Iridescent: Chapter Twenty-Six

Iridescent

Chapter Twenty-Six

~Food Groups~

After the Fall

“Alright,” Zara sat at a desk, her legs propped up on the table, “let me get this straight. We’re going to the same place.”

“Looks like it,” Chaud smiled at the room full of people.

Miwa sat beside him by the window. He shook himself.

Chaud continued, “It seems that Miwa downloaded the information was the same location where I was told Fang about. Northeast from here on the coast there’s a cove with a sub stationed there.”

“Is it still going to be there when we get there?” Shadow asked.

“It should,” Chaud shrugged, “I’m the only one on the Island who has the codes to start it.”

“Now the question is,” Crow started, “are you supposed to have the codes?”

Chaud just met his gaze, “I neither confirm nor deny.”

“Right,” Zara rolled her eyes, “of course you do.”

“Great!” Crane chimed, “Now we can head out there, right?”

“Not yet,” Fang said, “We have to deal with Chaud’s other issue.”

Zara looked over at Chaud, “What did you do this time?”

“Okay, I just want to go on record and say that I didn’t do anything,” Chaud crossed his arms, “kind of.”

Tempi scoffed, “Sure.”

“He’s being hunted by a group of bounty hunters,” Fang went on to explain, “It looks like this New Order really wants Chaud and his family where they can see them. The Hunters have been on our trail ever since Chaud joined up with us. I admit. They are pretty good at what they do. From what I heard, they almost killed him a few times.”

Zara looked at Chaud, “You almost got yourself killed without me?”

Chaud shrugged, “I wish I could tell you I had a say in the mater. But as it turns out, dying is unpredictable.”

“All right you two,” Tempi interrupted, “let’s get to the point. What are we going to do about those hunters?”

“We could just run for the sub,” Puppetmaster suggested. He sat alone in a corner. Shuppet sat on his shoulder.

“They wouldn’t let us get that far,” Fang stated.

“Then we pound them in to the ground,” Tempi slammed her fist into her palm.

Zara looked at her, “Can’t you think with your head? What about the people who don’t have powers? Couldn’t they get hurt if the hunters decide to attack? And then there are those who have powers. How many vials of Blue Gold do we have? Surely there isn’t enough for everyone and who knows how many the hunters have.”

“How many do we have?” Shadow asked.

“My group has eleven,” Zara said. Everyone looked at her. Zara shrugged, “Leader tendencies to take a mental tally of everything.” Zara looked at Tempi, “I guess only real leaders have that tendency.”

Tempi stepped forward, “Why you—!”

“Nine,” Fang answered.

Crow raised a hand, “Five.”

Puppetmaster smiled, “None.”

Tempi looked around. Not wanting to look incompetent she quickly counted the vials she remembered seeing in her bag, “Three.”

“Twenty-eight,” Miwa added up all the numbers, “We have twenty-eight vials.”

“Thanks, Miwa,” Chaud said, “I’m sure none of us could add on our own.”

“No prob!” Miwa chimed. The he thought a moment, “Hey! Was that sarcasm?”

“No, of course not,” Zara said sarcastically.

“Hey,” Miwa looked at her, “I was just trying to help.” He looked up at Chaud, “I thought we were friends! Why have you joined the enemy!?”

“Enemy?” Chaud was confused.

Fang sighed, “May we get back to the topic at hand. Kids these days…”

“Crane and I could take care of the caravan,” Crow said, “You know, get them away from here while you all fight it out. You can have our vials. We can’t use them.”

“I think that would be best,” Fang nodded.

Crow looked around the room, “How many of you are going to be staying to fight?”

Zara raised her hand, “My team and I are staying.”

“We are too,” Tempi said.

“Shadow and I will stay as well,” Fang said.

“I suppose I could help out,” Puppetmaster smiled, “I wouldn’t want to miss something this interesting.”

“Good,” Fang stated, “We should think of a place for you and the caravan to lie low for a while.”

“We could clear out one of the other hotels around here,” Shadow suggested, “The people in the area seem to be afraid of us. It shouldn’t be that hard to clear them out.”

