness he allowed you to become an agent,” a green-haired boy across from the girl said excitedly. He seemed to be a bit more built then the others, almost causing his shirt to rip at the seams.

“Oh, don’t be stupid. He saved the boss’ life, there’s no way he could have beaten the boss in a fight,” a dirty-blonde haired man on the other side of Jeremy said loudly. He seemed to be the oldest of the group sitting at the table and was staring at Sasha just as intently as everyone else.

“No, no, no. He created a drug that turned boss man complacent and turned him into the new guy’s lapdog,” the mousy girl from before broke in. Theories and stories continued around Sasha as everyone tried to outdo each other by thinking up outrageous scenarios of Sasha’s sudden joining of their ranks. Sasha looked to Jeremy and Erick, who seemed as oblivious as before, except Erick’s mouth had a bit more of a smirk on it then before. Sighing Sasha decided to dig into his food and ignore everyone else for the time being.

The stories continued on for a few minutes before a tray was suddenly slapped down onto the table across from Sasha. Everyone jumped at the noise except for Jeremy and Erick who seemed to expect it, continuing to eat their food. Sitting down Mae began to eat as everyone stared at her in shock. She flashed her eyes to look up at Sasha, that same hint of humor in them from before, before going back to eating

Slowly everyone at the table went back to eating and talking quietly to each other not willing to upset Mae.

“Today you will begin your training,” Mae spoke softly, her voice almost getting lost in the din of the room.

“You will first be taken to our combat facility to be tested on your fighting skills. After that you will be take to the cyber unit to test your proficiency with computers. Your performance during these two tests will determine the rest of you day.” Finished Mae went back to eating, not looking at anyone.

Jeremy grinned and said, “you’ll be tops at that. From what I’ve heard about your escapades with our motley crue you’ll pass with flying colors. I even bet our head of weapons and fighting division will take to you.” Grinning devilishly at Sasha he winked at him when Erick started coughing uncontrollably, choking on the food he had just placed in his mouth.

Alarmed Sasha began hitting Erick on the back to dislodge the food, not really knowing what to do. Oh, how he wished he had paid attention in those CPR classes of the orphanage women had forced all of the kids to take hoping it would ‘do some good’!

After a few more good pats Erick waved Sasha’s arm away, clutching his throat and coughing, though less severely.

Raspy Erick said, “wrong tube,” and coughed a bit more. Across the table Jeremy was doubled over in laughter, clutching the table’s edge trying not to fall over from his laughs. To get attention off of himself Erick asked, “how did you become so good at computers?” A bit thrown Sasha took a few seconds to collect his thoughts.

“When I was ten,” he started slowly, “ my father taught me how to use and put together a computer. He had shown me other gadgets as I grew up, but this was the largest one I had ever worked on. Ever since I’ve been interested in technology and how it works. I’ve built a bunch of gadgets to pass the time and hacking just comes naturally to me. When you don’t have many people to spend time with you learn to make do with what you have.” Sasha looked a bit sad at this but quickly cheered up and continued, “plus it reminds me of my dad. I didn’t want to lose the one thing we had with each other, so I continued learning what ever I could about technology.” Not knowing why he had just said so much Sasha fell silent and went back to eating putting his head down.

“What happened to them,” Erick asked quietly.

“Car accident eleven years ago.” Sasha shut up after that and wouldn’t talk to anyone for the rest of the meal, barely glancing up.

A few minutes later Mae stood up abruptly from her chair and gestured to Sasha before leaving. Remembering from yesterday that she wasn’t likely to wait Sasha scrambled up from his seat and followed Mae from the mess hall. Walking down even more hallways Sasha wondered if he would ever get used to this place. Silently Sasha and Mae strode side by side through the halls.

“I am sorry about your parents.” Glancing sideways at Mae wondering if she had truly spoken and only being met with an impassive face Sasha sighed, “It isn’t your fault. It’s been eleven years, I don’t get upset over it as much as I used to, but thank you for your concern.” Continuing down the hall their silence became less oppressive and more comfortable.

A few seconds later they came to a door which opened, from a touch from Mae, and revealed a massive room. The entire place looked as if it could swallow the mess hall and still be hungry. There were many different areas spread throughout the room pertaining to different methods of fighting. Karate in one corner, swords in another, even daggers flashed in the florescent lighting.

