A couple of Legions, lesser ranking demon, ran into a museum. The museum had just finished its last shift and was just closing. The cashier of the day had just took out the money in the cash register to deposit it to the bank, and the security guard had just take over his late night shift. Unfortunately, the Legions managed to slip through because at that moment, the security guard had his back turned.
Legions are not exactly dangerous. Mostly, they just do normal evil everyday stuff, like terrorizing defenseless humans, or in this case, play a joke or prank on humans.
"Ehehehe." They are speaking in demon language, of course. "Did you bring it? Did you bring it?"
"Yes." The other Legion deposited a small sack onto the other Legion's outstretched hand.
The first Legion untie the small sack and dipped a hand into it to withdrew its content. Sparkly grayish black powder that seems to glitter as though it had been encrusted by tiny diamonds.
"What are you going to do?" The other Legion who gave him the sack looked uncertain.
The first Legion ran to the Greek exhibition. But then there's someone leaning against the wall of the entrance. A boy with cropped short flaming red hair and murderous amber eyes who looked bored.
"What's this? A human?" A Legion blurted.
"It's just a kid. Let's get him." The other Legion tried to pounce on Guy, but his hair grew rapidly and turned into huge fists and pound the demon into nothing.
"Booooring..." He said, yawning.
"What did you just do???" The remaining Legion yelled in English.
Guy suddenly looked murderous and said, "The powder in your hand. Give it to me."
"If you want it, then you'll have to take it." The Legion roared, sharp razor claws outstretched.
Guy smirked and his hair, which transformed into a morning star and crushed the other one with very little effort. The sack of powder flew into the air and he caught it.
"Now, what should we do about you, hmmm?" He walked into the Greek exhibition and tossed the sack playfully back and forth.
Huge stone statues from Greek mythology are placed on display in very wall. The most largest one is Zeus, the God of Mount Olympus. He's placed in between his two brothers, Poseidon, the God of the Sea, and Hades, God of the Underworld.
Guy stretched his arms and bumped into a statue of the Gorgon, Medusa. Her eyes are filled with evil and her teeth bared, her snake hair stuck out in every direction.
Guy slowly moved away from Medusa and walked towards a statue of a three headed dog, restrained by a heavy spiked collar with steel chain. This is the statue of Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the gates to Hades, to prevent those who have crossed the river Styx from ever escaping. In some legends, the three-heads each respectively see and represent the past, the present, and the future, while other sources suggest the heads represent birth, youth, and old age. Each of Cerberus' heads is said to have an appetite only for live meat and thus allow the spirits of the dead to freely enter the underworld, but allow none to leave. Cerberus was always employed as Hades' loyal watchdog, and guarded the gates that granted access and exit to the underworld.
Guy gave a grin and took out a handful of the grayish black powder and scattered it all over the statue of Cerberus.
At first, nothing happened. Suddenly, there was a deep howl from the inside of the statue and it slowly start to crack.
Guy giggled and looked around. Then he scattered another handful of powder on the statue of the Lernaean Hydra, also known as the Hydra. It guards the waters since beneath it is an entrance to the Underworld, and the Hydra was its guardian. Its many heads are outstretched, ready for the kill.
Guy had just enough time to scatter the powder onto the Hydra just as a flashlight beam glared at him.
"Kid, what are you doing down here?" The security guard frowned.
"I'm sorry. I was looking for my lost...keys..." Guy gave a very innocent smile.
"Your keys?"
"Um, yeah. Here they are..." Guy held out a set of keys which he had carried around with him.
"What's that sack you have there?" The guard had caught sight of the sack in his hand.
Guy gritted his teeth. He would've rip the guard's throat right here and now but that would only make his plans go wrong, but this guard is extremely sharp and nosy. No matter, the guard might not be alive later on.
"The pouch for my keys. It had a hole in it." Guy quickly tucked back the sack and keys into his pocket and gave another innocent look.
"Fine, I'll let you off the hook, just this once." The guard gestured Guy to move on.
Guy quietly left and after he had stepped out, the guard locked the door.
At that moment, a Suzuki GS500 in black and silver stopped right in front of him. The rider is dressing in leather from head to toe and wearing dark sunglasses even though it's night time.
"What? Come to give me a scolding?" Guy snapped at the driver.
The driver took off his dark sunglasses. It's Reo.
"Not exactly."
Guy snorted and said, "That's surprising."
Reo then gestured to the back of his seat. "He send me to pick you up."
Guy hopped onto the bike and as Reo sped off into the night, he said, "So, what were you doing in the museum?"
Guy just gave a grin and said, "Just wait and see."
Meanwhile, at the museum, the security guard was doing his rounds when there came a loud crash from inside the Greek exhibition.
"Who's there?" He said nervously, holding out his flashlight. His Karabiner 98 rifle is loaded with ammos, but he had left it leaning at the front desk.
"Grrrr...."
"Who's there?" The guard said once more. "I'm warning you. Stop playing around and come on out..."
"Grrrr-rowl...."
And then the guard screamed as not one, not two, but three ferocious dog heads loomed out of the darkness and struck him. At the same time, before he was surrounded in darkness, he swore he could hear a faint hissing sound as well. The flashlight dropped out of his hand and flashed madly like a spotlight before a large giant paw crushed it underfoot.
***********
"Here's to a decent meal." Lloyd said, raising his glass of beer.
"Cheers." Glenn touched his glass of margarita to his. V.V. didn't even raise her cocktail drink, she just stir the straw blankly, swooshing the fruit cocktail that was ordered for her.
The trio are celebrating their previous job success at the Isle of Caribbean Cove restaurant. As a celebration, Lloyd had took them all out, despite the fact that he haven't fully recovered. (He had argued with the hospital protocol and demanded to be let out after they have finish tending his wounds. The nurses agreed because he charmed them with his good looks but the doctor was persistent until Lloyd demanded for his blade that the doctor let him go.)
"This is all on me." Lloyd said as the waiter set down an enormous plate heaped with an assortment of appetizers.
Glenn spooned sour cream over a helping of stuffed mushrooms and jalapeno poppers. V.V. who had fried shrimps, just blankly took them all with its cocktail sauce. The weirdest part of all is she just ate it up with the same blank look on her face.
"Hello, earth to V.V..." Lloyd said, snapping his fingers right in front of her.
"Huh? Oh, right." V.V. piled a pile of discarded shrimp tails onto her napkin and reached for some crackers and crab dip.
Glenn took a bite of fried mozzarella and said, "You haven't been acting yourself lately."
"I don't know what you mean..." She scanned her menu and ordered some peppered shrimp sandwiches.
"Ever since you and that Guy guy met, you haven't been yourself lately, so spill." Lloyd prodded her forehead.
V.V.'s sandwiches, sliced into quarters on a plate, had just arrived. She paused to take a bite and said, "Trust me, you don't want to know about it. And I never expected to see him again."
"So, what's the story?" Glenn ordered fish and chips which just arrived.
V.V. sighed and helped herself to some of Glenn's chips and said, "Guy had always hated me from the beginning."
"Why?" Lloyd asked, sprinkling pepper on his lobster bisque.
"Because I was designed to be the ultimate weapon. Whereas Guy's...not."
"So, the guy's jealous?" Glenn snorted with laughter. "I thought he was like your boyfriend... Who's planning revenge after you dumped him."
"Oh, don't laugh." V.V., blushing furiously, shoved him. "It's not funny."
"Sorry, V.V. Say, that means he has a name too like you too, right?" Glenn said.
V.V. nodded and was about to reach for her sandwich when Lloyd snatched the last one and said, "Sorry, V. But the sandwiches are great."
"It's okay." V.V. reached for Glenn's chips once more.
"So, come on, spill." Glenn prodded her as she reached out for his chips.
".................B.B." She mumbled.
"Huh?"
"That's Guy's other name. B.B."
Glenn roared with laughter till the tables near them were staring at him.
"B.B.??? You got to be kidding..." He was shaking with laughter.
"I knew I shouldn't have tell you..." V.V. moaned. "Don't laugh. It's not funny."
"Cut it out, Glenn. At least she answered our questions." Lloyd said, taking a bite of lobster bisque, then whisking one of her sandwiches.
"Sorry. Sorry." Glenn said, finishing the rest of his fish.
When they had finally finished their meal, they were just about to leave when Lloyd's cellphone beeped.
"Hello, Supernatural Demon Slayers. This is Lloyd Anderson speaking. Er.... what?"
"So then, where did you and Guy actually met?" Glenn asked teasingly.
"Oh, stop asking about Guy." V.V. moaned. "The guy is a psychopath. He enjoys killing..."
"Er...no. We don't deal with thefts." Lloyd is saying into his phone. "No, we deal with the supernaturals. What? You're serious? Okay...Okay..We'll stop by. Yes... Okay... Thank you. Goodbye." He snapped his phone shut.
"Who was that?" V.V. hastily asked, changing the subject.
"The curator of the museum downtown. Apparently, there has been a murder and a break in. Or so they thought." He shrugged.
"Who would want to steal dusty old relics from the museum?" Glenn said, shaking his head as he got into the front.
"Who knows?" Lloyd said, starting the ignition.
***********
When they reached the museum, the first thing that caught their eyes is the police car, its siren flashing red and blue. The museum entrance is being blocked by yellow police tape that reads caution and keep out all over and over.
"So, what was it again we were suppose to do?" Glenn asked, staring at the police who were trying very hard to barricade the entrance from nosy passer-bys.
"The curator just ask us to check it out..." Lloyd muttered, turning the ignition off.
As they got out and approached nearer, they could hear the police yelling, "Quiet!!!! This is an off-limits area!!!"
They pushed their way to the front and one of the officer said rudely, "And who are you people?"
Lloyd held out his ID and said, "Lloyd Anderson, Supernatural Demon Slayers. We got called by the curator to check this place out."
"Listen here, sir. No one goes in and out til we figure out this case."
"Let them through." A voice said.
The police turned to see the curator, a scholarly-looking man in his sixties or so, with horn-rimmed glasses and balding white hair.
"Excuse me sir, but you're not allowed to let outsiders in." The officer said.
"I called Mr Anderson a little while ago so he has permit to enter." The curator gestured. "Please, come in."
As Lloyd passed the officer, he hissed, "Next time, I won't be lenient."
Glenn suddenly whisked behind the officer, causing to let out a startled yelp.
"Next time, I hope I don't run into your face." He then left, with V.V. following him closely.
"So, sir, what exactly are you calling us for?" Lloyd said as the curator led them to a door.
"Have you heard of Greek mythology?" The curator asked.
Both Lloyd and V.V. said, "No." But Glenn surprise them all by saying, "Yes." When Lloyd threw him a glance he said rather defensively. "What? I don't sleep all the time, you know."
The curator then pushed one of the door open and said, "We are actually going to open our Greek Exhibition tomorrow to the public but with the circumstances right now, we might have to delay the opening."
They had stepped into a huge room with displays all sort of Greek Gods and creatures. There's also assortments of Greecian pots and other equipments that were used in their times. There's also a white outline of a human lying on the floor. A murder.
"Here we are." The curator said. He then caught sight of them staring at the outline on the floor. "That is where the body of one of our security guard was found."
Glenn stared at the outline with such concentration till V.V. poked him hard on the ribs to get his attention.
The curator gestured at one the huge stone slab that stood beside Medusa, the Gorgon. A carving says, CERBERUS, GUARDIAN OF THE UNDERWORLD.
"This is one of the pieces missing." The curator said. "And the other one is the Lernaean Hydra."
"The Cerberus and the Hydra... Interesting..." Glenn murmured.
"I will leave you here. I hope you can solve the whereabouts of the missing statues pieces." He then left.
"Okay, this is definitely weird." Lloyd said.
"What's weird?" V.V. asked.
"There doesn't seem to be any traces of it being stolen."
Glenn went near one of the stone slabs and said, "You're right. There's no traces of it being moved or stolen."
V.V. was staring at the statue of Medusa, making funny faces at it.
"V, don't do that..." Glenn said, pulling her away.
"She looks like a hag..." V.V. protested.
Lloyd was focused on the stone slab, his eyes scanning the slab with concentration. That was when he saw it. A strand of hair, coarse and dark like a dog's, which he now held in between his fingers.
"What's that?" Glenn came over. "A hair???"
"It looks like a dog's hair." Lloyd murmured.
"What??? Does this mean we're catching a pooch?"
"Grrr..."
All three of them jumped as they heard the growl.
"What was that?" V.V. yelped, nearly tripping over her the hem of her dress.
"A dog?" Glenn said meekly, loading a fresh ammunition clip into his SIG Sauer P226.
"Dogs aren't that fierce..." Lloyd said.
"Grrr-ROWL..."
V.V. was the first one to notice. "Um, isn't it getting a little...hot?"
"Now that you mention it, yeah..." Glenn said, feeling the sweat on his forehead.
All together, they slowly turned and yelled in fright.
A vicious dog with three heads towered above them. Each head is exactly the same. With dark eyes as dark as a bottomless pit, and with yellow salivas drooling from its razor sharp fangs, it looks like a nightmare out of a fairy tale.
"RUN!!!!!" Lloyd yelled running for the door. The other two followed, but Cerberus proved to be faster than any of them could imagine despite the fact that it's huge. It leapt over them and blocked the entrance, growling madly.
Glenn was given credit for making the first move. He took aim and shot its paw, causing it to yelp in pain as the bullet found its target.
"Good job." Lloyd said, taking out his blade.
"You didn't think I was slacking all the time, do you?" Glenn said, shooting at Cerberus's paw. V.V. had just transformed her hair into a mallet and was bringing it down onto Cerberus's head. One of its head yelped whereas the other two growled menancingly and tried to snap at her. It did snap at the hem of her dress, causing it to tear with a silt at one side.
"That's my favourite dress." V.V. gasped in outrage.
"V, a little help here." Glenn was cornered to the statue of Medusa by a new companion of Cerberus. A bluish-grey serpent was slithering towards him, hissing with the truimph of a prey being cornered.
V.V. was about to run to him but Cerberus suddenly lunged at her, narrowly missing her head. Fortunately, Lloyd did a flip in midair and sliced the serpent's head cleanly off its neck. Its body fell limply onto the floor, with green blood oozing out of the stump.
"That's it?" Lloyd said as Glenn run past the serpent's body.
"No, Lloyd. We seriously got to get out of here." Glenn panted, covered in dirt. "The three-headed dog, that's Cerberus. And that is the Hydra, a serpent with many heads that can be regenerated no matter how many time you chop it off."
"Wha-"
Even as he spoke, the headless body suddenly slithered towards them, at the moment, the stump that which it's neck suddenly sprouted out a new head together with another head, thus making two heads.
Lloyd cleaved another of its head, only to have the same result, except instead of three, there's four heads lunging for them.
"Darn it, Lloyd! That's only making things worse." Glenn yelled, dodging one of the heads, which struck the statue of Medusa, causing it to fall onto the ground and shatter into chunks of stones.
"I am NOT paying for that!!!" Lloyd avoided cleaving off its head but gave it a ferocious snap kick that caused one of its head to snap back. Thankfully, it did not sprout another head.
"I think I know how to deal with them both." Glenn gave it a nice jab with his fists and said, "I'll need to go and check on my textbook back at the flat."
"Right then." Lloyd then said to V.V. who is busy throwing blows on Cerberus. "V, we're going to run."
"Alright." V.V. said. "But how?"
Lloyd ran to the other corner, dodging the Hydra's heads as he snatched a fire extinguisher from the corner. Using all of his strength, he threw it at the Hydra. One of its head struck the extinguisher, causing fumes of nitrogen and potassium chloride erupted into the air, blinding the Hydra which hissed madly, thrashing around wildly, and Cerberus, who growled in anger.