“I think that would be a good idea,” Crow nodded.

“Do we have a plan?” Fang asked.

Tempi shrugged, “I guess so.”

“We’ll discuss battle tactics later,” Zara said as she stood up.

Fang walked toward the door, “Good. Let’s go get this over with Crow.”

Crow and Crane stood up. Crow followed after Fang and sighed, “Right behind you.”

Shadow and Crane followed after the two men. They appeared to be great friends over the course of the past events. Tempi glared at Zara as she walked out. She paused slightly as she passed her. Their eyes met momentarily before Tempi walked off. Puppetmaster opened the door for the girl. Miwa walked off, muttering to himself about how his best friend had betrayed him and how life was so unfair. Chaud looked after him, wondering if he should go and talked to the dejected pup. He turned to Zara.

“Miwa looks pretty bummed,” Chaud voiced his concern, “Did something happen on your trip?”

“We didn’t blow up any building,” Zara spouted. She cleared her throat before continuing, “Miwa and I just don’t see eye to eye on most, no, everything.”

“Right,” Chaud raised a curious eye brow, “Did you blow up a building, Zara?”

Zara changed the topic, “Tempi seems to hate me.”

“Yeah,” Chaud agreed, “About that building—”

“It’s okay because I don’t really like her either,” Zara shrugged, “You hungry? I am. I’m going to find a bite to eat. After that we can tell the team the plan.”

“The building?” Chaud asked.

Zara crossed her arms. She remained silent for a few more moments before saying anything, “I didn’t have a choice.”

Chaud placed a hand on her shoulder, “It’s okay. I believe you. Now if we can forget this whole almost dying thing…”

“Fine,” Zara walked off.

Chaud followed her. They walked down to the resort’s kitchen. Dr. Jekyll sat in the kitchen. He barely gave the two a look. Zara headed toward the food supply while Chaud talked with Jekyll.

“Did you hear about the meeting?” Chaud asked Jekyll.

Jekyll looked at him, “I guess. Don’t see why no one invited me, thought.”

Chaud smiled, “I’m sure they thought you were busy being the doctor and all.”

“You could have asked,” Jekyll looked over at Zara. He watched her pull a certain of eggs out of the fridge, “To many of those will kill you.”

Zara looked down at the eggs and slowly placed them back. She pulled out some frozen waffles instead.

“If you want to gain weight in your thighs, those will be fine,” Jekyll said.

Zara put the waffles away. She closed the refrigerator and opened the pantry. There were a few stale rice crackers in there and she got them.

Jekyll sighed, “I guess those will do. You’ll be hungry in half an hour though.”

Zara walked past Chaud. Chaud stopped her a moment, “He’s just in a bad mood. You can eat something else if you want.”

Zara bit into her rice cracker, “Yeah, not while he’s sitting there.”

Chaud leaned in and whispered, “I’ll sneak you some pizza or something.”

“Thanks,” Zara took another tiny bite out of her cracker, “these don’t taste very good.”

The Turn: Chapter Twenty-Six

The Turn

Chapter Twenty-Six

~On the Scent~

Two Years Before The Turn

Naru looked through the information on the laptop that they had collected from their last mission. The others had gotten some rest but he had decided stay up and go over the information. It was the usual business stuff: staff meeting transcripts, corporate e-mails, and the occasional angry e-mail between coworkers. Now he was reading a transcript made a few weeks ago. It looked to be the boss, Mr. Peterson, was talking to an associate he talked to at least once a month.

Mr. Peterson: Have we discussed all that we need to today?

Erin Walter: There is one more thing.

Mr. Peterson: What’s that?

Erin Walter: Scar wants you to know that there seems to be some people a little too interested the New Order.

Mr. Peterson: What do you mean? Are they on to us?

Erin Walter: No. They don’t know about the New Order. Just separate the files and missing funds. Nothing to alert them to us.

Mr. Peterson: Good.

Erin Walter: Don’t let your guard down. Scar can easily cut you out of the equation if the need comes.

Mr. Peterson: Of course.

Erin Walter: Good. We’re done here.

Mr. Peterson: Right.