Sasha continued to stare around the room, not noticing that they had been joined by another person.

“I wanted natural light when I created the room, but apparently underground facilities aren’t allowed to have sky lights, something about the security problem, I wasn’t really paying attention, so in retaliation they stuck me with these abominations.” Brandishing his arm Erick gestured to the many lights spread throughout the room.

“Erick? What are you doing here,” Sasha asked the redheaded man not expecting to see him there.

“Why, I’m the weapons and fighting master of this facility. Didn’t Mae tell you?” Erick’s eyes glittered with mischief as her stared at Sasha and a quick glance at Mae revealed that same humor to Sasha as before.

Groaning Sasha moaned, “I fought the best fighter here when you guys were trying to capture me?!” Sitting down Sasha dropped his head down into his hands.

“Don’t worry, it’s not every day that someone gets thrashed by me in a fight. Well, actually, yeah it is everyday that someone gets thrashed by me in a fight.” Beaming Erick clapped Sasha on his shoulder as he moaned again.

“I did get that one hit,” came a muffled reply from beneath Sasha’s hands.

“He hit you,” Mae asked incredulously, her eyes widening.

Scowling Erick replied, “it was just a clip.”

“Just a clip? My dear boy, you must be getting soft if you’re allowing a computer geek to get in ‘just a clip’.” Circling Erick Mae began examining him poking and prodding him checking for ‘softness’.

“I am not getting soft,” growled Erick attempting to swat Mae‘s hands away. “I just wasn’t expecting him to be that talented, so I let my guard down. It was my fault and I’ve accepted that. I know I ne-would you stop doing that!!” Erick swatted away Mae’s wandering fingers.

Sasha stared at them, not quite comprehending Mae’s playful new attitude and that fact that one of his new friends was an important part of this organization.

Their bickering continued on for a few minutes before they realized that Sasha was still there staring at them. Coughing Erick straightened his clothes that had gotten mussed from all of Mae’s prodding.

“Well now. Don’t look so grim. Buck up! It’s time to put that geeky body to work!” Flexing Erick turned away headed to an empty mat. Mae seemed to have vanished, so Sasha followed him, not knowing what exactly he was in for.

“Now, first I’m going to test your reflexes. I’ll throw a few punches and kicks and you’re going to block them as best you can.” Erick began punching and kicking out at Sasha trying to test how quickly Sasha could block them. Sasha tried to block as many as he could, but he wasn’t nearly quick enough to catch all of Erick’s blows. Not that they hurt. Erick had enough control that he was able to make his hits quick, but not painful.

A few blows later Erick stopped and smiled, “Good. A lot better then I expected.” Grinning Erick crossed over to a pile of wooden swords, selecting two he passed one to Sasha and took up a fighting stance, gesturing for Sasha to do the same.

“Next, as you can see, is swords. As a spy you are going to be required to learn how to handle and perform every fighting technique and weapon that you come across.”

Erick attacked Sasha as he began talking, continuing to speak as they exchanged blocks and blows. Sasha was quite good at sword play. As a little child his father had taught him how to handle a sword and a few basic maneuvers. When his parents died he wasn’t able to continue practicing but took it back up when he was old enough to afford his own lessons. Paying for the sessions by becoming his teachers secretary during week nights. Catching on quickly Sasha was able to master the sword quicker then any of the other kids. The teacher soon taught Sasha how to use a myriad of different weapons and styles. He had continued his studies after leaving the orphanage, traveling around the US and finding new techniques.

Sasha didn’t tell Erick this though, just continued to spar with him with all different kinds of weapons. Daggers, kunai, maces, karate, jujitsu, tai kwon do, street, dueling, fencing, guns; anything and everything that Erick could think of they did.

This continued on for a few hours. As the duels progressed Sasha gained a few more hits on Erick, but instead of looking upset Erick only became more excited by each blow Sasha landed. By the time they had wound down to daggers Sasha and Erick had gained quite a crowd. It wasn’t every day that you saw your boss get hit by the new guy in a duel. At the edge of the crowd stood Mae, smiling softly at the two men in the middle of the circle of people.

Sasha had never been this exhilarated in a long time. Whenever he had fought against someone it had never lasted more than a few minutes with him usually victorious. The fact that Erick had beaten him before and seemed to be as proficient in as many styles and weapons as Sasha just excited him more.