Holding their breath, they ran past the vicious three-headed dog and slammed the door behind them, though it's no use locking it because there's no lock nor any barricades they can use.
"Good heavens, what's going on?" The curator was running towards them. "I heard a lot of noises in there."
Lloyd grabbed the curator and said, "You know what, get out of here. Change your job and don't go into that room. Seal it if you have to. But trust me, you do not WANT to go in there."
The curator whimpered as he let him go as they ran past. Perhaps, he should really get another job, like a librarian or something. Something that doesn't involve artifacts.
***********
Guy was laughing madly as he watched the television news.
"What are you laughing at?" Revarie asked, looming out of the darkness.
"Well..." Guy wiped the tears of laughter from his eyes. "It's just that... You should've seen V.V.'s face."
Reo, who was working out by using a weight stack, went, "What do you mean?"
"Oh, I just took a little something from a couple of very good demon friends." He then held out the pouch of sparkling glittery grayish black powder.
Revarie glared at it as though it had offended him. "What's that suppose to be?"
"Sand of Inanimus." Guy said, pocketing it. "It allows inanimate objects to come to life. I just made absolutely good use of it."
"By what?" Revarie snapped. "Pulling pranks at the museum?" Guy's eyes widened in surprise as he presses on. "You think I don't know what you were doing?"
Guy's hair suddenly turned into dual blades, about two feet long with its blade wickedly sharpened. "I'm warning you, stay out of it. If you mention anything to Dario, I'll cleave your head out of its neck. Which is the second way to kill a vampire besides throwing you into the sunlight."
"You-"
One instant Reo was at the weight stack, next moment he's in between them, saying, "Hey, cut it out, gentlemen. My obaasan used to tell me to never lose my temper."
"Then why don't you just go back to your native land?" Revarie sneered.
Reo didn't seem to take any offence. Instead he just went, "You know why."
Guy's hair turned back to normal and said, "You Minamio, for your sake, I won't pick a fight with him. But next time-" He threw a glance at Revarie. "- Don't expect to be lucky, vampire."
He then left the room.
"Omore, why did you stop me?" Revarie roared at Reo, who didn't even flinch, despite the fact a vampire was using his native tongue to insult him.
"I personally saved your life, kyūketsuki." Reo said, his voice calm but his eyes hardened. "You should be grateful."
"I don't need your help, ningen. Personally, I think you should mind out of my buisness."
Reo picked up a towel lying on a chair, threw it around his neck and said, "Sūtsu jibun, kyūketsuki."
***********
"Oh man, where is it?"
Glenn was tossing his books onto the floor, looking for his Greecian textbook which seems to have gone missing. "It has to be here... I was using it for my Greecian project. It has GOT to be here!"
"Glenn, are you done yet?" V.V. is hopping up and down as though she's standing on hot coals. "We have to hurry up and head back to the museum."
"Just a sec, V." Glenn was throwing his Chemistry book aside. "Oh man." He exclaimed as realization hits him. "Mahler."
V.V. frowned. "Mia?"
"I borrowed it to her."
"Vy idiot." V.V. said to him.
"Sue me, I didn't expect us to run into Greek mythology." Glenn said, running out of the room and throwing the door open and running to the door across him.
"Mahler!!!!" Glenn was hammering on the door rapidly. "Open up!!!"
That was when he saw the note tacked onto the door.
Hi,
I'll be out till 8 p.m. Please leave all letters at my mailbox or pass it to Mrs. Harris next door.
Mariah Mahler
Glenn snapped his fingers in frustration just as Lloyd poked his head out. "Let me guess, bad news?"
"Mahler won't be back till night time. And there is absolutely no point asking Mrs. Harris next door because she doesn't have the keys to Mia's."
"Well..." Lloyd said, gesturing him inside. "You can always Google."
Glenn gave him a look of sarcasm. "You didn't pay the bill for the last one. They cut it off. I have to head to the town to use the Internet cafe."
Lloyd mimicked Glenn's finger snapping. "Damn."
"And now reporting to you live, it seems that a large ferocious beast is sighted at the museum."
That caught their attention.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Supernatural Demon Slayers : Chapter 16 - Vengeful Spirit ( 復讐心 )
A few teenagers were walking past a huge building. It's St. Maria University. It's a Christian university for girls. It's a very beautiful university, with walls of turquoise and pale pink. The windows are decorated with snowflakes pattern and the great oak doors looked fit for a giant. A cross symbolizing Jesus Christ decorated on both doors. The garden path are made of white marble and it's grown with many beautiful flowers such as petunias, pansy, lavender, violet and lilies. Halfway through the middle, there's a huge statue of the Virgin Mary herself, surrounded by a circular granite fountain pond.
Summing up all, it would've been absolute paradise. Except 3 years ago, there's been a death.
No one know how it happened. It happened during break time. A chandelier that acts as the source of light in the cafeteria suddenly broke off and dropped on a girl, instantly killing her. She could not be saved.
Parents instantly blamed the school authorities but the authorities had protested that the chandelier was firmly secured at that time, and it was brand new. So how it have fell on top of the girl?
Most people suspected foul play, but since there were no evidence, the case could not be solved. In the end, the case was closed. The girl's body was put to rest. The university was then closed down by the government and the police.
Few months later, the grave of the girl was destroyed and the girl's body disappeared. Many people suspected that the spirit could not be put to rest since no one had tried to find the culprit. It had scared most of the people.
What's more scarier is witnesses said that whenever they walked past the abandoned building of St. Maria, they could hear a girl's high pitched scream. Some even claimed that they saw the spirit of the girl walking in the university grounds, moaning.
Of course, the police claimed it was rubbish and set out to investigate. But they had never returned. Some claimed they had been murdered by the spirit. One thing for sure, nobody ever goes there ever since.
***************
"Did any of you order a Combo Deal 4 plus onion rings?" The delivery guy asked.
"Sure did." Glenn cheerfully handed over the money. "Thanks very much."
As the delivery guy walked away, Glenn dumped the meal on the table and took out the onion rings. Ah...The insides of his stomach growled.
"What is that stinky smell?" V.V. had padded into the room with one hand holding her Minnie Mouse plushie and another pinching her nose.
Glenn felt a little deflated. "It's onion rings."
V.V. peered inside the carrier bag. "What pizza did you order?"
"Classic chicken and Spicy sausage." Glenn answered.
"I'll take the spicy one. It doesn't have that stinky smell." V.V. was about to open the box when Lloyd came into the room, holding a Big Apple doughnuts and coffee and Starbucks carrier bag.
"Hey, guys. Did the pizza arrived?" Lloyd asked, setting down the carrier bags.
"Yup." Glenn answered.
"Great. I got us some coffee from Starbucks." Lloyd pulled out 3 grade sized cups from the carrier bag. He handed V.V. a chocolate topped with whipped cream and chocolate syrup and chips. "It's chocolate..."
V.V. gave a sniff and sipped a little. Next moment she was slurping half of the chocolate.
"Glad to know someone who hates onions loves chocolate." Glenn said, opening the large pizza box and taking out an Extravaganza pizza. "Here."
"Save some of it." Lloyd said as he pick up a slice. "I just paid the bill so we must control ourselves until our next request come."
Riiiiiiiiiiiing. Riiiiiiiiiiiing. Riiiiiiiiiiing.
"Wow. Good timing." Glenn said as Lloyd wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and reached for the phone with his clean hand.
"Hello. Supernatural Demon Slayer (S.D.S.) service. This is Lloyd Anderson." Lloyd said with his usual buisness gutso.
As Glenn and V.V. munched down their food, Lloyd grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and scribbled down something, pacing up and down but in a limited range.
As he closed the phone, Glenn, his mouth full of pizza, asked, "Whoo wuz zthat?"
"Cassidy Stone. Principal of St. Maria University located at the East Side Street."
Glenn swallowed his mouthful of pizza and frowned. "Isn't that the haunted university?"
V.V., who had been listening throughout the whole conversation, blinked. "Haunted?"
Lloyd finished his pizza, cleaned his hands and went over to a cabinet.That was when he produced a very old newspaper cutting and handed it to V.V.
ST. MARIA UNIVERSITY HAUNTED OR JINXED
Is it most likely an absolute paradise, safe haven like St. Maria University haunted or jinxed? Most likely.
The chandelier accident, according to most people, is most likely cursed. The reason is because the school authority had claimed that the chandelier was brand new and firmly inserted.
"This is absolute madness," exclaimed Cassidy Stone (right pix),44 , Head Principal of St. Maria. "We had only opened for less than 10 years. It is absolutely impossible that the chandelier will break off all by itself. We hired the best maintenance to secure the chandelier and its safety."
But however, it still doesn't explain that the fact the chandelier suddenly broke off and instantly killed the girl, 19-year-old, Isabella Cheryl (insert), who was sitting underneath it. MORE REPORT ON PAGE 3
V.V. found herself looking at the the pictures of the two women. Principal Stone has a very thin slightly moon-shaped face with very sharp cheekbones and a strong hard jaw. Her dark hair, though graying, is wounded into the tightest of bun held together by a barrette. She maybe in her forties but her green eyes are bright and alert.
The girl, Isabella, is strikingly beautiful. She's definitely comes from a mix family. Her hair is chest-length with strands of hazel, framing her heart-shaped face. Her skin is pale brown, most likely from Asian heritage. Her eyes are hazel-shaped and had specks of brown.
There was a moment of silence till Glenn broke it by saying, "So, uh, why does Ms Stone want us to do?"
Lloyd held up the scribbled piece of paper and said, "She want us to investigate the university. But first..." He fished out his car keys from his pocket. "We have to go and see her to get the keys."
***********
Ms Stone lives in an artist's studio in Greenwich Village, so it wasn't hard to find her. Ever since the university closed down, she had turned to painting. The works doesn't exactly sell well, but enough for her to afford food and pay for the utilities.
"Is this it?" Glenn said, staring at the entrance, which has potted plants standing on either side.
"Yup." V.V. answered for Lloyd who has to cover up his blade properly. Whenever he goes into public, he has to wrap his blade up in thick bundles of cloth and secure it with a thick piece of rope. Otherwise, how could he explain to people who would freak? Sure, he has a weapon's permit, but this is the modern century. Who would go around carrying swords or blades in broad daylights? Except for thieves and bandits, those kind of people who are up to no good.
"Shall we?" Lloyd gestured to the studio.
A security guard was standing guard at the entrance. He looked up at them suspiciously as they approached.
"Who are you people?" The guard asked.
Lloyd handed over the scribbled address to the guard. "We're looking for Cassidy Stone, former principal of St. Maria University."
The guard took the paper from Lloyd and squinted at the paper as though to detect forgery. When he could find none, he muttered, "3rd Floor." He handed the paper back to him.
"Thanks very much." Lloyd gestured at the other two to follow him.
The studio is not exactly fancy, so there's no elevator. Instead, there's a flight of stairs made from metal that seems to creak with each step they took.
Each floor are decorated in exactly the same wallpaper, pink flowery patterns on yellow background and leaves. The floor are covered in peach coloured square tiles and there are at least some ferns in pots in the corridors. All the corridors are installed with air conditioner but only a few of them are working. So, ceiling fans had been installed to reduce heat.
"Boy, this place looks run down..." Glenn said, opening the few top buttons of his shirt to let cool breeze enter his chest.
"Sure is pretty hot..." V.V. mumbled, rolling her sleeves up and fanning herself.
"Don't complain, guys. We're nearly there." Lloyd answered.
Soon, they reached the 3rd floor. After confirming the number, they stopped right in front of a rather shabby looking door with its paint flaking off. Some were chipped and some are peeling off. It seems unlikely that a former head principal would live in this kind of place.
Lloyd glanced around and pressed the doorbell. There was the sound of chimes ringing coming from the inside.
After a few minutes or so, nobody came out.
"Maybe she's out..." V.V. said as Lloyd pressed the doorbell again.
"Can't be. She sounded pretty urgent..." Lloyd said, pressing the door bell for the third time.
Eventually, the door opened and a woman peeped out. All at once, the three of them had to stifle their gasp of shock.
3 years had passed when St. Maria University had closed down. But Cassidy Stone looks as though she had aged a lot. Her fine dark hair had turned even more gray, her face looks thinner. Her bright eyes looked old and tired. She had to wear pink rimmed glasses.
"Are you....Lloyd Anderson?" Even though she has already aged, she still has the voice of a strict head principal.
"Um...Yeah. That's me..." Lloyd extended a hand for her to shake it but she just stare past him to take a closer look at Glenn and V.V.
"Columbia?" She said suspiciously.
"Er...Yes???" Glenn said. He was actually wearing a black T-shirt with the Columbia University logo and white track pants with sneakers. Normally, he would've wore his Columbia uniform or a sweater and cargo pants but since they are still at the dry cleaners, he decided to wear something a little sporty.
"I been there once or twice when I was still head principal. Come on in." She opened the door a little wider.
The studio is a little cramped and packed. Stack of sealed boxes with contents such as painting equipments and canvas piled up against the walls. A few hand made masterpieces hung on the wall. There's a miniature TV on top of a stand. Beneath the TV, there are shelves CDs, DVDs and a Sony DVD player. A vase of flowers stood in the middle of a round wooden table surrounded by four straight backed chairs. There are only four rooms. One leads to the kitchen, one leads to the bathroom and one leads to her bedroom.
Cassidy led them to the table and disappeared into the kitchen. She came back holding a plastic tray laden with cups of coffee and a glass of freshly squeezed juice.
"It isn't much, but make yourselves at home." She handed the cups of coffee to Lloyd and Glenn but handed the juice to V.V. "You should drink juice, it's healthier for your age."
V.V. shrugged and took the glass. Cassidy took the remaining cup of coffee and said, "I didn't expect Mr. Anderson to be quite young. How old are you anyway?"
"23." Lloyd answered, taking a small sip of coffee. Nescafe Gold. "But we are here for the keys to the university."
"Ah, yes." Cassidy poured some creamer into her coffee. "You certainly don't waste your time in your job. Yes?"
"Yes..." Lloyd said, finishing his coffee. No surprise, since the cup is kind of small. It's a small porcelain cup that you could easily get from K-Mart.
Cassidy put down her half-finished coffee and went over to a wooden chest of drawers. She pull open the upper left drawer and fish out a bundle of keys and dropped it onto Lloyd's open hand.
"I hope you people could help me solve the problem." She muttered as Lloyd pocketed the keys.
************
"You know, we're not exactly the Ghostbusters." Glenn said as they pulled up right in front of St. Maria University.
"It's part of our job." Lloyd turned off the ignition. "But to be exactly honest, this is actually the first time I got called for a ghost extermination..."
V.V. hopped out from behind the Land Rover and eyed the university in awe, "Sure looks pretty..."
"Roses are pretty but they're also deadly because of their thorns." Lloyd fished out his blade from the boot. He tossed Glenn the keys.
Glenn inserted the key into the iron padlock and pushed the gate open. The fountain is still spraying water out despite the fact that the university had closed for good. The statue of the Virgin Mary is still there with her angelic face and hands clasp together in prayer. The strangest part of all is that the garden is not filled with weeds. Glenn pointed this part out to the other two.
Lloyd shrugged. "Maybe she hired gardeners..."
"Get real." Glenn said. "Nobody is ever going to come back here..."
V.V. had ran towards the Virgin Mary with curiosity. She even dipped her finger into the water. It's so cold.
"G...o...a...w...a...y..."
"Um, guys. Did you hear something?" V.V. asked.
"No. What?" Both guys asked.
"G...o...a...w...a...y..."
"Don't you guys hear it?" V.V.'s voice is raising into an octave.
"Hear what?"
Suddenly, a huge gust of wind blow past them, making the flower petals dance in the air. The windows shattered, glasses raining down like pieces of ice.