After reading a little further, Naru found in the files that Mr. Peterson failed to accomplish a task that he was assigned. What the task was, Naru couldn’t figure out. But a few days after the failure, there was an e-mail mentioning the New Order being sent out. After some investigation, Naru found out that it came from Mr. Peterson’s computer. However, the IP address was different from the other e-mails sent from his computer. Most likely someone else sent the e-mail, using another computer to make it look like Mr. Peterson sent the e-mail. Naru was reading more of the documents when Chaud walked up behind him.

“Hey,” Chaud greeted.

Naru nodded, “Hey.”

Chaud pulled out his cellphone and took out the memory card. He threw it in a trashcan and placed a new chip in his phone. Naru noticed and quickly glanced in his direction. He continued reading and ignored it. Chaud was always doing strange things.

Zara walked into the room. She had just woken up from a two hour nap and was making her rounds to make sure everything was in order. Zara walked up to Naru. She gave Chaud a quick glance then got straight to the point.

“How are we doing?” Zara asked Naru.

“There is a lot mentioned about this person named Scar,” Naru reported.

“Scar?” Zara thought a moment, “Didn’t that Mr. Peterson guy ask the other guy who called us out if Mr. Scar was with him?”

“Maybe,” Naru shrugged, “Haven’t been able to research with all this reading.”

Chaud popped into the equation, “Hey, know how long we’ll be staying here?”

“A while,” Zara didn’t even glance up at him.

“A few hours, ‘a while’, or a few days, ‘a while’?” Chaud asked.

Zara looked at him, eyes narrowed, “Until we get the info we need, ‘a while’.”

“Oh,” Chaud looked to one side, “hmm.”

“Hmm,” Naru, who had tuned out for a while now, said as he looked at the computer.

Both Zara and Chaud stopped their arguing and looked at him. Naru hadn’t noticed that the two had become quiet or even that they were straining to see what he found on the computer. He ignored them and looked at the computer. Then he yawned and shut the computer off. Naru got up and walked to go catch a wink of sleep.

“Night, guys,” he said as he walked off.

Zara looked at him, “Well, what did you find?”

Naru shrugged, “Something about an island and a secret project.”

“Secret project?” Chaud asked.

But Naru was already out of ear shot. Chaud placed his hands on his waist and sighed. Zara crossed her arm and looked at the computer.

“What now?” Chaud asked, “Our only computer geek just hit the hay.”

Zara didn’t seem to upset, “Oh, leave it. He’s been working harder than anyone.”

Chaud nodded, “I guess you’re right. What will we do now?”

Just then, the big computer screen turned on displaying the standard Tower welcome screen. Then it displayed a world map and zoomed into California and narrowed in on their current location. Seven points popped up near them at a local bus stop. Seven images of seven people appeared near the points.

“Oh, shoot,” Chaud muttered.

Zara looked at him, “‘Oh, shoot’, what? You know who those people are? Are they looking for us, Chaud?”

“Don’t worry,” Chaud sounded a little less than confident, “Miwa has this place labeled as inactive. They don’t know we’re here.”

“Oh, your friend can do that, huh?” Zara placed her hands on her hips, she was not amused, “Who the heck are they, Chaud? Enough of this ‘I can’t tell you’-‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’ nonsense!”

“You know about the incident in New York that they tell us about in school?” Chaud smiled, “They say the machine malfunctioned.”

Zara roller her eyes and shrugged, “Yeah, so.”

Chaud rubbed the back of his neck, “Well, they left out one tiny teeny detail…”

IOIOIOIOI

Fang disembarked the bus. He looked through the six folders that were given him of the missing Agents. Currently he looked at Zara’s file. She stared back at him from the ID photo with determination and grit. Fang glanced at the next folder holding Chaud’s file. The look in his eye was one of sly secrets. Fang smiled. They might be just kids but together, her determination and his sly secrecy, would be a force to reckon with. He stood off to the side while everyone else got off.

“Why do I ‘ave to carry all da luggage?!” Alister complained. He was adorned with bags and luggage.

“Because I said so,” Fang muttered.