Their hair was plastered to their heads with sweat, shirts discarded duels ago drenched in sweat, the two men circled each other searching for an opening.

Catching Erick lowering his left arm slightly Sasha went in for the hit and caught Erick off guard, pinning him to the ground and placing the wooden dagger to his throat. Grinning, chest heaving Erick looked up at Sasha as he sat on his chest, beaming just as brightly back at Erick. Erick felt a spark run through his body as he looked into those teal eyes, causing his heart to speed up even more quickly than before.

Sasha was experiencing almost the same feeling, not quite understanding what it meant. Only thinking if his heart didn’t slow down soon he was going to pass out.

Noticing the unmoving men Mae walked out of the circle or spectators and crossed to Sasha and Erick.

“It is time for your next test. Although it seems as if you will need a shower and anew set of clothes.” Glaring playfully at Erick before continuing, “I thought you weren’t going to work him hard?”

Laughing weakly Erick collapsed backwards onto the mat as Mae led Sasha to the washroom to get cleaned up. The crowd dispersed, whispering about the new guy who was almost as good as their boss. On the mat Erick continued to grin and think about the black-haired man who he had just lost to, realizing it wasn’t just the fight that he had lost.

NaNoWriMo

flyingsoftly — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:24:12 GMT

Chapter One

Click. Clack. Click.

Sasha’s fingers moved quickly across the keyboard, his eyes following along. This wasn’t the first time he had done this and it most certainly wouldn’t be the last. The coffee shop continued to move around him, oblivious to the intensity with which Sash stared at the computer screen. The difference between this time at the computer and the others was the purpose.

For the past thee years Sasha had been hacking into networks stealing money. Nothing more than would get him by. He may be a hacker, but he wasn’t going to turn into a greedy thief. No, his father had taught him better than that.

Hours passed as Sasha sat in the corner of the little coffee shop he had stumbled onto by chance. He hadn’t planned on hacking today, but when he saw the two-for-one special on crumb cake he couldn’t resist. The place just screamed “cozy”, so great fully Sasha sank into an arm chair in the corner, laden down with a few plates of crumbly goodness, and his laptop, and he was ready.

Computers and everything technical came as second nature to Sasha. His father had taught him how to use a computer all those years ago and ever since the accident Sasha used technology as something to cling to. That accident is exactly what brought Sasha to this shop.

The accident eleven years ago left Sasha alone in the world with nothing but a kind word and a suitcase.

Since Sasha was ten he had been shuffled around from orphanage to orphanage. No one wanted a “damaged” kid, as those were called with parents who died from extenuating circumstance. Even though they had died in a car accident and not some bloody homicide as others no one wanted him.

So, Sasha contented himself with electronics. He built his first computer at eleven and was running his own network throughout the orphanage at twelve. He got his hands on every kind of electronic, learning how it worked and modifying it. He created his own technology, some to help the other orphans, and others to torment.

It was after one such prank that Sasha leaned about his power. He had just developed his own freeze ray and had used in on one of the bullies in his newest orphanage. In his defense Mitch had been asking for it. Ever since Sasha had stepped foot in the new home Mitch had been gunning for him. After one particular beating Sasha decided to fight back. It might not seem wise now, but Sasha was tired of being bruised. He created the freeze ray and decided to freeze Mitch the next time he went after Sasha.

The plan worked perfectly, except for the fact that the freeze ray only lasted five seconds. Sasha didn’t even have time to leave the room before Mitch was after him. He raced throughout the house trying to find a hiding place. He ran into Stephanie’s room hoping to gain refuge from Mitch, but came upon an empty room after a wrong left turn. Sasha didn’t have time to leave the room to find a new one so dodged into a corner and curled up into a ball, hoping that Mitch would pass by the room. As steps clomped by the door Sasha thought he was safe until a shout broke the silence. One of Mitch’s cronies burst through the cracked door followed closely by the reast of them. Sasha just curled into more of a ball hoping that they wouldn’t see him. Mitch and his minions searched the whole room coming up with nothing. Sasha couldn’t believe they were that blind, but waited until they had left before he detangled himself. As he was rising he caught sight of himself in the mirror, or rather didn’t catch sight of himself. The mirror was in a perfect position to reflect Sasha on the other side of the room, but the mirror was empty. He waved his hand hoping to catch movement, but still nothing. Moving closer Sasha stood directly in front of the mirror, trying to see himself, but he couldn’t. Sasha was invisible.