"What is going on? A typhoon?" Glenn shouted over the howl of the wind, which is getting stronger by the minute.
The gates suddenly clanged shut, and the padlock locked itself.
Lloyd swore under his breath.
The huge oak doors banged open as though to invite them in.
"What are we supposed to do? Run in?" Glenn asked.
"We don't have a choice..." Lloyd covered his eyes as the wind whipped up the dirt.
The trio made a beeline for the entrance. Once they're safely in, the doors slammed shut, plunging them into total darkness.
"Crikey, we're locked in." Glenn said as the lock clicked itself. "Or not..." He added.
The other two turned around to see the elegant lamps ignite by themselves, basking the room glow in warmth.
V.V. broke the silence by saying, "So, uh, should we go?"
"We don't have much choice, do we?" Lloyd held out his blade ready in front of him. "Keep your guards up."
Glenn whipped out his gun. V.V. just moved on, since her weapon is her hair.
Every now and then they will walk past a classroom, which are all decorated in exactly the same way. Rows of long wooden table with matching long wooden benches enough to fit three people.
"It must be so fun to be a student in here..." V.V. said wistfully as they walked past the third classroom.
"Sure is, except it's a university for girls..." Glenn pointed out.
"I am a girl." V.V. retorted.
"College girls." Glenn replied.
V.V. muttered something under her breath that sounds "Hmph!"
"Let's check out the cafeteria." Lloyd said suddenly.
"Why is that?" Glenn asked.
"It's one of the good places to start." Lloyd said. "Besides, I want to see the scene of the death."
Glenn gulped.
The cafeteria is directly on the left with glass doors installed. The doors have a sign that reads NO ENTRY, KEEP OUT.
Ignoring the sign, Lloyd grabbed the metal handle and pushed the door open.
The cafeteria is surprisingly gloomy. The glass is tinted so that the outside can't peep in . There are many large display cabinets that once held food and drinks, but now it's empty and spotlessly clean. Well, it is kind of hard to see in the gloom. There are at least about twenty circular tables and matching chairs in the cafeteria in total. There's even a bulletin board behind the counter that says TODAY'S MENU - NACHOS, SCRAMBLED EGGS, CHICKEN AND HAM SANDWICHES, WAFFLES, SALAD, YOGURT, FISH AND CHIPS and the price of each food and drinks.
"What are we looking for again?" Glenn asked as Lloyd led the way. V.V. shuffled behind.
There's no point in flicking the switch on since the main source of light, the chandelier is broken. Lloyd, whose eyes are used to the dark, managed to see the loose wires which stuck out from the ceiling. The chandelier debris has been cleared up and nobody seems to be in here.
Or so they thought.
There's a girl sitting directly underneath where the chandelier had been, playing with her food.Her pale heart shaped face and dark chest-length hair is familiar...
"Isn't that Isabella Cheryl?" V.V. said in shock.
Isabella looked up when her name was mentioned. "What are you doing here?"
Lloyd kept quiet. He don't know how to react.
Glenn, however, just went straight up to her and said, "We should be asking you the same thing."
Isabella's hazel-shaped eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Who are you people?"
"It's none of your concern." Lloyd finally answered.
V.V. felt the back of her neck tingling. This girl is already dead. So what is this bad feeling I'm having? She thought.
Something moved at the corner of her eye. A shadow? Allen or Mind's Shadow?
Or Guy? She stiffen up.
"Did you come to see me?" Isabella is still gazing at them with suspicion.
"Not exactly." Lloyd said.
Isabella glared at them. "Go away..."
"We're here to help." Glenn said.
Isabella suddenly threw her food tray at them and shrieked, "Nobody can help me. Go away!"
Her hazel eyes that were full of warmth suddenly turned into a blood red crimson in colour and the glass shattered. Chairs and tables started spinning around as though a tornado had just lifted them up.
"Duck!" Lloyd yelled at the other two as the cash register from the counter flew towards them, missing him only by a few inches. It smashed against a wall and broke into pieces.
"You should watch your back..." Isabella said.
Lloyd turned around to see a table hurtling towards him. He sliced it into half with his blade. Glenn is effortlessly ripping chairs apart with his bare hands. Must be his ancestor's vampire blood that runs in his veins. V.V. is also dicing the obstacles that were heading towards her with her blade hair.
The glass shattered into pieces, raining down upon them. "You won't leave here alive!" Isabella blasted crimson energy towards Lloyd, who was thrown off his feet.
"Retreat!" Lloyd dashed through the shattered glass doors. Glenn and V.V. followed.
"Any idea on what we have to do?" Glenn asked, appearing beside him.
"Not a clue." Lloyd said. "I thought we can talk to her. You know, negotiate. But it seems that I was wrong."
"Here." V.V. led them out into the courtyard. Fruits and plants grew out there. "We can think of something out here."
"Not good enough." Lloyd said. "She's all over the place. It's her domain."
Glenn's ears twitched and pressed his temples. "My vamp instincts tells me she's coming. And fast."
"Nice to know that those vamp instincts sure come in handy at the right time." V.V. said, nodding.
"No arguments there." Lloyd said as the glass doors leading to the courtyard shattered and were pulled out of their hinges when Isabella came out. Her hair dancing in the air even though there's no wind. Bolts of red energy surrounded each of her fingers.
"Let's end this game of hide and seek, now." She said coldly, shooting energy out of her fingers like a bullet shot out from a gun.
Glenn took out his gun and shot above her.
"Where do you think you're aiming at?" V.V. asked, her hair turning into huge wings to shield herself from the energy blast, similar to Guy.
Glenn ignored her and kept aiming above the ghost.
"You had totally lost it." Isabella cackled.
"Actually, I haven't." Glenn smirked.
That was when a huge ornamental lamp that hung above the door crashed down onto Isabella, causing her to shriek in fright, keeping her occupied.
"Let's make a run for it." Glenn said, running towards the path that leads them back to the gates.
"Nice work back there." Lloyd said as Glenn led the way.
"Oh, it's nothing really." Glenn said modestly.
"Man bonding." V.V. sighed. "Touching..."
The trio went back to the main gates. It's not exactly a pretty sight.When they first came, everything was peaceful and serene. Now, the flowers were dug up from their roots so viciously that it looks as though someone had tried to dig up the flowers but without any care at all. The giant oak doors that were once looks polished were scratched and chipped heavily that the shellac is slowly flaking off. The Virgin Mary's heavenly statue that was full of hope and divine protection was destroyed in some places. The most disgusting part was the face, where it was cracked and had dirt on it.
Glenn tried to push the door open but then he swore. "Rats, it's still locked."
"Here!" Lloyd tossed the keys onto Glenn's outstretched hand.
As Glenn tried to insert the right key into the padlock, a powerful blast hit his fingers directly. Blood started to ooze out from his injured fingers, causing him to lose grip on the keys.
"Didn't I say it before? You're not leaving here alive..."
Isabella had appeared around the corner. Her crimson eyes glowed with evil and corrupted by hatred.
As she lifted hes hand to deal Glenn the finishing blow, it was V.V. who said something that unexpected.
"Why do you kill?"
Isabella stopped abruptly. Her bloody crimson eyes turned back to a warm brown. The madness and evil aura that surrounds her disappeared as well. She fell to the ground.
Lloyd rushed to her side. "Hey, you okay?"
"Well, that was unexpected." Glenn said, cradling his injured fingers.
Isabella clutched Lloyd's coat. "Please, help me..."
"Help what?" He asked.
"Please, set me free..." Tears started to poured down her face.
V.V. approached towards Isabella and turned her hand into a blade.
"V.V. What are you doing?" Lloyd said in alarm.
"V.V. Don't tell me you're serious." Glenn said, staring at her blade.
"I am." V.V. said. "Step aside."
"V.V. You can't just do that!" Lloyd grabbed Isabella protectively but V.V. was too fast for him. She knocked him back and plunged her blade onto the back of Isabella's neck.
Lloyd yelled for V.V. to stop. Glenn looked shocked.
V.V.'s blade was stopped by a barrier and shattered. "Why?" She whispered.
The back of Isabella's uniform shredded, revealing a spider clinging onto her back. It's an odd blackish-blue in colour, roughly about the size of a black widow.
"This...I cannot allow..." A deep voice said. It seems to becoming from the spider on Isabella's back. Another barrier came out and blasted V.V. away.
"What are you?" Lloyd yelled.
"Hehehehe. I am Zachwell, but call me Zach, a Shinigami."
"Shinigami? As in God of Death?" Glenn said.
"Yes... I had placed the girl under my control, as you can see. And let me tell you this, it's not easy to break the control off her..."
"You creep." Glenn spat.
"Isabella, why don't you finish them off?"
Isabella looked numb. She turned to Lloyd, their eyes met. It was filled with sorrow and sadness, even confusion.
"You don't have to listen to him." Lloyd said.
"I should think not." Zach's voice boomed.
Suddenly, Isabella turned back into the vengeful spirit. The warm brown eyes turned back into crimson red. Pulse of energy cackled around her.
"Die!!!" She screamed, blasting spears of energy this time.
"Guys, we got to separate that spider from her." Lloyd yelled. "So, I say we aim for the back of her neck."
"I won't let you hurt Zachwell!" Isabella appeared out of nowhere and aimed a roundhouse kick on Lloyd.
"Well, at least you don't rely on Zach that much." Glenn said, using vampire speed and tackling Isabella who blasted onto a wall.
"Silence that boy up, Isabella. Do it now."
Isabella got up and rushed towards Glenn, fingers outstretched. It became shaped like claws. She tried to gouged his eyes out but Lloyd kicked her away. There was a cracking sound as one of Isabella's ribs broke. She whimpered in pain.
"Don't stop, Isabella. Even if it costs your life..."
"I know." She replied, picking herself up. "You don't have to remind me, Zachwell."
V.V. jumped out, her hair turned into a scythe. She was aiming for her blind spot but it failed as Isabella blocked V.V. with the back of her hand. A gash appeared at her hand and started bleeding.
"Darn. I almost had it." V.V. snapped her fingers in frustration.
"Ignore the boys. They are not much of a threat... But the girl had unusual powers. She's not human... Get her.."
Isabella raised her palms. Huge energy blast started charging towards V.V., who was off guard. Lloyd deflected the blasts with his blade.
"Didn't I tell you not to let your guard down, V.V.?"
"Listen, I got a plan. But it might be tricky." V.V. said in a whisper.
Glenn sprinted to her side and said, "I heard you. So, what's the plan?"
"Well, I don't think the Shinigami is interested at the two of you so I'll get itsy-bitsy spider off her back." V.V. said.
"Sounds good." Lloyd said.
"Aw, shucks. I hate playing the decoy. I like a little action. You know what I'm saying?" Glenn had put on a fake Tennessee accent drawl.
"No time to argue, 'cos here it comes." Lloyd said as Isabella summoned a typhoon towards them.
Glenn took out his gun and said to Isabella. "I hate being in the sidelines, so I'm going to curse you for it, Death God."
"Bring it on, I love a challenge." Zach said through Isabella's voice, so that it sounds strange. Two voice talking at once out of the same body. "Besides, I noticed one strange thing. Your level is not a human's level. I can tell from your speed. Are you a demon?"
"Good guess, but wrong answer." Glenn grabbed Isabella's shirt collar and banged her with the back of the gun. Isabella coughed.
"Nice one. But don't underestimate me..."
Isabella held out her palm and a scythe formed onto her hand. It's long with a gold bronze pole handle and a huge sickle blade. There's also a spiked ball attached on chain at the end of the pole.
"Kamaitachi." Zach's voice boomed out.
Glenn, who had taken Japanese class, said, "Doesn't that mean 'sickle weasel?'"
"Do you know why it's called Kamaitachi? Why don't I show you?"
Isabella swing the scythe as hard as she could. A tornado appeared, but it's not an ordinary tornado. The flowers were all sliced into pieces, the remnants of the Virgin Mary statue were diced into pieces like a knife sliding through butter easily.
"Sickle Tornado. Cool...." Glenn awed.
"Focus, Glenn." Lloyd said, raising his blade.
Isabella, or rather, Zach laughed. "Do you think that you could just break through my Death Tornado? You're just a human."
"Oh, really?" Lloyd said. "Then, can a normal human do this?"
He jumped as high as he could, his blade held high behind him, and with all his might and sliced the tornado in half. It disappeared, but not before he was entrapped in it, getting cuts all over his body.
"Gotcha!" Glenn caught Lloyd as he went falling down. "What's wrong with you, man? Are you crazy?"
"Hah..In your dreams..." He panted and slowly shut his eyes. No kidding. His whole body was covered in cuts. It looks as though mirror shards had rained down on him and pierced him. Well, he is still human after all.
"That boy is crazy." Zach's voice boomed. "He was willing to cut the tornado even if it costs him his life..."
"That's Lloyd for you. He's one crazy guy ever since I known him." Glenn said. "And by the way, aren't you forgetting something?"
Isabella had just enough time to turn around, only to have the spider on the back of her neck pierced by a cyan-coloured scythe.
"Score one for me..." V.V. said, pulling her hair back to reveal a spider stuck onto the tip of her hair, which is as sharp as a scythe.
Isabella, or rather, Zach screamed and Isabella turned back to normal.
And the true master mind himself appeared.
What surprises them most is that Zach the Shinigami is not what they expected. They expected an old man or a huge monster-like creature. Not a man in his late twenties with light brown skin, spiky plantinium hair that touches his collar and crimson eyes. The only thing that most of them got right is he wore a leather black cape with silver chains and wields his chain scythe.
"That..was...unexpected..." V.V. said slowly.
"No kidding..." Glenn said.
"I hate you, girl..." Zach snarled as V.V. dropped the dead spider at his feet. "I don't know whether to be happy that I have found a new host to possess or I should be mad for killing off my spider..."
"You want me to throw you in Hell? 'Cos I don't mind doing it at all." Glenn banged his knuckles together.
"You think it's easier to defeat me when I am not inside a host?" Zach spin his scythe viciously till all the surrounding perimeter flowers and facilities were destroyed in one go and effortlessly.
"V. Attack him from both sides." Glenn yelled, inserting custom-made bullets that packs more fire power than his regular one.
V.V.'s hair turned into deadly blades and tried to pierce him, but Zach swung his scythe which pierced right through V.V.'s left shoulder, causing cracks to appear.
"That was too easy." Zach said.
Suddenly, bullets shot him through the shoulder and packs a fire power. He turned around to see Glenn just reloading his ammunition.
"You, the human with non-human blood. I'll kill you!!!" Zach charged towards Glenn, his scythe raised for the kill.
Glenn smirked and threw something in the air while shooting Zach straight in the head.
At first, nothing happened. Then Zack started to fade. A crystaled bottle whose contents had been spilled all over the Shinigami smashed onto the ground.
"What did you just do to me, boy?" The Death God yelled.
"Holy water." Glenn said. "It's a repellent for evil, but I used it to cleanse your soul. It does have other uses besides repelling vamps, you know."
"You think you can save my soul from corruption? Screw you." Zach spat.
"I'm no God. But at the very least I should help purify your soul." Glenn turned away and head towards Isabella, who is lying down on the grass.
As soon as Glenn's back was turned, Zach tried to raise his scythe to stab his blind spot but V.V. stabbed him through with a hair blade. He gave a choking gasp and slowly faded.
"Hey, girl. That was pretty kind of fun by the way..." Zach murmured to V.V. as he faded into nothing.
V.V. hid a hint of a smile.
Glenn poured holy water on Isabella, who slowly opened her eyes and said, "I'm sorry..."
"It's alright." He said.
Isabella shook her head weakly and said, "I was unable to rest in peace because no one had bothered trying to find the person who loosened the chandelier at the last minute to kill me. I was overcome in anger and hatred. I swore to myself that I will not rest till I found the person responsible."