Penelope pushed her glasses up her nose and smiled. She carried her laptop with her at all times. For a brief moment her eyes narrowed in determination then returned to their round carefree selves. She took another step, tripped over her feet and fell face first on the ground.

“Ow…” she stated.

Fang wasn’t too concerned. By now her face had to be the strongest part of her body. She’d be alright.

Shadow helped Penelope up with a smile, “That was one of your better wipeouts. No blood.”

Raven stood behind him without her cloak. She wore all black clothing. When Penelope got to her feet, Raven gave her a new set of glasses.

Lumin followed Arisa who had just run into a gift shop. The girl might be older and a little more mature but there were times that the kid in her shown through. Lumin was here ever following shadow. He was a man of few words to the rest of them but could carry on in hours of conversation with Arisa. They had a deep love for each other that could last through the ages.

Shadow looked back at Fang, “We’ll Sirius said that after digging around they said that with a great deal of certainty that those Agents came to this area. What do you suppose we do?”

Fang looked at the files again, specifically Chaud’s in this situation. He smiled.

“Penelope, when you get the chance, I want the plans to the sewers,” Fang looked at Shadow and showed him Chaud’s file, “We’re up against at least one person that knows the ins and outs of the Tower like the back of his hand. He wouldn’t be stupid enough to get caught on any camera.”

“They could be in a building,” Alister suggested.

Raven rolled her eyes, “And risk getting recognized?”

Alister shifted his weight, “It was just a suggestion.”

Fang thought a moment, “Oh, and Penelope, in your spare time, try and find this kids source. I’m sure by now he knows we’re here. Someone at the Tower is keeping him updated.”

Penelope nodded.

Shadow gave a sly smile, “Anything you want me to do?”

“Look around, see if you can find them,” Fang stated, “I’ll go find ourselves a motel.”

Arisa ran out of the store carrying shopping bags. She saw that everyone looked rather serious. Feeling left out she crossed her arms. A gentle hand rested on her shoulder. She looked up and saw Lumin standing just behind her.

“I’m sure they’ll tell us what we need to know later,” he said, “No need to get upset.”

Arisa smiled, “I guess you’re right. Besides,” Arisa pulled out a t-shirt from one of her bags, “I bought these cute t-shirts! Won’t this one look cute on me! I got some for Penelope and Raven too! Aren’t they adorable?”

Lumin smiled, “I don’t think that pink one is really Raven’s style and I think that Penelope likes dogs better than cats.”

“Really?” Arisa looked at her selection. She shrugged, “Oh, well! I guess these will all have to be for me!”

She turned and ran toward the others and babbled about her shopping spree. Lumin shook his head with a smile and followed behind her. Admittedly, Arisa was a lot to handle but Lumin never seem to mind. 

Insanity Chapter Twenty-Six

Insanity

Chapter Twenty-Six

~Shifty Business~

Day Twenty-Two

“What do you mean you failed?” the figure stood, “I gave you one thing to do and you failed miserably!”

Edonya hung her head low. Thae stood a little behind her, his arms crossed as he stared ahead.

“Four, Edonya,” the man yelled, “Four Others that died because you were too stupid to realize that this team isn’t like any other kidnapping like you usually do!”

“Sorry, Sir,” Edonya muttered.

“Sorry doesn’t bring them back! Now get out!”

Edonya and Thae walked out of the room. The office door closed.

“Tough chat, y’all ‘ad in there,” Zorah said as she stood in the hallway.

Thae glared at her, “I’m not in the mood. I’ve had a pretty bad twenty-four hours with the explosions, the yelling and most annoyingly, her constant talking all the way here. You’re just lucky that I haven’t killed you yet.”

“Is ‘at so!” Zorah placed her hands on her hips.

“You think I’m annoying?” Edonya asked, tears were forming in her eyes.

Thae glared at her, “You’re fortunate that I even saved you. I could have done the whole world a favor by sparing then the pains of listening to you.”

Edonya was speechless. Her mouth was opened as if looking for something to say but nothing came. Tears fell down her face. She turned around quickly and ran in the opposite direction.

“Well, ‘at was a little harsh,” Zorah said, “You really are in a bad mood.”