Ever since that day Sasha had kept his secret ability to himself. Using it only to escape the people who tried to hurt him. At each new home or orphanage there was another “Mitch”. Sasha eventually shut himself down and didn’t talk to anyone. He kept to himself and continued to tinker with electronics.

Once he was let out of the orphanage on his eighteenth birthday Sasha left to wander the US. He had no home and no family to speak of. Living off of the few dollars he gleaned from investment agencies, Sasha wandered.

About a year ago after two years of wandering Sasha began to think about his mother and father. The police had never told him more that that it was a car accident, but deep down Sasha had felt there was more behind his parent’s death. A few days before that fatal day they had looked anxious, trying to find somewhere for Sasha to stay for a few days. He hadn’t thought anything of it at the time, figuring they just wanted a little alone time, but when the cops showed up at his friend’s house asking for him, he knew something had happened.

He had buried that thought for the time being, but now that Sasha had nothing to do but think, he had been doing some searching. Police databases, government sites, you tube, everywhere that could be looked into Sasha had searched, but come up with nothing. Nothing at all. According to all sources his parents didn’t exist, the culprits had never been found and not even Sasha himself was in the orphanage system. This sparked a curiosity in Sasha that he couldn’t quench, which lead him to the little coffee shop where he was now attempting to hack into the Pentagon. It was one of the last places that Sasha had looked into and he was hoping to finally find some truth.

Sasha swept a strand of black hair out of his blue eyes and went back to typing. His mother had always called his eye color “turquoise”, which left Sasha to roll said eyes and gain a quick cheek pinch from his mother.

Sasha shook his head, ridding himself of the memories to try and focus on his hacking. Even though it was as natural to him as breathing on could never be too careful. He had almost been caught once when he was careless, never again.

Screen after screen flashed by as Sasha’s fingers moved like lightning across the keys. As the last firewall fell Sasha let out a little crow of victory, a few customers glanced his way but quickly lost interest in the dark-haired boy in the corner. Sasha had never been this far into this system and felt a thrum of excitement enter his body. He quickly set up a search and “Zach Grueller” flashed upon the screen.

Sasha’s eyes widened, unable to believe that he had finally found something on his family. He scanned the contents of his father’s file.

“Classified, code name: Ice, Colonel, what? Who are you?” Sasha exclaimed quietly entranced by the data upon the screen. He didn’t hear the click of the gun until it was placed at the base of his skull.

“You may want to shut that off, son. Wouldn’t want to get your pretty little laptop bloody now would we?” The voice was low and gruff, only loud enough for Sasha to hear. He sat ramrod straight and slowly reached forward to close his laptop. At the last second Sasha grabbed the half empty plate of cake and threw it behind him where he believed the voice to be. From the muffled curse and absence of the gun on his head let Sasha believe he had hit his target right on. Grabbing his laptop and bag Sasha ran off, not allowing the man the chance to recover. He had made it to the corner before he heard shouts behind him.

He headed down an alley hoping to shake the men only to wind up at a dead end. Growling Sasha turned around. He hadn’t wanted to use his power, but it looked like he had no choice. Quickly remembering all of the times he had practiced turning invisible Sasha blended into the wall.

As he felt the power thrum through his body he saw men in black suits race past the alley opening, in what they thought the direction Sasha had gone. After he heard them head away Sasha turned himself visible again and picked up his things. He had tried at other times to turn objects he was holding invisible, but had never been able to, only turning his clothes invisible. Even though he couldn’t now he knew deep down that if he ever tried to use his powers regularly he knew he could be more powerful. Not being ready for it Sasha ignored this feeling only using it enough to avoid being thrown in jail again. It had taken weeks for Sasha to create a new identity after that. Ever since the orphanage he had changed his last name periodically, not allowing people the chance to track him down, but he never changed his first name.

“Well, well, well, Mr. Boden, you’re a hard man to find.” Sasha whirled around and stared at the man who sat atop the wall staring at him. The man had the brightest, spikiest red hair Sasha had ever seen, his green eyes sparkling in mischief as he stared at Sasha from his perch.