"And then he came."
There's no need to ask.
"He said he could help me get back on the person who did this to me. I don't know what I was thinking back then. I should've just let go." Isabella stopped to catch her breath.
"Hey, everybody makes mistakes in life." Glenn said lightly.
Isabella gave a small smile and said, "If I were still alive, I would've asked you out on a date." She turned to V.V. "Thank you."
"Oh, it's nothing really. Just doing the job." V.V. said, shrugging.
Isabella turned to Lloyd's figure who is lying down and said, "I didn't mean to kill him..."
"Don't worry. He's fine." Glenn said. "It takes a lot of demons to pummel him down."
Isabella smiled. "I'm glad. I can finally rest in peace..." As she faded into sparkles of lights, she touched Glenn's cheek and said, "Thank you... For everything..."
The padlock then unlock itself and the gates opened, out into the clear sunlight.
"Alrighty." Glenn said. "Let's head back and get some grub. We sure worked really hard today."
"Wait. What about Lloyd? He's heavy..." V.V. said.
"My fingers are injured." Glenn said.
V.V. scowled and with enormous effort, managed to heave Lloyd into the backseat of the Land Rover and scrambled into the front seat with Glenn.
"You owe me..." V.V. scowled again as Glenn inserted the key into the ignition.
"Sure. I don't mind. First stop, the hospital."
As they drove down the road, V.V. gazed into the clear blue sky and murmured, "Definitely..."
Summing up all, it would've been absolute paradise. Except 3 years ago, there's been a death.
No one know how it happened. It happened during break time. A chandelier that acts as the source of light in the cafeteria suddenly broke off and dropped on a girl, instantly killing her. She could not be saved.
Parents instantly blamed the school authorities but the authorities had protested that the chandelier was firmly secured at that time, and it was brand new. So how it have fell on top of the girl?
Most people suspected foul play, but since there were no evidence, the case could not be solved. In the end, the case was closed. The girl's body was put to rest. The university was then closed down by the government and the police.
Few months later, the grave of the girl was destroyed and the girl's body disappeared. Many people suspected that the spirit could not be put to rest since no one had tried to find the culprit. It had scared most of the people.
What's more scarier is witnesses said that whenever they walked past the abandoned building of St. Maria, they could hear a girl's high pitched scream. Some even claimed that they saw the spirit of the girl walking in the university grounds, moaning.
Of course, the police claimed it was rubbish and set out to investigate. But they had never returned. Some claimed they had been murdered by the spirit. One thing for sure, nobody ever goes there ever since.
***************
"Did any of you order a Combo Deal 4 plus onion rings?" The delivery guy asked.
"Sure did." Glenn cheerfully handed over the money. "Thanks very much."
As the delivery guy walked away, Glenn dumped the meal on the table and took out the onion rings. Ah...The insides of his stomach growled.
"What is that stinky smell?" V.V. had padded into the room with one hand holding her Minnie Mouse plushie and another pinching her nose.
Glenn felt a little deflated. "It's onion rings."
V.V. peered inside the carrier bag. "What pizza did you order?"
"Classic chicken and Spicy sausage." Glenn answered.
"I'll take the spicy one. It doesn't have that stinky smell." V.V. was about to open the box when Lloyd came into the room, holding a Big Apple doughnuts and coffee and Starbucks carrier bag.
"Hey, guys. Did the pizza arrived?" Lloyd asked, setting down the carrier bags.
"Yup." Glenn answered.
"Great. I got us some coffee from Starbucks." Lloyd pulled out 3 grade sized cups from the carrier bag. He handed V.V. a chocolate topped with whipped cream and chocolate syrup and chips. "It's chocolate..."
V.V. gave a sniff and sipped a little. Next moment she was slurping half of the chocolate.
"Glad to know someone who hates onions loves chocolate." Glenn said, opening the large pizza box and taking out an Extravaganza pizza. "Here."
"Save some of it." Lloyd said as he pick up a slice. "I just paid the bill so we must control ourselves until our next request come."
Riiiiiiiiiiiing. Riiiiiiiiiiiing. Riiiiiiiiiiing.
"Wow. Good timing." Glenn said as Lloyd wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and reached for the phone with his clean hand.
"Hello. Supernatural Demon Slayer (S.D.S.) service. This is Lloyd Anderson." Lloyd said with his usual buisness gutso.
As Glenn and V.V. munched down their food, Lloyd grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and scribbled down something, pacing up and down but in a limited range.
As he closed the phone, Glenn, his mouth full of pizza, asked, "Whoo wuz zthat?"
"Cassidy Stone. Principal of St. Maria University located at the East Side Street."
Glenn swallowed his mouthful of pizza and frowned. "Isn't that the haunted university?"
V.V., who had been listening throughout the whole conversation, blinked. "Haunted?"
Lloyd finished his pizza, cleaned his hands and went over to a cabinet.That was when he produced a very old newspaper cutting and handed it to V.V.
ST. MARIA UNIVERSITY HAUNTED OR JINXED
Is it most likely an absolute paradise, safe haven like St. Maria University haunted or jinxed? Most likely.
The chandelier accident, according to most people, is most likely cursed. The reason is because the school authority had claimed that the chandelier was brand new and firmly inserted.
"This is absolute madness," exclaimed Cassidy Stone (right pix),44 , Head Principal of St. Maria. "We had only opened for less than 10 years. It is absolutely impossible that the chandelier will break off all by itself. We hired the best maintenance to secure the chandelier and its safety."
But however, it still doesn't explain that the fact the chandelier suddenly broke off and instantly killed the girl, 19-year-old, Isabella Cheryl (insert), who was sitting underneath it. MORE REPORT ON PAGE 3
V.V. found herself looking at the the pictures of the two women. Principal Stone has a very thin slightly moon-shaped face with very sharp cheekbones and a strong hard jaw. Her dark hair, though graying, is wounded into the tightest of bun held together by a barrette. She maybe in her forties but her green eyes are bright and alert.
The girl, Isabella, is strikingly beautiful. She's definitely comes from a mix family. Her hair is chest-length with strands of hazel, framing her heart-shaped face. Her skin is pale brown, most likely from Asian heritage. Her eyes are hazel-shaped and had specks of brown.
There was a moment of silence till Glenn broke it by saying, "So, uh, why does Ms Stone want us to do?"
Lloyd held up the scribbled piece of paper and said, "She want us to investigate the university. But first..." He fished out his car keys from his pocket. "We have to go and see her to get the keys."
***********
Ms Stone lives in an artist's studio in Greenwich Village, so it wasn't hard to find her. Ever since the university closed down, she had turned to painting. The works doesn't exactly sell well, but enough for her to afford food and pay for the utilities.
"Is this it?" Glenn said, staring at the entrance, which has potted plants standing on either side.
"Yup." V.V. answered for Lloyd who has to cover up his blade properly. Whenever he goes into public, he has to wrap his blade up in thick bundles of cloth and secure it with a thick piece of rope. Otherwise, how could he explain to people who would freak? Sure, he has a weapon's permit, but this is the modern century. Who would go around carrying swords or blades in broad daylights? Except for thieves and bandits, those kind of people who are up to no good.
"Shall we?" Lloyd gestured to the studio.
A security guard was standing guard at the entrance. He looked up at them suspiciously as they approached.
"Who are you people?" The guard asked.
Lloyd handed over the scribbled address to the guard. "We're looking for Cassidy Stone, former principal of St. Maria University."
The guard took the paper from Lloyd and squinted at the paper as though to detect forgery. When he could find none, he muttered, "3rd Floor." He handed the paper back to him.
"Thanks very much." Lloyd gestured at the other two to follow him.
The studio is not exactly fancy, so there's no elevator. Instead, there's a flight of stairs made from metal that seems to creak with each step they took.
Each floor are decorated in exactly the same wallpaper, pink flowery patterns on yellow background and leaves. The floor are covered in peach coloured square tiles and there are at least some ferns in pots in the corridors. All the corridors are installed with air conditioner but only a few of them are working. So, ceiling fans had been installed to reduce heat.
"Boy, this place looks run down..." Glenn said, opening the few top buttons of his shirt to let cool breeze enter his chest.
"Sure is pretty hot..." V.V. mumbled, rolling her sleeves up and fanning herself.
"Don't complain, guys. We're nearly there." Lloyd answered.
Soon, they reached the 3rd floor. After confirming the number, they stopped right in front of a rather shabby looking door with its paint flaking off. Some were chipped and some are peeling off. It seems unlikely that a former head principal would live in this kind of place.
Lloyd glanced around and pressed the doorbell. There was the sound of chimes ringing coming from the inside.
After a few minutes or so, nobody came out.
"Maybe she's out..." V.V. said as Lloyd pressed the doorbell again.
"Can't be. She sounded pretty urgent..." Lloyd said, pressing the door bell for the third time.
Eventually, the door opened and a woman peeped out. All at once, the three of them had to stifle their gasp of shock.
3 years had passed when St. Maria University had closed down. But Cassidy Stone looks as though she had aged a lot. Her fine dark hair had turned even more gray, her face looks thinner. Her bright eyes looked old and tired. She had to wear pink rimmed glasses.
"Are you....Lloyd Anderson?" Even though she has already aged, she still has the voice of a strict head principal.
"Um...Yeah. That's me..." Lloyd extended a hand for her to shake it but she just stare past him to take a closer look at Glenn and V.V.
"Columbia?" She said suspiciously.
"Er...Yes???" Glenn said. He was actually wearing a black T-shirt with the Columbia University logo and white track pants with sneakers. Normally, he would've wore his Columbia uniform or a sweater and cargo pants but since they are still at the dry cleaners, he decided to wear something a little sporty.
"I been there once or twice when I was still head principal. Come on in." She opened the door a little wider.
The studio is a little cramped and packed. Stack of sealed boxes with contents such as painting equipments and canvas piled up against the walls. A few hand made masterpieces hung on the wall. There's a miniature TV on top of a stand. Beneath the TV, there are shelves CDs, DVDs and a Sony DVD player. A vase of flowers stood in the middle of a round wooden table surrounded by four straight backed chairs. There are only four rooms. One leads to the kitchen, one leads to the bathroom and one leads to her bedroom.
Cassidy led them to the table and disappeared into the kitchen. She came back holding a plastic tray laden with cups of coffee and a glass of freshly squeezed juice.
"It isn't much, but make yourselves at home." She handed the cups of coffee to Lloyd and Glenn but handed the juice to V.V. "You should drink juice, it's healthier for your age."
V.V. shrugged and took the glass. Cassidy took the remaining cup of coffee and said, "I didn't expect Mr. Anderson to be quite young. How old are you anyway?"
"23." Lloyd answered, taking a small sip of coffee. Nescafe Gold. "But we are here for the keys to the university."
"Ah, yes." Cassidy poured some creamer into her coffee. "You certainly don't waste your time in your job. Yes?"
"Yes..." Lloyd said, finishing his coffee. No surprise, since the cup is kind of small. It's a small porcelain cup that you could easily get from K-Mart.
Cassidy put down her half-finished coffee and went over to a wooden chest of drawers. She pull open the upper left drawer and fish out a bundle of keys and dropped it onto Lloyd's open hand.
"I hope you people could help me solve the problem." She muttered as Lloyd pocketed the keys.
************
"You know, we're not exactly the Ghostbusters." Glenn said as they pulled up right in front of St. Maria University.
"It's part of our job." Lloyd turned off the ignition. "But to be exactly honest, this is actually the first time I got called for a ghost extermination..."
V.V. hopped out from behind the Land Rover and eyed the university in awe, "Sure looks pretty..."
"Roses are pretty but they're also deadly because of their thorns." Lloyd fished out his blade from the boot. He tossed Glenn the keys.
Glenn inserted the key into the iron padlock and pushed the gate open. The fountain is still spraying water out despite the fact that the university had closed for good. The statue of the Virgin Mary is still there with her angelic face and hands clasp together in prayer. The strangest part of all is that the garden is not filled with weeds. Glenn pointed this part out to the other two.
Lloyd shrugged. "Maybe she hired gardeners..."
"Get real." Glenn said. "Nobody is ever going to come back here..."
V.V. had ran towards the Virgin Mary with curiosity. She even dipped her finger into the water. It's so cold.
"G...o...a...w...a...y..."
"Um, guys. Did you hear something?" V.V. asked.
"No. What?" Both guys asked.
"G...o...a...w...a...y..."
"Don't you guys hear it?" V.V.'s voice is raising into an octave.
"Hear what?"
Suddenly, a huge gust of wind blow past them, making the flower petals dance in the air. The windows shattered, glasses raining down like pieces of ice.
"What is going on? A typhoon?" Glenn shouted over the howl of the wind, which is getting stronger by the minute.
The gates suddenly clanged shut, and the padlock locked itself.
Lloyd swore under his breath.
The huge oak doors banged open as though to invite them in.
"What are we supposed to do? Run in?" Glenn asked.
"We don't have a choice..." Lloyd covered his eyes as the wind whipped up the dirt.
The trio made a beeline for the entrance. Once they're safely in, the doors slammed shut, plunging them into total darkness.
"Crikey, we're locked in." Glenn said as the lock clicked itself. "Or not..." He added.
The other two turned around to see the elegant lamps ignite by themselves, basking the room glow in warmth.
V.V. broke the silence by saying, "So, uh, should we go?"
"We don't have much choice, do we?" Lloyd held out his blade ready in front of him. "Keep your guards up."
Glenn whipped out his gun. V.V. just moved on, since her weapon is her hair.
Every now and then they will walk past a classroom, which are all decorated in exactly the same way. Rows of long wooden table with matching long wooden benches enough to fit three people.
"It must be so fun to be a student in here..." V.V. said wistfully as they walked past the third classroom.
"Sure is, except it's a university for girls..." Glenn pointed out.
"I am a girl." V.V. retorted.
"College girls." Glenn replied.
V.V. muttered something under her breath that sounds "Hmph!"
"Let's check out the cafeteria." Lloyd said suddenly.
"Why is that?" Glenn asked.
"It's one of the good places to start." Lloyd said. "Besides, I want to see the scene of the death."
Glenn gulped.
The cafeteria is directly on the left with glass doors installed. The doors have a sign that reads NO ENTRY, KEEP OUT.
Ignoring the sign, Lloyd grabbed the metal handle and pushed the door open.
The cafeteria is surprisingly gloomy. The glass is tinted so that the outside can't peep in . There are many large display cabinets that once held food and drinks, but now it's empty and spotlessly clean. Well, it is kind of hard to see in the gloom. There are at least about twenty circular tables and matching chairs in the cafeteria in total. There's even a bulletin board behind the counter that says TODAY'S MENU - NACHOS, SCRAMBLED EGGS, CHICKEN AND HAM SANDWICHES, WAFFLES, SALAD, YOGURT, FISH AND CHIPS and the price of each food and drinks.
"What are we looking for again?" Glenn asked as Lloyd led the way. V.V. shuffled behind.
There's no point in flicking the switch on since the main source of light, the chandelier is broken. Lloyd, whose eyes are used to the dark, managed to see the loose wires which stuck out from the ceiling. The chandelier debris has been cleared up and nobody seems to be in here.
Or so they thought.
There's a girl sitting directly underneath where the chandelier had been, playing with her food.Her pale heart shaped face and dark chest-length hair is familiar...
"Isn't that Isabella Cheryl?" V.V. said in shock.
Isabella looked up when her name was mentioned. "What are you doing here?"
Lloyd kept quiet. He don't know how to react.
Glenn, however, just went straight up to her and said, "We should be asking you the same thing."
Isabella's hazel-shaped eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Who are you people?"
"It's none of your concern." Lloyd finally answered.
V.V. felt the back of her neck tingling. This girl is already dead. So what is this bad feeling I'm having? She thought.