“Get out of my way,” Thae said as he walked opposite of Edonya.

Zorah was left in the hallway.

“Sorry, it won’t happen again,” the figure said on the phone.

“It better not,” a deep voice said on the phone, “I don’t like failure, Thomas.”

“I know,” Thomas said, “Give me one more chance, please!

There was silence on the phone, then, “I guess I could afford you one more chance. Don’t fail me.”

“I won’t.”

“You know what will happen if you do, don’t you?”

Thomas gulped nervously, “I know.”

“Good,” the voice said, “Now be a good pawn and get me what I want.”

***

The Mansion

“Blue.”

What?

Blue’s eyes were slightly narrowed in annoyance. The sound of Arisa crying seemed to be distracting him. His usual soft appearance had a darkened tone. It could have been the shadows of Fang’s room but it seemed like something darker.

So this is Blue when he’s ticked, Fang thought, not quite angry but not happy either.

“Blue, we need to talk,” Fang said.

So talk.

Fang paused, “What did you do today?”

Blue looked at him.

Look, I got a little angry and trashed the boat. It won’t happen again.

“You nearly killed some of us, did you know that?” Fang asked, “What if you had killed us Blue?”

Blue’s features returned to their softness. He turned his face away from Fang. Blue hadn’t realized that he had put his own friends in danger.

“Why were you there?” Fang asked, “I though Shadow told you to stay with Arisa.”

I was angry. I just wasn’t thinking straight. I’m sorry.

Blue looked up at Fang. The look in his eyes said that he was truly sorry. It was a look that even Fang couldn’t resist for too long. Blue could barely hold a grudge against anyone because he’d eventually forget why he was angry. He also could live with people being angry with him. His eyes seemed to beg Fang to forgive him.

Fang nodded, “It’s fine Blue. Just be more in control of your actions next time.”

Fang recognized Blue’s return and nodded. He knew what he did wrong and there was no longer any point in addressing it. Now there were just some questions that he wanted answered.

“I thought I told Arisa to go home,” Fang said.

She did. I walked her there after you got on the boat and we all had to improvise. We started talking and she told me how scared she was. I lost it and went after the boat.

“With Arisa?” Fang said.

She wanted to come.

Fang sighed, “I hope you realize that what you did wasn’t exactly well thought through.”

I do.

“Good,” Fang said, “We’re done here.”

Blue stood up and nodded. He left the room. Arisa ran into his arms and cried some more, complaining about why she was grounded. Fang walked back down into the living room. Shadow sat on a chair as Undertaker held two fingers in front of his face.

“Now, how many fingers am I holding?” he asked with a wide grin.

“Two,” when he caught site of Fang he said, “Will, you get him out of my face now? He’s creeping me out.”

“That will do Undertaker,” Fang said, “Shadow seems to have regained his senses.”

Penelope was typing away at her laptop.

“Would you mind getting the floor plans of the Tower?” Fang asked as he passed her.

“W-w-why?” she asked, her eyes were large behind her glasses.

“I need you to,” Fang answered.

“A-a-all of them?” Penelope asked again, T-t-there’s like a gazillion of them!”

“No, I want mostly the lower and basement floors,” Fang said, he paused and looked at her, “I doubt they have a gazillion floors.”

“They might,” she muttered, her eyes focusing on her screen.

“Thank you,” Fang walked off.

Shadow’s curiosity took the better of him and he walked after Fang. Fang stopped by the dining room where Raven was setting up with Alister.

“Raven? What can you fly other than a helicopter?” he asked.

“Airplanes, fighter jets, motor boats, cruise ships, convertibles, Toyotas if it moves I can drive it,” she said as she placed the knives on the placemats.

“Dang, what kind of soldier were you raised to be?” Alister said.

“Assassin of war,” she said casually.

“Oh,” Alister wasn’t quite sure what to say to that.

“What about a Shadowcraft?” Fang asked.

Raven looked up, “A Shadowcraft? Like what the Tower uses? I haven’t tried. If I had the manual—”

“Alister will get it for you by tonight,” Fang said.

“I will?” Alister said.