“What do you want?” Sasha’s eyes narrowed as he stared at the man lounging quietly upon the wall. The man just continued to stare at Sasha unnerving him with his bright eyes. Sasha began backing up to the opening of the alley to try and escape before the other man decided to move from the wall and come after him. Sasha didn’t know why, but he knew if he was taken by these men something drastic would change in his life. The only thing he didn’t know was if it would be good or bad.

“I rather liked that move with the cake that you threw at Russell. The man had just been asking for a mouthful of ceramic with the way he was brandishing his gun around. I told him to be discrete, but once a mob thug always a mob thug I guess. I just hadn’t expected something to rash and quick from you Mr. Boden,” The mysterious man jumped down from the wall fluidly as he spoke and started walking towards Sasha.

“I must say I was pleasantly surprised. You see, Mr. Boden, we’ve been looking for you for quiet some time, but you always seem to slip right through our fingers.” Sasha stopped walking when his back hit a wall allowing the man to get closer to him.

“What do you want?” Sasha demanded.

“Why, you of course.” The man struck out quickly hoping to catch the little computer boy off guard, but Sasha hadn’t been sitting idly by while the bullies beat up on him and deftly caught the other man’s arm. The man looked surprised, green eyes widening before quickly gaining that mischievous glint from earlier. He quickly kicked out at Sasha, but was blocked again by Sasha’s leg. Sasha pushed the man away and took up a fighting stance across from the mysterious man after placing his things against the alley wall.

“Why do you want me?” Sasha punched out but the other man dodged to the side and kicked out at Sasha’s head causing him to duck under the other man’s leg.

“Naughty, naughty Mr. Boden. You, know why we’re here.” The man lashed out with another kick, this time to Sasha’s legs nearly catching Sasha’s legs before a quick jump saved him.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, now leave me alone.” Sasha brought out his own kick to the man’s legs, clipping his shins when the other man didn’t move fast enough. Sasha smirked at the man causing the green eyes to narrow.

“Very nice Mr. Boden. You’re the first person in a long time to even get that close to hitting me in a fight, but rest assured, it will be the last.” The mystery man renewed his efforts to attack Sasha moving almost faster than Sasha could see. If, it weren’t for all of the classes that Sasha had taken to improve his self-defense he might have been in trouble, but he kept up with the other man only gaining a few bruises here or there. Although, Sasha tried his hardest to hit the other man again the mysterious man was right in the fact that Sasha couldn’t get another hit in. Try as he might Sasha felt himself become tired and bruised. When at last the man had finally gotten one a hit to Sasha’s head Sasha went crashing to the ground. Unable to get up again Sasha lay gasping upon the ground as the other man knelt down beside Sasha’s head.

“The next time you try to hack into somewhere you don’t belong, you better check out all of your facts first” were the last words Sasha heard before the man hit him over the head again causing Sasha to black out.

The man stood up and gestured to the men standing near to opening of the alley.

“Take him to the van. Grab his stuff and make sure you tie up his hands. I don’t want to have to chase him down again.” The men quickly surrounded Sasha’s prone body and lifted him up, carrying him to the back of the van that had pulled up to the opening. The red-headed man stood staring at the place where Sasha’s body had laid.

“Sasha Boden. My, my you are something different.” The man grinned, his eyes sparkling with that familiar mischief and walked quickly to the van.

“Shotgun!” The man raced to the front passenger seat of the van leaving to other agents to grumble as they moved to sit in the back of the van. Quickly the vehicle pulled out of its parking spot and sped away down the street, leaving no one the wiser.

Chapter Two

Sasha woke with a groan gingerly touching the bump on his head from where the red-headed man had hit him. Opening his eyes slowly Sasha looked around at his surroundings. He appeared to be in a small room, it was sparse only containing a bed, a table with a lamp on it and a dresser. Everything in the room was decorated in a drab gray.

“Reminds me of the orphanages,” Sasha muttered to himself a he sat up slowly on the bed he had been laying upon. Wondering how he had allowed the red-headed man to get in the last punch Sasha didn’t hear as the door opened, too immersed in his thoughts.

“Well, if it isn’t Sleeping Beauty all awake from his nap, and only after two days. Lucky it wasn’t longer or I was going to have to drag in a Prince to wake you up.” The man in the doorway winked at Sasha as he stood there staring at him.

“Come on, its time to go talk to the boss man!” The man beamed brightly at Sasha and appeared to be in his mid-twenties with platinum blonde hair gelled into spikes, but not nearly as spiky as the red-headed man’s from before. Shaking his head and instantly regretting it as the room began to spin, Sasha just stared at the bright man in the doorway.