Something moved at the corner of her eye. A shadow? Allen or Mind's Shadow?
Or Guy? She stiffen up.
"Did you come to see me?" Isabella is still gazing at them with suspicion.
"Not exactly." Lloyd said.
Isabella glared at them. "Go away..."
"We're here to help." Glenn said.
Isabella suddenly threw her food tray at them and shrieked, "Nobody can help me. Go away!"
Her hazel eyes that were full of warmth suddenly turned into a blood red crimson in colour and the glass shattered. Chairs and tables started spinning around as though a tornado had just lifted them up.
"Duck!" Lloyd yelled at the other two as the cash register from the counter flew towards them, missing him only by a few inches. It smashed against a wall and broke into pieces.
"You should watch your back..." Isabella said.
Lloyd turned around to see a table hurtling towards him. He sliced it into half with his blade. Glenn is effortlessly ripping chairs apart with his bare hands. Must be his ancestor's vampire blood that runs in his veins. V.V. is also dicing the obstacles that were heading towards her with her blade hair.
The glass shattered into pieces, raining down upon them. "You won't leave here alive!" Isabella blasted crimson energy towards Lloyd, who was thrown off his feet.
"Retreat!" Lloyd dashed through the shattered glass doors. Glenn and V.V. followed.
"Any idea on what we have to do?" Glenn asked, appearing beside him.
"Not a clue." Lloyd said. "I thought we can talk to her. You know, negotiate. But it seems that I was wrong."
"Here." V.V. led them out into the courtyard. Fruits and plants grew out there. "We can think of something out here."
"Not good enough." Lloyd said. "She's all over the place. It's her domain."
Glenn's ears twitched and pressed his temples. "My vamp instincts tells me she's coming. And fast."
"Nice to know that those vamp instincts sure come in handy at the right time." V.V. said, nodding.
"No arguments there." Lloyd said as the glass doors leading to the courtyard shattered and were pulled out of their hinges when Isabella came out. Her hair dancing in the air even though there's no wind. Bolts of red energy surrounded each of her fingers.
"Let's end this game of hide and seek, now." She said coldly, shooting energy out of her fingers like a bullet shot out from a gun.
Glenn took out his gun and shot above her.
"Where do you think you're aiming at?" V.V. asked, her hair turning into huge wings to shield herself from the energy blast, similar to Guy.
Glenn ignored her and kept aiming above the ghost.
"You had totally lost it." Isabella cackled.
"Actually, I haven't." Glenn smirked.
That was when a huge ornamental lamp that hung above the door crashed down onto Isabella, causing her to shriek in fright, keeping her occupied.
"Let's make a run for it." Glenn said, running towards the path that leads them back to the gates.
"Nice work back there." Lloyd said as Glenn led the way.
"Oh, it's nothing really." Glenn said modestly.
"Man bonding." V.V. sighed. "Touching..."
The trio went back to the main gates. It's not exactly a pretty sight.When they first came, everything was peaceful and serene. Now, the flowers were dug up from their roots so viciously that it looks as though someone had tried to dig up the flowers but without any care at all. The giant oak doors that were once looks polished were scratched and chipped heavily that the shellac is slowly flaking off. The Virgin Mary's heavenly statue that was full of hope and divine protection was destroyed in some places. The most disgusting part was the face, where it was cracked and had dirt on it.
Glenn tried to push the door open but then he swore. "Rats, it's still locked."
"Here!" Lloyd tossed the keys onto Glenn's outstretched hand.
As Glenn tried to insert the right key into the padlock, a powerful blast hit his fingers directly. Blood started to ooze out from his injured fingers, causing him to lose grip on the keys.
"Didn't I say it before? You're not leaving here alive..."
Isabella had appeared around the corner. Her crimson eyes glowed with evil and corrupted by hatred.
As she lifted hes hand to deal Glenn the finishing blow, it was V.V. who said something that unexpected.
"Why do you kill?"
Isabella stopped abruptly. Her bloody crimson eyes turned back to a warm brown. The madness and evil aura that surrounds her disappeared as well. She fell to the ground.
Lloyd rushed to her side. "Hey, you okay?"
"Well, that was unexpected." Glenn said, cradling his injured fingers.
Isabella clutched Lloyd's coat. "Please, help me..."
"Help what?" He asked.
"Please, set me free..." Tears started to poured down her face.
V.V. approached towards Isabella and turned her hand into a blade.
"V.V. What are you doing?" Lloyd said in alarm.
"V.V. Don't tell me you're serious." Glenn said, staring at her blade.
"I am." V.V. said. "Step aside."
"V.V. You can't just do that!" Lloyd grabbed Isabella protectively but V.V. was too fast for him. She knocked him back and plunged her blade onto the back of Isabella's neck.
Lloyd yelled for V.V. to stop. Glenn looked shocked.
V.V.'s blade was stopped by a barrier and shattered. "Why?" She whispered.
The back of Isabella's uniform shredded, revealing a spider clinging onto her back. It's an odd blackish-blue in colour, roughly about the size of a black widow.
"This...I cannot allow..." A deep voice said. It seems to becoming from the spider on Isabella's back. Another barrier came out and blasted V.V. away.
"What are you?" Lloyd yelled.
"Hehehehe. I am Zachwell, but call me Zach, a Shinigami."
"Shinigami? As in God of Death?" Glenn said.
"Yes... I had placed the girl under my control, as you can see. And let me tell you this, it's not easy to break the control off her..."
"You creep." Glenn spat.
"Isabella, why don't you finish them off?"
Isabella looked numb. She turned to Lloyd, their eyes met. It was filled with sorrow and sadness, even confusion.
"You don't have to listen to him." Lloyd said.
"I should think not." Zach's voice boomed.
Suddenly, Isabella turned back into the vengeful spirit. The warm brown eyes turned back into crimson red. Pulse of energy cackled around her.
"Die!!!" She screamed, blasting spears of energy this time.
"Guys, we got to separate that spider from her." Lloyd yelled. "So, I say we aim for the back of her neck."
"I won't let you hurt Zachwell!" Isabella appeared out of nowhere and aimed a roundhouse kick on Lloyd.
"Well, at least you don't rely on Zach that much." Glenn said, using vampire speed and tackling Isabella who blasted onto a wall.
"Silence that boy up, Isabella. Do it now."
Isabella got up and rushed towards Glenn, fingers outstretched. It became shaped like claws. She tried to gouged his eyes out but Lloyd kicked her away. There was a cracking sound as one of Isabella's ribs broke. She whimpered in pain.
"Don't stop, Isabella. Even if it costs your life..."
"I know." She replied, picking herself up. "You don't have to remind me, Zachwell."
V.V. jumped out, her hair turned into a scythe. She was aiming for her blind spot but it failed as Isabella blocked V.V. with the back of her hand. A gash appeared at her hand and started bleeding.
"Darn. I almost had it." V.V. snapped her fingers in frustration.
"Ignore the boys. They are not much of a threat... But the girl had unusual powers. She's not human... Get her.."
Isabella raised her palms. Huge energy blast started charging towards V.V., who was off guard. Lloyd deflected the blasts with his blade.
"Didn't I tell you not to let your guard down, V.V.?"
"Listen, I got a plan. But it might be tricky." V.V. said in a whisper.
Glenn sprinted to her side and said, "I heard you. So, what's the plan?"
"Well, I don't think the Shinigami is interested at the two of you so I'll get itsy-bitsy spider off her back." V.V. said.
"Sounds good." Lloyd said.
"Aw, shucks. I hate playing the decoy. I like a little action. You know what I'm saying?" Glenn had put on a fake Tennessee accent drawl.
"No time to argue, 'cos here it comes." Lloyd said as Isabella summoned a typhoon towards them.
Glenn took out his gun and said to Isabella. "I hate being in the sidelines, so I'm going to curse you for it, Death God."
"Bring it on, I love a challenge." Zach said through Isabella's voice, so that it sounds strange. Two voice talking at once out of the same body. "Besides, I noticed one strange thing. Your level is not a human's level. I can tell from your speed. Are you a demon?"
"Good guess, but wrong answer." Glenn grabbed Isabella's shirt collar and banged her with the back of the gun. Isabella coughed.
"Nice one. But don't underestimate me..."
Isabella held out her palm and a scythe formed onto her hand. It's long with a gold bronze pole handle and a huge sickle blade. There's also a spiked ball attached on chain at the end of the pole.
"Kamaitachi." Zach's voice boomed out.
Glenn, who had taken Japanese class, said, "Doesn't that mean 'sickle weasel?'"
"Do you know why it's called Kamaitachi? Why don't I show you?"
Isabella swing the scythe as hard as she could. A tornado appeared, but it's not an ordinary tornado. The flowers were all sliced into pieces, the remnants of the Virgin Mary statue were diced into pieces like a knife sliding through butter easily.
"Sickle Tornado. Cool...." Glenn awed.
"Focus, Glenn." Lloyd said, raising his blade.
Isabella, or rather, Zach laughed. "Do you think that you could just break through my Death Tornado? You're just a human."
"Oh, really?" Lloyd said. "Then, can a normal human do this?"
He jumped as high as he could, his blade held high behind him, and with all his might and sliced the tornado in half. It disappeared, but not before he was entrapped in it, getting cuts all over his body.
"Gotcha!" Glenn caught Lloyd as he went falling down. "What's wrong with you, man? Are you crazy?"
"Hah..In your dreams..." He panted and slowly shut his eyes. No kidding. His whole body was covered in cuts. It looks as though mirror shards had rained down on him and pierced him. Well, he is still human after all.
"That boy is crazy." Zach's voice boomed. "He was willing to cut the tornado even if it costs him his life..."
"That's Lloyd for you. He's one crazy guy ever since I known him." Glenn said. "And by the way, aren't you forgetting something?"
Isabella had just enough time to turn around, only to have the spider on the back of her neck pierced by a cyan-coloured scythe.
"Score one for me..." V.V. said, pulling her hair back to reveal a spider stuck onto the tip of her hair, which is as sharp as a scythe.
Isabella, or rather, Zach screamed and Isabella turned back to normal.
And the true master mind himself appeared.
What surprises them most is that Zach the Shinigami is not what they expected. They expected an old man or a huge monster-like creature. Not a man in his late twenties with light brown skin, spiky plantinium hair that touches his collar and crimson eyes. The only thing that most of them got right is he wore a leather black cape with silver chains and wields his chain scythe.
"That..was...unexpected..." V.V. said slowly.
"No kidding..." Glenn said.
"I hate you, girl..." Zach snarled as V.V. dropped the dead spider at his feet. "I don't know whether to be happy that I have found a new host to possess or I should be mad for killing off my spider..."
"You want me to throw you in Hell? 'Cos I don't mind doing it at all." Glenn banged his knuckles together.
"You think it's easier to defeat me when I am not inside a host?" Zach spin his scythe viciously till all the surrounding perimeter flowers and facilities were destroyed in one go and effortlessly.
"V. Attack him from both sides." Glenn yelled, inserting custom-made bullets that packs more fire power than his regular one.
V.V.'s hair turned into deadly blades and tried to pierce him, but Zach swung his scythe which pierced right through V.V.'s left shoulder, causing cracks to appear.
"That was too easy." Zach said.
Suddenly, bullets shot him through the shoulder and packs a fire power. He turned around to see Glenn just reloading his ammunition.
"You, the human with non-human blood. I'll kill you!!!" Zach charged towards Glenn, his scythe raised for the kill.
Glenn smirked and threw something in the air while shooting Zach straight in the head.
At first, nothing happened. Then Zack started to fade. A crystaled bottle whose contents had been spilled all over the Shinigami smashed onto the ground.
"What did you just do to me, boy?" The Death God yelled.
"Holy water." Glenn said. "It's a repellent for evil, but I used it to cleanse your soul. It does have other uses besides repelling vamps, you know."
"You think you can save my soul from corruption? Screw you." Zach spat.
"I'm no God. But at the very least I should help purify your soul." Glenn turned away and head towards Isabella, who is lying down on the grass.
As soon as Glenn's back was turned, Zach tried to raise his scythe to stab his blind spot but V.V. stabbed him through with a hair blade. He gave a choking gasp and slowly faded.
"Hey, girl. That was pretty kind of fun by the way..." Zach murmured to V.V. as he faded into nothing.
V.V. hid a hint of a smile.
Glenn poured holy water on Isabella, who slowly opened her eyes and said, "I'm sorry..."
"It's alright." He said.
Isabella shook her head weakly and said, "I was unable to rest in peace because no one had bothered trying to find the person who loosened the chandelier at the last minute to kill me. I was overcome in anger and hatred. I swore to myself that I will not rest till I found the person responsible."
"And then he came."
There's no need to ask.
"He said he could help me get back on the person who did this to me. I don't know what I was thinking back then. I should've just let go." Isabella stopped to catch her breath.
"Hey, everybody makes mistakes in life." Glenn said lightly.
Isabella gave a small smile and said, "If I were still alive, I would've asked you out on a date." She turned to V.V. "Thank you."
"Oh, it's nothing really. Just doing the job." V.V. said, shrugging.
Isabella turned to Lloyd's figure who is lying down and said, "I didn't mean to kill him..."
"Don't worry. He's fine." Glenn said. "It takes a lot of demons to pummel him down."
Isabella smiled. "I'm glad. I can finally rest in peace..." As she faded into sparkles of lights, she touched Glenn's cheek and said, "Thank you... For everything..."
The padlock then unlock itself and the gates opened, out into the clear sunlight.
"Alrighty." Glenn said. "Let's head back and get some grub. We sure worked really hard today."
"Wait. What about Lloyd? He's heavy..." V.V. said.
"My fingers are injured." Glenn said.
V.V. scowled and with enormous effort, managed to heave Lloyd into the backseat of the Land Rover and scrambled into the front seat with Glenn.
"You owe me..." V.V. scowled again as Glenn inserted the key into the ignition.
"Sure. I don't mind. First stop, the hospital."
As they drove down the road, V.V. gazed into the clear blue sky and murmured, "Definitely..."
Supernatural Demon Slayers : Chapter 15 - Battle Frenzy ( 戦いの逆上 )
"Hello, Lloyd. How delightfully charming."
"What about me????" Glenn yelled.
"How did he find out about this place?" Terra gasped.
"Dario, I got questions of my own for you." Lloyd said.
"Dear, dear. You still haven't figured it out?"
A wolf suddenly pounced from behind, knocking him to the ground, but Dario aimed a powerful front kick that caused Ray to whine and fell off him. Angered, Lance and Hornet threw their projectiles (Lance brought out his guns, Hornet's are her ninja weapons) towards him, only to be blocked by Revarie, who took them all, then the projectiles were slowly pushed out as he regenerates.
"Vampire." Lance muttered. Hornet nodded in silence, staring with pure disgust.
Revarie suddenly appeared right in front of him and grabbed his face and tossed him. Hornet went to catch him as he came flying. Terra ran over to them, looking scared. So is Jake. Blaze cursed under his breath.
"Oh, V.V...." A voice called out.
V.V. felt cold. She recognize that voice anywhere. As she turned around, long flaming red hair bound her tightly.
"Remember me?" The boy asked.
"Guy?" She gasped.
"So you do remember. I'm so FLATTERED." Guy's face suddenly twisted and his hair tightened her. "Aren't you glad to see me after all this years?"
"You think?" V.V. struggled furiously. "How could I forget that crazy look in your face during the war?"
"Gee, V. I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or not." Guy's hair squeezed her more tightly. She shrieked and gasped for air.
"Who the hell is that guy?" Glenn said. "How can he do the stuff our V.V. can do?"
"Why don't we leave those two alone?" Revarie suddenly appeared right before him and gave him three fast jabs. Glenn found himself being thrown backwards. Before he could even get back up onto his feet, the vampire had him pinned onto a wall and tried to choke him.