“I’m sure your sources will help you out,” Fang said

“You can’t let your brain go blank, can you? Do you ever just not think for a while?” Alister asked.

“If I did stop thinking for a while, this whole house would probably collapse from one of you doing something. I try to stay multiple steps ahead,” Fang answered.

“What do you have planned, Fang?” Shadow asked.

“Just wanted to pay whoever hired them to kidnap Arisa a visit,” Fang said before walking away, “Shadow, cook lunch.”

Shadow rolled his eyes as the doorbell rang. Fang went to get it. As he neared the living room he saw the undertaker at the door talking to whoever was there.

“They just keep getting younger and younger don’t they,” he said as he smiled.

“I guess you can say that,” the person said.

The man came in. He looked Asian with his short black hair and brown eyes. His eyes were almond shaped. He looked at Fang and smiled. Fang sighed.

“Another disguise, Shifter?” he asked.

Shifter shrugged, “Played an American Chinese trying to do business with a known mafia. The agents stepped in and took care of the rest. I have my paycheck and a few unhappy mafia members are in the Tower holding cell where we can detain them far beyond the legal limit.”

Fang wasn’t sure how to interpret the smile on his face. Was he smiling at the fact he did a good job or that they could deny water and food to their ‘detainees’?

“I have a few questions to ask you,” Fang said.

“So I’ve heard,” Shifter said.

“What’s the easiest way to break into the Tower?” Undertaker asked out right.

Fang glared at him in shock. He didn’t recall telling Undertaker plan.

“Oh Fang, you aren’t that hard to read,” Undertaker smiled, “I know you have a good memory so that means you probably saw something on the boat that told you where their base is. Like a map maybe? And the only way to get to any mainland is to fly. And unless you have the patience to sit in a commercial jet, which I highly doubt, you will want to get there as fast as you can. The fastest thing on earth is the Tower’s Shadowcraft. To get the Shadowcraft, you need to break into the Tower. To break into the Tower, you need information. To get information, you need to get an informant that doesn’t know he’s being used and an informant.”

For a moment, Fang though that Undertaker was actually smarter than he was. But then the goofy smile came back dispelling the thought.

“You? Breaking in to the Tower? Gutsy!” Shifter seemed interested.

Fang, by all means and calculations, wasn’t expecting that.

“But you realize that when they find out, you and your team will be waking up with angels and clouds, right?”

“Not if they know it’s us,” Fang said.

“How do you plan to do that?” Shifter almost laughed.

“I’ve always wondered what happened to packages that go to the Tower,” Fang said aloofly.

“By mail?” Shifter smiled, “How about the delivery truck? I doubt they would say ‘Oh, sure! We’ll be glad to help you break into the Tower! Climb on in!’.”

“You seem attracted to disguises,” Fang noted.

“He seems to pull them off very well,” Undertaker noted.

“Yeaps,” Reighn nodded.

“Well, as a respected employee, it’s my duty to inform its heads of any possible threat that might come upon my business building. Besides,” Shifter shrugged, “If I were to help out I’d be putting myself at risk. I got this job for a reason. I don’t take risks unless the reward is worth it. Why should I risk myself getting involved in this?”

Fang thought about it. Shifter did have a point. He could very well be placed in the same boat as the others if they got caught. Fang looked at him again.

“Let’s say that there will be fifty-thousand slips of green paper in one of the packages,” Fang concluded.

“Fifty-thousand?” Shifter frowned, “Make it ninety-thousand.”

“Sixty.”

“Eighty.”

“Seventy.”

“Hmmm,” Shifter thought, “and all I have to do is get you inside?”

“That’s right,” Fang nodded, “My team and I will deal with the rest on the inside.”

“Fine,” Shifter smiled, “I’ll do it for seventy-thousand. It’s a pleasure doing business.”

Shifter turned away. Fang was about to do the same when he saw Undertaker snickering and Reighn solemnly shaking his head. He looked back at Shifter.

Shifter was about to close the door, “You know, I would have done it for free, right? But seventy-thousand little green papers is a good amount to have in the bank.”

Undertaker burst out laughing. He had seen that coming from a mile and a half.