“Oh come on now. Don’t be like that. It’s not everyday that the boss man calls a meeting in someone’s honor. It’s usually about this mission, or this terrorist, never about a single person.” The man’s blue eyes brightened as they took Sasha in, wondering just what was so special about this guy that he warranted an entire meeting of all of the agents. Winking at Sasha the man strode over to the bed and pulled Sasha up. The quick movement caused Sasha to waver as he became dizzy so the man placed Sasha’s arm over his shoulders and steadied him.

“Hidey ho! Lets head on out or do you want me to give you some sugar cubes to get you moving?” Sasha glared at the man’s cheeky expression that remained unperturbed. The man lead Sasha down a maze of hallways, all of them as stark as the room he had just left. The man caught Sasha staring at his surroundings.

“I know, it’s so drab. I’ve been trying to get Mr. B to try some decorating techniques that I picked up in Milan. A little bit of paint, a few flowers, but the big man won’t listen to me. Says it’s all part of the ‘image’ that we’re trying to portray. Pffft! The only image we’re portraying is ‘design impaired’. I think the boss man is just too lazy to pick up a paintbrush and give this place a little bit of life. I’ve talked to some of the older agents and they say it didn’t always look like this…”

The man continued to ramble on as he supported Sasha down the hallway. Gesticulating wildly with his free arm he almost hit Sasha a few times only missing because of Sasha’s quick reflexes. Eyeing the flailing arm warily Sasha couldn’t wait until they reached to meeting so he could finally be rid of this man.

After a few more confusing turns they finally seemed to end up at their destination because the loud man let go of Sasha’s arm. Sasha then realized that the other man had been almost a head shorter than him. Although that wasn’t that odd, Sasha had always been taller than most of the people he knew. It never stopped the bullies, but it did help when he got caught in tight spots. From the few pictures he had left over of his parents Sasha guessed that he got his height from his father who always towered over his mother in the photos. As Sasha thought about it more even the red-headed man from the other day had been an inch or two shorter than him.

Brought back to the present by a cough from the other side of the room Sasha began to inspect his surroundings. It was as bare as the rest of this place seemed to be. There was only a large table filling most of the room that was surrounded by chairs. All of the chairs seemed to be filled with people wearing black. He noticed the red-headed man sitting in one of the chairs lounging in it just as he had on the wall that day. When Sasha looked into the man’s green eyes he noticed the man was smirking at him, eyes filled with that same mischief as before. Sasha quickly looked away and perused the remaining people seated at the table. They all were silent and staring back at Sasha with an unnerving intensity. The man sitting at the other end of the rectangular table gestured for Sasha to take the one empty chair across from him. Sasha moved slowly towards the table sitting down cautiously, staring at the man who exuded authority. The man looked to be in his fifties with gray hair and even grayer eyes that showed a hardness in them that was absent in the other people’s eyes. It was a hardness that seemed to come from a hard time in the man’s life that instead of cracking he had become harder to the outside world. The man steepled his fingers as he leant back in his chair once Sasha was settled into the empty chair.

“Now, Mr. Boden. You must be wondering why you have been brought here-” interrupting him Sasha blurted, “ where is here?” The man gave Sasha a hard look causing Sasha to sink back into his chair.

“As I was saying, Mr. Boden. We have brought you here because we have been monitoring your movements for quite sometime. Ever since that on incident with the CIA” at this Sasha snorted but quieted at another look from the man, “we have been keeping tabs on you. We have noticed that you are quite talented with computers. Hacking into every major government agency with barely a whisper of a trail to speak of. It was only with the CIA incident that we finally became aware of you. Once we learned what to look for from your methods, we noticed all of your previous hacks into the government. We even followed you through some of your name changes. You evaded us a few times with those, but ‘Sasha’ isn’t exactly as common a name as one would think.” The man smirked at Sasha causing Sasha to glare back at the man who had been following him for who knows how long.

“The only thing we couldn’t figure out, Mr. Boden, is who exactly you were three years ago. Not even our best analyst was able to find anything on you before you popped up three years ago.” Sasha narrowed his eyes wondering what it was that these people wanted and who they were, but kept his mouth shut waiting for the older man to continue.