Lloyd tried to run to him but found his way blocked by Allen.
"Sorry, but you're not getting past me." Allen's eyes glowed a bright red and Lloyd felt himself being thrown aside, but he managed to stood his ground by stabbing his sword onto the ground.
"Big mistake." Mind's Shadow said, stretching itself to the sword's shadow, trying to hold Lloyd's shadow.
Damn, Lloyd thought.
V.V. changed her hands into blades and sliced Guy's hair, freeing herself. Guy cursed as his hair was cut off to waist-length. As he prepared to grew it out long to turn it into a weapon, V.V. did a cartwheel, kick off into the air and landed a hard powerful flying side kick. At the same time, Blaze hurled out a fireball and said, "That is for Raymond, ya freak."
Guy shielded himself with his hair, which turned into two huge wings and wrapped it around him.
"Rats. Almost had him." Blaze scowled, running to Allen.
"Get out of here, fool!" Mind's Shadow shouted at Allen as Blaze came running towards them. "I can't stand fire!"
Allen released Lloyd and ran off. As Lloyd managed to move, he heard Mind's Shadow calling out, "Next time you won't be lucky!!!"
"You alright?" Blaze asked.
Lloyd nodded.
"Don't get me wrong." Blaze said. "I just hate those guys and I want to avenge Raymond, Lance and Hornet."
"Got it. So we're in the same boat?"
Temporarily. So, it's a truce?" Blaze held out his free hand. The other one is still holding a fireball.
"Truce." Lloyd nodded.
Blaze then turned to Jake and Francis. "You two, go somewhere safe. You'll only get in the way."
"I'm not useless..." Francis said.
"Just go, Francis." Lloyd urged. "You seriously don't want to get caught in this mess."
Francis shook his head and grabbing a protesting Jake, ran for cover.
Blaze then hurled the fireball and said to Revarie, "Yo, Dracula."
Revarie glared at him, Glenn stared at him as well.
"I heard vamps can't stand fire, so why don't you prove the theory to me?" He grinned and held out the fireball.
Revarie roared and charged towards Blaze, who shot the fireball straight at him but was countered by a sudden rainfall, drenching Revarie in water.
"What the-"
"Sorry, Blaze." A voice said.
"Mizutsuchi?"
He turned around to see Reo pointing a gun at his head.
Blaze gulped. "You can't be serious..." He said in a voice barely louder than a whisper.
Reo looked expressionless as he was about to pull the trigger. Only to have it melted in his hands. He turned around to see Terra, hands stretched out in front of her.
Reo felt a bit of anger boiling inside of him, but felt a little bit smug. Because the gun was never his real weapon. He carries a few guns and knives hidden in his clothes, but the real thing, he never bring it out unless he needed to.
He twisted himself around and aimed a roundhouse kick straight at Terra's back. Terra gasped for breath and slumped onto the floor.
"As long as I don't touch your palms, then I won't get turned into nothing." He said softly.
"Curse you!!!" Blaze hurled out a huge fireball towards him. Water surrounded Reo like a swirling vortex and doused Blaze with a huge rapid waterfall, extinguishing his fiery abilities.
"Don't make me kill you, Pyro." Reo said coolly.
"To hell with you. You lousy biased scumbag creep." Blaze yelled.
As Terra pulled herself together, Revarie twisted her arm behind her and sniffed her scent. This is what he likes to do before he feeds on his victims.
"Ah...At least you smell much more delicious than the one in blue."
The one in blue? Terra glanced around to see the girl with blue hair and the guy in red hair attacking each other with their hair, which both turned into huge scythes. Their clothes were already torn in some parts. The girl called V.V. has her gown had the gown part torn off into a sort of mini skirt and the sleeves were ripped. The one called Guy has his sleeves ripped off and a slightly ripped sweater.
"Bloody hell. And here I was thinking that you were no longer capable of fighting."
Guy said.
"What a shame to disappoint you." V.V. rammed him hard against a stack of boxes, which rained down on him like an avalanche.
Revarie moved in closer, fangs bared.
Oh no you don't, Terra thought, making a bubble of acid and trying to blast it on Revarie's hands. It worked. He gave a howl of rage and leap backwards, cradling his hands which was splashed with acid. But being a vampire, his hands starts to recover, but he is still able to feel the pain of the corrosive substance.
Damn that girl, he thought savagely. She's acidic.
Blaze and Reo are blasting each other with their abilities but neither of them are backing down even though the two of them are already half exhausted. It seems to be a battle to the limit.
"Ready to give up yet, Watersprout?" Blaze panted, his whole body is sweating and his eyes showed exhaustion.
Reo didn't answer. He too, is already exhausted. But neither one is going to break off until the match is decided.
Suddenly, a deck of cards and kunais landed beneath Reo's feet and exploded, making him jump as far as he could from the explosion. That was a mistake, since out of nowhere, sickles with blades attached on chains, shurikens, katanas, senbon needles and spears rained out of the sky. Hornet had sprouted hornet wings and was hovering in the air, her wings flapping fast but hardly making any sound. Two blank scrolls fell onto the ground.
Reo was fortunate, but a sickle managed to stab his right arm and senbon meedles scratched his left cheek, making a thin line of blood oozed out.
Damn, Reo thought. The Archery Duo still haven't lost their touch.
"Hey, Minamio, up here."
Reo looked up just in time to see a pair of sneakers kicking him in the face. He was thrown off his feet and crashed on top of a crate, which collapsed underneath him.
"Score!" Glenn reached out to give Hornet a high five, but she just stared at him as though he's a moron and landed gracefully beside Lance and ignored him.
Harsh, Glenn thought, putting his hand down.
Lloyd had managed to pull himself out of the battle and was climbing up a very rusty old ladder to reach the roof top to get to Dario, who was enjoying the fight below. After reaching halfway up, someone suddenly swooped down and tried to yanked him off the ladder. He doesn't even need to turn around to know who is trying to make him fall to his death.
"Go to hell!" Lloyd took out a bottle of what look like pure water in a delicate crystal bottle and threw it towards Revarie, who howled in pain as the water splashed onto him. Lloyd didn't pause to listen but yanked himself free and kept on scaling up the ladder. As he took a glance behind him, he saw the vampire's chest covered in horrible burnt marks where the holy water had splashed onto him.
Ever since he found out that Glenn is a descendant of Revarie, thus making him part vampire, he had been taking precaution and going to the local church to purchase some holy water and gold crosses of Jesus Christ to protect himself from Revarie.
Now holy water and crosses is permanently part of his supernatural slaying equipment.
If only Father Christopher and his church knew, Lloyd thought as he reached the top of the roof.
"Dario..." Loyd yelled.
Dario turned to him and gave a look of surprise, but quickly covered it with a smile. "Oh, you managed to reach up here."
"You creep." Lloyd held out his blade but Dario didn't unsheath his rapier. Instead, he said, "Why don't we settle this with hand to hand combat?"
Lloyd stared at him for a moment and sheath back his blade. "You're going to regret this."
"Au contraire, I think it is you who is going to regret this." Dario's hand suddenly glowed and firey energy balls blasted Lloyd. There maybe many but the damage is minor.
"What the heck was that?" Lloyd gasped, a memory flashing back to him. Back at that time when the Siren tried to pounce on them to drag them back into the water, Dario had blasted her back into the water with an explosive blast.
Colud that be-
"Was that...magic?" It finally clicked into him.
"It sure took you long enough to figure it out." Dario said, holding up a book that looks small enough to be a pocketbook. It's bound in faded dark leather and had a five pointed star pentagram on the cover stamped in gold. There is also an elegent writing in gold in the front. The Book of Spells.
"Everyone know there is no such thing as magic." Lloyd said, eying the book.
"Don't be too sure." Dario said. "As long as there is mana, then magic can exist."
"Mana?"
"Life, chakra, chi, energy force. Call it whatever you want." Dario then grabbed his hair and tossed him off the building, only to be caught by V.V.
"Ooof." V.V. grunted. "I could never get used to this." She put him down and rubbed her aching shoulders.
"Run!!!" Lloyd grabbed V.V. and pulled her away just as fiery energy balls blasted down where they were standing minutes ago. Have they been there a minute later they might have been burned to death.
"They got away..." Dario muttered to himself. He then glanced at a clocktower. It's already 5 a.m.
"It had been a great pleasure meeting you guys again, but I must really get going."
Revarie swooped up and Dario jumped onto his back, but not before picking up Reo, who was injured, Allen, who seems uninjured and a very furious Guy.
"What do you mean it's time to go back?" Guy demanded. "I haven't had my fun with V.V. yet."
"You'll get your chance next time." Dario said. "But right now, I have to get back."
Guy gave him a furious glare and said to V.V. before departing. "This isn't over yet, V.V. We'll meet again someday soon."
Glenn gazed at Revarie's departing figure. "Really now, who the heck is that red-haired kid?"
Lloyd turned to Blaze, who seems fine, except for some bruises and a deep gash on his cheek. "You alright?"
"Guess so." Blaze answered sullenly. "Just who the heck are those people?? Why the heck is Mizutsuchi with them?"
"How the heck should we know?" Lloyd muttered.
At that moment, Francis and Jake came out of hiding. "Hey, guys. Is everything over?"
Francis asked cheerfully.
Everyone just gazed at him sullenly.
"What?" Francis said defensively.
Jake plucked his sleeve and dragged him away silently, leaving the others with things to ponder.
V.V. looked aggressive for the first time. She would've looked cute in her sleeveless mini skirt dress except she had a look of hatred, making her look like a Goddess of Vengeance.
"What about me????" Glenn yelled.
"How did he find out about this place?" Terra gasped.
"Dario, I got questions of my own for you." Lloyd said.
"Dear, dear. You still haven't figured it out?"
A wolf suddenly pounced from behind, knocking him to the ground, but Dario aimed a powerful front kick that caused Ray to whine and fell off him. Angered, Lance and Hornet threw their projectiles (Lance brought out his guns, Hornet's are her ninja weapons) towards him, only to be blocked by Revarie, who took them all, then the projectiles were slowly pushed out as he regenerates.
"Vampire." Lance muttered. Hornet nodded in silence, staring with pure disgust.
Revarie suddenly appeared right in front of him and grabbed his face and tossed him. Hornet went to catch him as he came flying. Terra ran over to them, looking scared. So is Jake. Blaze cursed under his breath.
"Oh, V.V...." A voice called out.
V.V. felt cold. She recognize that voice anywhere. As she turned around, long flaming red hair bound her tightly.
"Remember me?" The boy asked.
"Guy?" She gasped.
"So you do remember. I'm so FLATTERED." Guy's face suddenly twisted and his hair tightened her. "Aren't you glad to see me after all this years?"
"You think?" V.V. struggled furiously. "How could I forget that crazy look in your face during the war?"
"Gee, V. I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or not." Guy's hair squeezed her more tightly. She shrieked and gasped for air.
"Who the hell is that guy?" Glenn said. "How can he do the stuff our V.V. can do?"
"Why don't we leave those two alone?" Revarie suddenly appeared right before him and gave him three fast jabs. Glenn found himself being thrown backwards. Before he could even get back up onto his feet, the vampire had him pinned onto a wall and tried to choke him.
Lloyd tried to run to him but found his way blocked by Allen.
"Sorry, but you're not getting past me." Allen's eyes glowed a bright red and Lloyd felt himself being thrown aside, but he managed to stood his ground by stabbing his sword onto the ground.
"Big mistake." Mind's Shadow said, stretching itself to the sword's shadow, trying to hold Lloyd's shadow.
Damn, Lloyd thought.
V.V. changed her hands into blades and sliced Guy's hair, freeing herself. Guy cursed as his hair was cut off to waist-length. As he prepared to grew it out long to turn it into a weapon, V.V. did a cartwheel, kick off into the air and landed a hard powerful flying side kick. At the same time, Blaze hurled out a fireball and said, "That is for Raymond, ya freak."
Guy shielded himself with his hair, which turned into two huge wings and wrapped it around him.
"Rats. Almost had him." Blaze scowled, running to Allen.
"Get out of here, fool!" Mind's Shadow shouted at Allen as Blaze came running towards them. "I can't stand fire!"
Allen released Lloyd and ran off. As Lloyd managed to move, he heard Mind's Shadow calling out, "Next time you won't be lucky!!!"
"You alright?" Blaze asked.
Lloyd nodded.
"Don't get me wrong." Blaze said. "I just hate those guys and I want to avenge Raymond, Lance and Hornet."
"Got it. So we're in the same boat?"
Temporarily. So, it's a truce?" Blaze held out his free hand. The other one is still holding a fireball.
"Truce." Lloyd nodded.
Blaze then turned to Jake and Francis. "You two, go somewhere safe. You'll only get in the way."
"I'm not useless..." Francis said.
"Just go, Francis." Lloyd urged. "You seriously don't want to get caught in this mess."
Francis shook his head and grabbing a protesting Jake, ran for cover.
Blaze then hurled the fireball and said to Revarie, "Yo, Dracula."
Revarie glared at him, Glenn stared at him as well.
"I heard vamps can't stand fire, so why don't you prove the theory to me?" He grinned and held out the fireball.
Revarie roared and charged towards Blaze, who shot the fireball straight at him but was countered by a sudden rainfall, drenching Revarie in water.
"What the-"
"Sorry, Blaze." A voice said.
"Mizutsuchi?"
He turned around to see Reo pointing a gun at his head.
Blaze gulped. "You can't be serious..." He said in a voice barely louder than a whisper.
Reo looked expressionless as he was about to pull the trigger. Only to have it melted in his hands. He turned around to see Terra, hands stretched out in front of her.
Reo felt a bit of anger boiling inside of him, but felt a little bit smug. Because the gun was never his real weapon. He carries a few guns and knives hidden in his clothes, but the real thing, he never bring it out unless he needed to.
He twisted himself around and aimed a roundhouse kick straight at Terra's back. Terra gasped for breath and slumped onto the floor.
"As long as I don't touch your palms, then I won't get turned into nothing." He said softly.
"Curse you!!!" Blaze hurled out a huge fireball towards him. Water surrounded Reo like a swirling vortex and doused Blaze with a huge rapid waterfall, extinguishing his fiery abilities.
"Don't make me kill you, Pyro." Reo said coolly.
"To hell with you. You lousy biased scumbag creep." Blaze yelled.
As Terra pulled herself together, Revarie twisted her arm behind her and sniffed her scent. This is what he likes to do before he feeds on his victims.
"Ah...At least you smell much more delicious than the one in blue."
The one in blue? Terra glanced around to see the girl with blue hair and the guy in red hair attacking each other with their hair, which both turned into huge scythes. Their clothes were already torn in some parts. The girl called V.V. has her gown had the gown part torn off into a sort of mini skirt and the sleeves were ripped. The one called Guy has his sleeves ripped off and a slightly ripped sweater.
"Bloody hell. And here I was thinking that you were no longer capable of fighting."
Guy said.
"What a shame to disappoint you." V.V. rammed him hard against a stack of boxes, which rained down on him like an avalanche.
Revarie moved in closer, fangs bared.
Oh no you don't, Terra thought, making a bubble of acid and trying to blast it on Revarie's hands. It worked. He gave a howl of rage and leap backwards, cradling his hands which was splashed with acid. But being a vampire, his hands starts to recover, but he is still able to feel the pain of the corrosive substance.
Damn that girl, he thought savagely. She's acidic.
Blaze and Reo are blasting each other with their abilities but neither of them are backing down even though the two of them are already half exhausted. It seems to be a battle to the limit.
"Ready to give up yet, Watersprout?" Blaze panted, his whole body is sweating and his eyes showed exhaustion.
Reo didn't answer. He too, is already exhausted. But neither one is going to break off until the match is decided.