“You, Mr. Boden, are an extremely hard person to track down. If, it weren’t for the fact that a team had already been in the area on another mission when you tried hacking into the Pentagon we may never have found you.”

“Um,” a quiet man coughed beside the gray-haired man. He was a twitchy little man who hadn’t sat still the entire time the other man had been talking. He had slicked back brown hair with glasses and the classic “geek” ensemble, complete with pocket protector.

“He didn’t just try to infiltrate the Pentagon, sir. He succeeded and was even able to look at some files before Agent Russell stopped him.” The older man’s eyes widened at this, obviously not having heard this information earlier.

“Why wasn’t I informed of this,” the grizzled man turned his glare onto the smaller man beside him who began to shake uncontrollably.

“W-w-well, there w-w-wasn’t enough time t-to tell you and w-w-we just got the intel today from our computer team. Ap-p-parently not even the P-p-pentagon were aware that they had been hacked int-to and only investigated w-w-when we informed them about Sasha.” The small man was nearly reduced to tears by the time he had finished talking as the older man’s face grew more and more furious. As last the older man turned his glare onto a calm Sasha who was used to even scarier faces on some of the women who ran the orphanages when they when they had caught a few wayward children in the kitchen sneaking snacks.

“What do you know?” The older man bellowed across the table causing the other occupants to jump in their seats never having seen their boss this angry before, while Sasha just continued to stare coolly back.

“Why should I speak to you? You pull a gun on me, chase me, knock me out and kidnap me and then expect me to answer your questions? I think not.” Sasha said all of this with a calm expression on his face causing the older man to become even more enraged. Everyone sitting in the chairs continued to stare between the two men in astonishment, not knowing what would happen next.

“I am the head of this organization and I hold your future in my hands. Do you really want to cross me now?” Sasha just continued to stare at the angered man.

“And what exactly is this ‘organization’?” Sasha added air quotes on the word knowing it would anger the other man, but was startled when the red-headed man let out a quiet laugh. Sasha looked at him and could see that familiar mischief glinting in the green eyes that had been growing as the fight continued.

“That is not for you to know, it is none of your business who we are or what we do. All that matters to you is that you will be dead soon if you don’t tell me what you know.” Everyone looked shocked at that, not believing their boss would go to such extreme measures over a mere hacker. Sasha clenched his jaw the only sign of tension in his body and stared back into the icy-gray eyes of the man across from him.

“No.” The simple two-lettered word hung in the air for awhile in complete silence until the gray-haired man seemed to reach a decision.

“Fine, you can rot in one of our prison cell until you finally decide to cooperate. Langley, Cirila. Take him to cell four. He’ll stay there until he decides to talk.”

The blonde man from before stood up from his chair and walked towards Sasha’s end of the table. The red-headed man stared at the older man until he signaled something causing the red-head to nod his head and stand fluidly. Now that Sasha was closer to the man he could see the fluidity in his steps wasn’t just grace but a sense of awareness that permeated the man. It was as if the red-headed man was aware of everything surrounding him and didn’t need to worry about what might be lurking because the strength hiding beneath his clothes said that the red-haired man could take care of whatever came after him.

The blonde man grasped Sasha’s left arm while the red-head took his right and they proceeded to escort Sasha out through a different door than that which he entered.

“Sorry, mate. Never seen the boss man get that angry at someone who wasn’t a terrorist trying to blow a little day care before.” Now that Sasha was paying attention he could hear a slight British accent to the blonde haired man’s voice.

“The name’s Jeremy. Jeremy Langley, mouthful, I know, and that great ball of fire on your other side is Erick Cirila. I know you’ve already met, but I bet Cirila went all warrior on you and wasn’t polite enough to give you his name as he was beating the snot out of you.” The newly dubbed Erick rolled his eyes at Jeremy’s words.

“Be quiet Langley or I may just go ‘warrior’ on you and we both know what happened last time.”

Jeremy snorted and said, “that time didn’t count, I was drunk and you took full advantage of my inebriated state.”

The two continued to bicker as they led Sasha down even more hallways. After what seemed like hours and many cheap shots at each others’ ‘mamas’ they stopped at a large gray door. There was a panel beside the door in the wall that looked like a scanner. Erick placed his hand upon the device and after a few seconds the scanner beeped, opening the door which revealed a darkened corridor.

“They use the dark as a method to coax questions out of prisoners. The whole primal fear that resides within everyone about what may be out in the dark always gets to people. I’ve seen the most hardened men crack after a few weeks of this.” Jeremy looked grim as he explained this to Sasha. The darkened cast to his face at complete odds with his earlier bubbly personality. Even the mischievous Erick seemed to become more subdued in the darkened corridor as they began to walk down it.

At last they reached a door with a large four painted on it, just barely visible from the light spilling from the open door which they entered through. Erick placed his palm on another scanner, which opened the door after a few seconds and beeps later.

Sasha watched everything, cataloging everything that the scanners did, in hopes that it would help out later if he needed to get out quickly. He knew just a few minutes of exploring the room’s electrical wiring and he would be able to get out of the room without any trouble.

“Hey, Grim!” Jeremy shouted into the darkened room.

“We’ve brought you a new roomie,” his voice not nearly as bright as it had been before Jeremy waited for a response.

“Oh good. I’ve been waiting for someone new to talk to ever since Maxwell left.” The voice that emanated from the dark room was low and raspy as if it hadn’t been used in a long time.

Erick leant closer to Sasha and whispered in his ear, “be careful of him. He can be the nicest guy you’ve ever met of the worst, just always try to answer his questions.”

Sasha asked quietly, “why do you call him ‘Grim’?”

Erick just looked at him in consternation as he and Jeremy pushed him into the room.

A soft “I’m sorry” floated on the air as the door shut and cut out any light that remained.

“I am not really as bad as they make me out to be. It is just sometimes all of the darkness can get to you. It is always better if there is someone to share it with.” The voice rasped from across the room. Sasha could only see a little bit of movement from the other man as he groped around in the dark looking for somewhere to sit.

“There is a bed to your left. It is a bunk bed, but you can have the bottom. I enjoy sleeping upon the top bunk. It sometimes makes me feel as if I am floating.”

Sasha moved towards where the voice directed and come into contact with a soft mattress. Sasha great fully sank down onto the surprisingly comfortable bed, trying to relax.

“He tries to make us comfortable, because he knows that not many people survive down here for very long. Somewhere in his twisted mind he figured that making us as comfortable made up for his sick methods.”

“I’ve never been afraid of the dark.” Sasha spoke quietly into the darkness.

“Ah, so the boy speaks. I had feared he had cut out your tongue.” Soft chuckles floated around the room.

“Forgive me, I rarely get company. He figures that since I’ve survived down here so long that I have become some sort of monster. He usually only allows the more dangerous or important prisoners into my cell. Possibly hoping that I might ‘scare’ a confession out of them. Now what, pray tell, brought such a young fellow as yourself down here with me.”

Sasha could hear as the other man moved closer to him, sitting down upon the floor next to the bed Sasha was stretched out upon.

“I’m not exactly sure. All I did was hack into the Pentagon and look at some files and he freaked. I’m not sure why the old man reacted so badly, it’s not like I copied or stole the files, all I did was look.”

“What files were you looking at, exactly?” Sasha closed up at that question and curled into a ball upon the bed, turning his back on Grim.

“Ah, I seem to have upset you. I am greatly sorry. I shall drop the subject since I can sense you do not wish to speak upon that subject.” Sasha uncurled and turned to where he thought the voice was.

“Why do they call you ‘Grim’?” The voice chuckled again, a low, grating sound in the quietness of the room.

“My name used to be Hubert Grimley. Ever since he placed me down here the rest of the facility has generally forgotten the rest of my name and solely fixate upon the ‘Grim’ part. I finally figured it was easier easier for them to think of me as a monster, such as the Grim Reaper, than as a real man.”

“I’m sorry,” Sasha whispered quietly. The man just scoffed at Sasha’s apology.

“It is not your fault, my son. It is that bastard of a man, Newald. Ever since her took over this organization has gone to hell. The old head never would have allowed the prisoners to be treated as such and I have heard that much of the facility has changed also.” Grim’s voice became angrier as he spoke, showing a bit of how he gained his nickname.

“So, that man hasn’t always run this place?”

“Oh heavens, no. (Spy Org Name) used to be a respectable agency, but ever since the old head was killed and Newald swept in to take his place it has never been the same.”

“Who was the old head of (Spy Org Name)?”

“A great man and friend of mine, Zach Grueller. Or as he was called around here ‘Ice’.”