Suddenly, a deck of cards and kunais landed beneath Reo's feet and exploded, making him jump as far as he could from the explosion. That was a mistake, since out of nowhere, sickles with blades attached on chains, shurikens, katanas, senbon needles and spears rained out of the sky. Hornet had sprouted hornet wings and was hovering in the air, her wings flapping fast but hardly making any sound. Two blank scrolls fell onto the ground.
Reo was fortunate, but a sickle managed to stab his right arm and senbon meedles scratched his left cheek, making a thin line of blood oozed out.
Damn, Reo thought. The Archery Duo still haven't lost their touch.
"Hey, Minamio, up here."
Reo looked up just in time to see a pair of sneakers kicking him in the face. He was thrown off his feet and crashed on top of a crate, which collapsed underneath him.
"Score!" Glenn reached out to give Hornet a high five, but she just stared at him as though he's a moron and landed gracefully beside Lance and ignored him.
Harsh, Glenn thought, putting his hand down.
Lloyd had managed to pull himself out of the battle and was climbing up a very rusty old ladder to reach the roof top to get to Dario, who was enjoying the fight below. After reaching halfway up, someone suddenly swooped down and tried to yanked him off the ladder. He doesn't even need to turn around to know who is trying to make him fall to his death.
"Go to hell!" Lloyd took out a bottle of what look like pure water in a delicate crystal bottle and threw it towards Revarie, who howled in pain as the water splashed onto him. Lloyd didn't pause to listen but yanked himself free and kept on scaling up the ladder. As he took a glance behind him, he saw the vampire's chest covered in horrible burnt marks where the holy water had splashed onto him.
Ever since he found out that Glenn is a descendant of Revarie, thus making him part vampire, he had been taking precaution and going to the local church to purchase some holy water and gold crosses of Jesus Christ to protect himself from Revarie.
Now holy water and crosses is permanently part of his supernatural slaying equipment.
If only Father Christopher and his church knew, Lloyd thought as he reached the top of the roof.
"Dario..." Loyd yelled.
Dario turned to him and gave a look of surprise, but quickly covered it with a smile. "Oh, you managed to reach up here."
"You creep." Lloyd held out his blade but Dario didn't unsheath his rapier. Instead, he said, "Why don't we settle this with hand to hand combat?"
Lloyd stared at him for a moment and sheath back his blade. "You're going to regret this."
"Au contraire, I think it is you who is going to regret this." Dario's hand suddenly glowed and firey energy balls blasted Lloyd. There maybe many but the damage is minor.
"What the heck was that?" Lloyd gasped, a memory flashing back to him. Back at that time when the Siren tried to pounce on them to drag them back into the water, Dario had blasted her back into the water with an explosive blast.
Colud that be-
"Was that...magic?" It finally clicked into him.
"It sure took you long enough to figure it out." Dario said, holding up a book that looks small enough to be a pocketbook. It's bound in faded dark leather and had a five pointed star pentagram on the cover stamped in gold. There is also an elegent writing in gold in the front. The Book of Spells.
"Everyone know there is no such thing as magic." Lloyd said, eying the book.
"Don't be too sure." Dario said. "As long as there is mana, then magic can exist."
"Mana?"
"Life, chakra, chi, energy force. Call it whatever you want." Dario then grabbed his hair and tossed him off the building, only to be caught by V.V.
"Ooof." V.V. grunted. "I could never get used to this." She put him down and rubbed her aching shoulders.
"Run!!!" Lloyd grabbed V.V. and pulled her away just as fiery energy balls blasted down where they were standing minutes ago. Have they been there a minute later they might have been burned to death.
"They got away..." Dario muttered to himself. He then glanced at a clocktower. It's already 5 a.m.
"It had been a great pleasure meeting you guys again, but I must really get going."
Revarie swooped up and Dario jumped onto his back, but not before picking up Reo, who was injured, Allen, who seems uninjured and a very furious Guy.
"What do you mean it's time to go back?" Guy demanded. "I haven't had my fun with V.V. yet."
"You'll get your chance next time." Dario said. "But right now, I have to get back."
Guy gave him a furious glare and said to V.V. before departing. "This isn't over yet, V.V. We'll meet again someday soon."
Glenn gazed at Revarie's departing figure. "Really now, who the heck is that red-haired kid?"
Lloyd turned to Blaze, who seems fine, except for some bruises and a deep gash on his cheek. "You alright?"
"Guess so." Blaze answered sullenly. "Just who the heck are those people?? Why the heck is Mizutsuchi with them?"
"How the heck should we know?" Lloyd muttered.
At that moment, Francis and Jake came out of hiding. "Hey, guys. Is everything over?"
Francis asked cheerfully.
Everyone just gazed at him sullenly.
"What?" Francis said defensively.
Jake plucked his sleeve and dragged him away silently, leaving the others with things to ponder.
V.V. looked aggressive for the first time. She would've looked cute in her sleeveless mini skirt dress except she had a look of hatred, making her look like a Goddess of Vengeance.
Supernatural Demon Slayers : Chapter 14 - The Thieves' Hideout ( 盗賊の隠れ家 )
Glenn and Francis had already reached Brooklyn, where Francis told Glenn that the thieves' hideout is. But before going there, Glenn had used a payphone to call Lloyd about the location, and he had to pick up V.V. from her part-time job, but he promised to be there in a flash. 'Cos first he have to pick her up with the Land Rover, park it back, grab a Metro bus to Grand Central Station and grab the earliest express train they could find.
"It's getting pretty late, don't you think?" Francis checked his cellphone time. It's nearly night time.
"Don't complain." Glenn reached into his bag and pulled out a slightly squashed box of doughnuts that he had brought earlier at the station's cafe, but then he had nearly squashed the box 'cos he forgotten all about it. "Here. Doughnuts."
Francis opened the box and found each one with different icing sugar. There's a total of six doughnuts in the box. Sugar, chocolate, cream with chocolate chips, strawberry, strawberry with jam and chocolate with rainbow chips.
"Dude, you could've picked a better flavor..." Francis exclaimed.
"Oh, come on. There are plenty of different flavor." Glenn said. "Don't eat the cream with chocolate chips, it's mine."
"Sure." Francis picked the sugar one and gave a huge bite. Icing sugar dusted down onto the floor.
Footsteps started approaching near them. Glenn quickly whip out his gun that was tucked into his waistband and Francis stood on his kickboxing stunt.
"Hold up, it's us..." A voice said.
"Lloyd, don't scare us like that!" Glenn tucked his gun back.
Lloyd and V.V. came into view. When Francis saw them both, he said, "Good to see you, Mr. Anderson. And Vivi too."
"Why is he here?" V.V. asked inquisitively.
"He is our source." Glenn said.
"What does Franciska have to do with this?" Lloyd asked.
Lloyd, Mia and Glenn are the only person who can call Francis' full name without getting a scowl and an icy glare in response.
"Well..." Glenn said slowly. "I think you should let Francis explain."
Francis launched into the detail of his story. Every now and then V.V.'s eyes kept on becoming narrower, as though Francis is saying offensive about her.
Only when he finished, he said, "Vivi, are you okay?"
"No, but your story reminds me of that lady who used to locked me in that prison." She muttered.
"Say what????" Francis asked, confused.
"V.V. used to be locked up in a cell as an experiment project." Lloyd answered.
"Oh, well, these guys are not experiment, though." Francis said. "And they are also not exactly what you call friendly." He then started ticking off points of his fingers. "There's Blaze Vinegrove aka Pyro, who is the unofficial leader of the group. He is a pyrokinetic. Then we move on to the strongest and most brutal, Raymond "Ray" McCarthy aka Lupercus, he can transform into a very vicious wolf. Watch out for him and Terra Magenta aka Liquescere- "
"Hold up." Lloyd said. "Liquescere?"
"It means to melt. Got it?" Francis said.
"Oh, I got it." Lloyd said. "So, every member has a code name, huh?"
"Right-o." Francis said. "Then we move on to Lance Granger aka Sniper, who although he looks normal and harmless, has the ability of inhuman sight, accuracy, strength and stamina. In short, he is on an inhuman level. And let me warn you, when he set his target on you, get ready to run."
"Why?" Lloyd asked.
"Because the guy never misses. He can hit a bulls eye 1,000 times and never miss." Glenn answered. When Lloyd and V.V. stared at him, he said defensively, "What? I listened."
"Yup. He did, alright." Francis said.
"For the first time." Lloyd said. V.V. giggled, which is pretty rare. In fact, her giggle sounds pretty nice, like chimes in the wind.
"Okay, moving on." Francis said, trying to get back into the subject. "Then there's Hornet. She never told anyone her real name, but she's an Asian. And just like her name, she's can manipulate hornets to do her bidding, and she possess hornet characteristics."
"She's a hornet????" V.V. gasped.
"No. I meant she has hair that can become a sting, she can sprout wings and she loves honey and nectar." Francis said.
V.V. nodded slowly.
"And last but not least, Jake McCartney aka Inuestigandum. He can track anyone, you know, like a detector. He's harmless, 'cos he can only track people, which is why Lance stay close to him."
"Not bad." Lloyd said, nodding. "How do you know all this stuff?"
"I stayed with them for a day, then I defected. Pretty weird, huh?"
"How did they ended up together anyway?" Lloyd asked.
"They were shunned by normal people." V.V. said. "Isn't it obvious?"
"I know. But what I meant was, how did they all came together? I'm sure you know about it, right?" He added the last part to Francis.
"Nope." Francis said. "The only one I ever get close is Terra Magenta. She was brought up in an orphanage, then she met Blaze and his gang." He then glanced at his watch. "Anyway, I think we better get going."
As they left, Revarie, who was watching from afar, sprouted bat wings and flew off.
***********
"Heh. Who would have thought those slayers went to hunt down a group of rebellion power users?" Revarie smirked as he came back from his scouting.
Dario, Allen, Reo and a boy were in a wide and spacious room, listening to his reports. Allen kept rocking back and forth in his seat. The boy looked very bored, and is tossing a crystal piece up and down in his hand. Dario, however, looked interested.
Reo, on the other hand, did not smile. "I used to be with them, in case you have forgotten."
Revarie then stared at him. "So what does it matter?"
Reo stared back at him. Crimson met dark. "I know you, Revarie. You are going to drink their blood, aren't you? Because all of them are just teens."
Revarie grinned. "Teenagers' blood are quite delicious. The soft skin and the blood blends perfectly in harmony."
Dario then stood up from his seat, staring at the moonlit sky.
"What is it?" Allen asked.
"If Revarie wants to go, then let's make a vote."
"I refuse to go." Reo said, folding his arms. "No point of seeing them again."
"I don't have that much interest in those guys." Allen said.
The boy stopped tossing the crystal and said, "Is V.V. there?"
Everyone stared at him.
"You know V.V.???" Allen said, awestruck.
"Heh. We had a long history." The boy said. Although his flaming red hair is cropped short, it seems to get even longer and became a scythe. His amber eyes looking murderous. "I can't wait to see her face again."
"If that's the case, then let's go." Dario said. "Where is their hideout anyway?"
"They are like nomads, you know." Reo said. "But they should be at one of the streets."
"What the heck?" Mind's Shadow snarled. "Then I'll just track them."
Allen's eyes glowed red for a few moments, then he said, "Brooklyn."
***********
The four of them walked down the rows of warehouse near the bay side. Most of the warehouse are abandoned and gratified.
"You sure they are here?"
"Yup, absolutely." Francis said. "Should be right around...here."
They stopped right in front of a warehouse that seems to hid in the shadows.
"This is it?" Glenn wrinkled his nose. "You think they might want to get a better hideout."
"The murkier, the better. But the more suspicions raised." Francis said. "You know what? I'll go first. You three can sneak in later, but watch out for Lupercus."
"Over and out." Lloyd beckoned the other two to follow him.
Taking a deep breath, Francis banged on the door three times.
"Hellooo???? Anyone hooooooome????" He asked.
There's no answer.
"Hello???? It's me...." Francis banged even louder and without warning, the door smashed down. "Ooops."
"Way to go, Franciska." Lloyd rolled his eyes.
"But he did managed to get us in..." Glenn grinned.
"By breaking down the door???" Lloyd muttered. "That is bound to cause people stare at us."
"Good point." Glenn nodded.
Francis tried to put the door back together, but is having no success. So he put it against the frame. "Come on in. I think nobody's in."
Cautiously, they went in.
It's not exactly nice. It's piled with many crates. There's a stairs that spiraled upwards to a landing. A crate was being used as a table, 'cos there are paper plates filled with leftover food, and paper cups that are half-finished with juice. The only source of light is coming from a few naked bulbs hung high in the ceiling. In the corner, there's a pile of well-worn mattress squished together, poorly-sewn pillows,and very thin sheets used as blankets. But they did tried to brighten up the place, such as painting patterns on the walls. There are two boxes used as a storage for food and water. A mini refrigerator that looks as though it's fished out of a junkyard is making a humming sound. For a moment, Lloyd felt a little pity for them.
"Boy, this is sure one heck of a hideout." Glenn said, prodding one of the blankets.
"That's weird." Francis said. "Nobody's in. And there's no stolen cash."
"Think again, Muscle Head..." A voice said.
As they looked up, fireballs started heading towards them.
"SCRAMBLE!!!!!" Francis yelled.
Everybody split as Blaze Vinegrove (aka Pyro) hurled a whole lot of fireballs at them. Some of the crates burst into flames.
"Damn. This guy is crazy!!!" Glenn said, shooting at Blaze, except a wall of fire protected him.
"I would appreciate it if we take it outside." Blaze said. "Otherwise my hideout will be turned into ashes."
The others shrugged and went out. The crates are turning into nothing right now. A bit of the embers are all that remains.
As soon as they reached outside, Blaze hurled a ginormous fireball at them, except this time they ducked, causing the fireball to splash into the sea. A wall of water blasted out at least 5 feet tall before crashing back into the water.
"So, tell me, who are you all suppose to be. The cops?" Blaze's tone stared to drip with venom.
"No, we're not." Lloyd answered.
"Funny. You sure look like one. And let me tell you, you can't put me in jail forever. I can melt the bars easily. And I had not done anything wrong."
"You didn't." Glenn said. "But your comrades did."
"What do you mean? Are you framing Ray and the others?" His eyes glared at Francis. "You...You defected no good low-life algae. Why did you tell us off?"
"I'm doing this for your comrades sake." Francis shouted at him. "They robbed the Bank of Manhattan."
Blaze cooled down for a moment. "The robbery in the news?"
"Well, yes!"
Without warning, Blaze hurled a whip-like stream of fire and bind Francis.
"Got anymore lies to spread, Muscle Head?" The fiery whips started licking Francis, but luckily, he's wearing a thick polyester jacket, so it had protected him from the major damage.
V.V., her hair turning into blades, charged Blaze from right behind. Blaze tried to burn her but she then started to strangle him, saying, "Don't even think about it..."
"You're not human. So, why are you helping them?" He asked.
"It's none of your beeswax." V.V. answered.
"How old are you anyway, 16?" Blaze asked, trying to struggle his way out.
"Yeah..." She then wrapped her legs around him and said, "Stop struggling and make things easier for me."
"No can do." Blaze surround himself with flames that caused V.V. to untangle him and stumbled back, but Glenn automatically reached out to catch her to stop her from falling.
"How chivalrous." V.V. muttered as Glenn set her on her feet.
"Thanks." Glenn said.
Francis ran off to the side of the warehouse and came back with a fire extinguisher. With it, he tore off the top with his super strength and just let the carbon dioxide spray all over Blaze, who yelled. Well, if you're fire and you got sprayed by carbon dioxide, wouldn't you shriek your head off if you had a voice?
"Even though he's a walking flame, he can't stand carbon dioxide, which I must say, comes in handy during the right circumstances." Francis patted the fire extinguisher tucked underneath his arm.
"To hell with you! All of you!!!" Blaze coughed.
"Spare us the threats." Lloyd said, wrapping him up with fireproof blanket.
"You people just wait. I'll get you guys when I burn my way out." Blaze tried to start a fire but nothing happened.
"Sorry, Fireboy." Lloyd said with mock pity. "But this is a fireproof blanket. Found it at the dumpster near your hideout. Very convenient, huh?"
Suddenly, cards started to charge towards them. Lloyd grabbed some of them in between his fingers whereas some hit the crates behind him, slicing them into half.
Lloyd looked up to see a boy, holding a pack of cards, and aiming it towards him. This must be Sniper aka Lance Granger. Beside him must be Inuestigandum aka Jake McCartney.
"Look out! The whole gang is here!" Lloyd called out to the others.
At that moment, hornets started buzzing towards them with a huge gargantuan wolf, who pounce on Glenn.
"Arrrggghhhh!!!!" Glenn yelled, trying to push the wolf off him.
Hornets buzzed towards Lloyd who started dicing them with his blade. Francis was defenseless, so he tried to run for cover, luckily V.V. grabbed him out of safety while her hair turn into blades and started killing off the hornets.
"Sorry I can't do much here." Francis said as she dropped him on top of a roof.
"You could always try to take on the sniper and the tracking boy." She nodded at the two who are at the other side of the building.
"Got it." Before he move, Francis turned back to her and said, "Hey, Vivi."
V.V. turned back to him with a puzzled look on her face.
"You're not human. But I am curious, how old are you?"
V.V. smirked and as she goes back into the battle, she replied, "I had been around long enough to witness World War 2 til now."
Francis gave a laugh and said to himself, "I like her attitude."
Glenn is still struggling against the huge wolf when this voice said inside his head. You have power, why not use it?
What the- You again? Glenn fought the voice in his head.
You are a descendant of a clan of vampires. You ought to be proud to possess inhuman abilities. The voice said.
Stop it. Go away. Glenn tried to shake the voice off him, but it kept penetrating his head.
Bring me out, the voice said. I'll finish it soon enough.
Hell, that'll be the day.
"Get off me, dog!" Glenn kicked the wolf hard on the jaw.
The wolf yelped as he was thrown back and knocked against a pile of crates. As Glenn straightened himself up, he ducked again as a swarm of hornets tried to sting him. When he ducked, kunais, shurikens, kumbis and senbons aimed for his vital points. He ran for cover behind a wall and the weapons bounced on the wall.
"Whew. That was close." Glenn sighed with relief.
"Hiya!!!!"
A girl with a single long plait aimed a flying kick at him, but that is not what he's afraid off. It's the kumbis that she's holding on each fist. She thrust both fists out, releasing her hold on the kumbis and the the sharp projectiles flew towards his chest, causing him to lean back as low as possible to avoid them from thrusting itself deep into his chest.
"Cripes. That was scary."
The girl, whom he assumed is Hornet, flew towards him and landed two powerful kicks straight onto his stomach. He doubled up in pain as she flicked shurikens at him.
Two struck his arms.
Two struck his legs.
And before he could even blink, Hornet threw him towards a wall. At that moment, Lloyd rammed Hornet hard with the handle of his blade, causing her to cough violently.
"Sorry I have to do this." Lloyd said as he ran off.
But Hornet isn't going to let him off easily, as soon as his back was turned, she took out a scroll hidden well inside one of her sleeve. She unrolled the scroll and did some complicated hand seal movements, muttering under her breath as she did so.
There was a huge cloud of smoke and weapons of all kinds charged towards Lloyd's unprotected back. Katanas, daggers, kunais, senbons, kumbis, shurikens of all kinds, sickle with chains, nuchakus, blades and many other various kinds of weapons all are aimed at him. However, he deflected every single weapons with his blade in swift silent movements.
Hornet gasped in shock. No one could ever survive her ninjutsu skills, certainly not this one, which summons various weapons which she had sealed inside the scroll.
As Lloyd left Hornet, who seemed to have surrendered, acidic bubbles started floating towards him. Corrosive to everything they touch.
Francis managed to win his battle against Lance Granger, but Jake managed to flee to Terra's side, who is sending dangerous acid bubbles to Lloyd who is in a pinch.
"Geesh... I never liked those acid bubbles..." Francis said, walking back, bracing himself and jumping off the building, yelling, "EN GARDE!!!!!!!"
Glenn, who was pulling the shurikens out of his wounds, caught sight of Francis doing a crazy flying leap from the roof top.
"WHAT THE HELL- FRANCIS!!!" His eyes popped.
Francis started to fall back to the ground. Glenn's first instinct tells him to run, but if he did, Francis would go splat and that won't be a pretty sight.
Here goes nothing, he thought, stretching out his hands and-
Francis fell right into his arms with such powerful force that knocks both of them down.
"Thanks, Glenn." Francis said, getting up. "You're a pal."
"Ow...I think I broke a rib or two." Glenn rubbed his backside. "And my back hurts."
"Sorry, man." Francis pulled him back up.
"Why don't you have the ability to levitate or something?"
Francis shrugged.
Lloyd was ducking every acidic bubbles that floated after him. When they touch something, they pop into thin air but also melting anything it touches.
"Oh, for Pete's sake." Lloyd said, running as far as he could to put the distance between Terra and him. "I know that to nullify acid you need alkali but there's just no alkali."
V.V. ran past him, charging towards Terra, who quickly move her bubbles to a nearby warehouse. The bubbles melted part of the building, bringing it down. She's planning to crush V.V. with the collapsing building.
Lloyd skidded into a halt. "Oh no, you don't."
He ran back towards Terra, making a high jump and slicing the building into half so that it split apart without hurting V.V. who did a headbutt at Terra, straight into the head. There was a splintering crack and Terra fainted. Jake, who was with her, tried to make a run for it, except V.V. caught hold of him with her hair, binding his arms and legs.
"Hell, no!!!!" Blaze was struggling with the fire-proof blanket that had bound him tightly like a sausage roll.
"Hell, yeah!" Glenn said, whooping into the air. "We rock!"
Lloyd came over to Blaze and said, "We won't hurt you and your buddies. But we might have to turn you over to the police for some explaining."
"No!!! You can't!" Blaze yelled. "You have no idea what it's like for us to be shunned by the community!"
"So you steal to survive?" Glenn said, shaking his head.
"Only food and the basic necessary to survive. We don't harm people unless they harm us."
"You could have come to us." Lloyd said gently. "We help supernatural cases and the helpless. Then you needn't end up this way."
Blaze grunted.
"Look." Lloyd said. "We are trying to help you. I have a friend who is a doctor in this kind of stuff. I could ask him for an antidote-"
"No need!" Blaze spat. "Just promise to get out of my sight and don't come back!"
Lloyd gave a shrug and said, "I tried."
"I have a few questions for you." Blaze said, softening a little.
"Go ahead." Glenn said.
"Alright then." He held Glenn's gaze. "My first question, you are not exactly human, are you?"
"Yup." Glenn said. "How do you know?"
"Please." Blaze snorted. "Vampires possess supernatural beauty that are used to charm their victims. Except....You sure do possess the beauty part. But do you ever....drink?"
"Heck, of course not!" Glenn looked horrified at the thought.
"So you're not exactly a pure one, huh?"
"No."
"My next one." He turned to V.V. "You are not human. Why help them?"
V.V. fixed her gaze with his. "I had done a lot of things that I'm not proud of in the past."
"You're not going to open up to me, are ya?" Blaze smirked.
V.V ignored him.
"My last question is for the defected Muscle Head." Blaze said. "But you're going to have to let me go first."
"And why should we do that?" Lloyd asked.
"'Cos there's something I need to show him, dammit." Blaze wiggled around like a caterpillar. "I won't run."
Lloyd looked at Francis. "Do you trust him?"
"Yeah." Francis said, but he tightened his hold on the fire extinguisher, which he sealed the broken top with his thick sweater.
"Okay, we'll let you go." Lloyd said. "But if you try to run, Francis will spray you with carbon dioxide and we'll turn you into a sausage roll and you'll be heading into a confinement center."
"Fine."
Lloyd loosened the thick cords that held the fire-proof blanket and tugged the blanket so that it came loose around Blaze.
"Thanks." He said, rubbing his shoulders. "I had an ache."
"Get to the point, Pyro." Francis said. "I believe you have a question for me that needs you to move around."
"Oh, yeah." Blaze put his hand into his pocket and drew out a photo, saying, "I'm sure you know him. He left us a few years ago. And Jakey tracked him at your school."
Francis looked at the photo and gasped.
It's Reo.
But it's a younger Reo. His hair isn't shoulder length like now. He doesn't even looked as cold as he is now. He looks kinder and younger.
Even Glenn gasped.
"Reo Minamio?"
"Yeah." Blaze said. "We call him Mizutsuchi 'cos he can manipulate water and earth. In Japanese, Mizu means water whereas Tsuchi means earth. He is one decent guy and used to be our leader."
"You're kidding." Glenn exclaimed.
"I never joke." Blaze said seriously. "When he left us, we had been trying to find him but we're having no success, until Hornet found him in the internet."
When everybody gave him a puzzled look, Blaze sighed. "You guys never use the internet?"
"Of course we do but we don't bother checking up on him." Everybody retorted.
"What's going on, Pyro?" A deep voice asked. Everybody turned around to see Ray, in his human form, glaring at them. "Why are you negotiating with them? Especially him." He jerked his head at Lloyd.
What the hell did I do to offend Wolf Boy here? Lloyd thought.
"Ray, let them see it." Blaze said.
"Are you crazy?" Ray yelled.
"Now!"
Ray cursed under his breath and took out a picture printed in black or white from his waistband and held it gingerly towards Lloyd. He took it with a word of thanks but Ray only scowled deeper.
Lloyd stared at the picture. Even though it's in black and white, he could make out Reo's handsome features facing the camera. Standing right next to him is....
"Dario Darkmatter." Lloyd whispered.
Dario's hair isn't shoulder length and straight cut like now. Instead, his hair is cropped short, just like Lloyd's. Since the picture is in black and white, Dario's blonde hair was basked into a darker colour, nearly like his own dark hair.
And scarily, they looked exactly the same.
Lloyd felt a shiver down his spine as he handed back the photo to Ray, except this time he stood far away from Lloyd. So Hornet took it instead.
"We though if we could find this guy, we find Mizutsuchi, except...you're not him, are you?" Blaze gaze cautiously at him.
"No."
"Yes, I am ." A familiar voice said.
Everyone looked up to see Dario gazing down at them from the top of a building.
"It's getting pretty late, don't you think?" Francis checked his cellphone time. It's nearly night time.
"Don't complain." Glenn reached into his bag and pulled out a slightly squashed box of doughnuts that he had brought earlier at the station's cafe, but then he had nearly squashed the box 'cos he forgotten all about it. "Here. Doughnuts."
Francis opened the box and found each one with different icing sugar. There's a total of six doughnuts in the box. Sugar, chocolate, cream with chocolate chips, strawberry, strawberry with jam and chocolate with rainbow chips.
"Dude, you could've picked a better flavor..." Francis exclaimed.
"Oh, come on. There are plenty of different flavor." Glenn said. "Don't eat the cream with chocolate chips, it's mine."
"Sure." Francis picked the sugar one and gave a huge bite. Icing sugar dusted down onto the floor.
Footsteps started approaching near them. Glenn quickly whip out his gun that was tucked into his waistband and Francis stood on his kickboxing stunt.
"Hold up, it's us..." A voice said.
"Lloyd, don't scare us like that!" Glenn tucked his gun back.
Lloyd and V.V. came into view. When Francis saw them both, he said, "Good to see you, Mr. Anderson. And Vivi too."
"Why is he here?" V.V. asked inquisitively.
"He is our source." Glenn said.
"What does Franciska have to do with this?" Lloyd asked.
Lloyd, Mia and Glenn are the only person who can call Francis' full name without getting a scowl and an icy glare in response.
"Well..." Glenn said slowly. "I think you should let Francis explain."
Francis launched into the detail of his story. Every now and then V.V.'s eyes kept on becoming narrower, as though Francis is saying offensive about her.
Only when he finished, he said, "Vivi, are you okay?"
"No, but your story reminds me of that lady who used to locked me in that prison." She muttered.
"Say what????" Francis asked, confused.
"V.V. used to be locked up in a cell as an experiment project." Lloyd answered.
"Oh, well, these guys are not experiment, though." Francis said. "And they are also not exactly what you call friendly." He then started ticking off points of his fingers. "There's Blaze Vinegrove aka Pyro, who is the unofficial leader of the group. He is a pyrokinetic. Then we move on to the strongest and most brutal, Raymond "Ray" McCarthy aka Lupercus, he can transform into a very vicious wolf. Watch out for him and Terra Magenta aka Liquescere- "
"Hold up." Lloyd said. "Liquescere?"
"It means to melt. Got it?" Francis said.
"Oh, I got it." Lloyd said. "So, every member has a code name, huh?"
"Right-o." Francis said. "Then we move on to Lance Granger aka Sniper, who although he looks normal and harmless, has the ability of inhuman sight, accuracy, strength and stamina. In short, he is on an inhuman level. And let me warn you, when he set his target on you, get ready to run."
"Why?" Lloyd asked.
"Because the guy never misses. He can hit a bulls eye 1,000 times and never miss." Glenn answered. When Lloyd and V.V. stared at him, he said defensively, "What? I listened."
"Yup. He did, alright." Francis said.
"For the first time." Lloyd said. V.V. giggled, which is pretty rare. In fact, her giggle sounds pretty nice, like chimes in the wind.
"Okay, moving on." Francis said, trying to get back into the subject. "Then there's Hornet. She never told anyone her real name, but she's an Asian. And just like her name, she's can manipulate hornets to do her bidding, and she possess hornet characteristics."
"She's a hornet????" V.V. gasped.
"No. I meant she has hair that can become a sting, she can sprout wings and she loves honey and nectar." Francis said.
V.V. nodded slowly.
"And last but not least, Jake McCartney aka Inuestigandum. He can track anyone, you know, like a detector. He's harmless, 'cos he can only track people, which is why Lance stay close to him."
"Not bad." Lloyd said, nodding. "How do you know all this stuff?"
"I stayed with them for a day, then I defected. Pretty weird, huh?"
"How did they ended up together anyway?" Lloyd asked.
"They were shunned by normal people." V.V. said. "Isn't it obvious?"
"I know. But what I meant was, how did they all came together? I'm sure you know about it, right?" He added the last part to Francis.
"Nope." Francis said. "The only one I ever get close is Terra Magenta. She was brought up in an orphanage, then she met Blaze and his gang." He then glanced at his watch. "Anyway, I think we better get going."
As they left, Revarie, who was watching from afar, sprouted bat wings and flew off.
***********
"Heh. Who would have thought those slayers went to hunt down a group of rebellion power users?" Revarie smirked as he came back from his scouting.
Dario, Allen, Reo and a boy were in a wide and spacious room, listening to his reports. Allen kept rocking back and forth in his seat. The boy looked very bored, and is tossing a crystal piece up and down in his hand. Dario, however, looked interested.
Reo, on the other hand, did not smile. "I used to be with them, in case you have forgotten."
Revarie then stared at him. "So what does it matter?"
Reo stared back at him. Crimson met dark. "I know you, Revarie. You are going to drink their blood, aren't you? Because all of them are just teens."
Revarie grinned. "Teenagers' blood are quite delicious. The soft skin and the blood blends perfectly in harmony."
Dario then stood up from his seat, staring at the moonlit sky.
"What is it?" Allen asked.
"If Revarie wants to go, then let's make a vote."
"I refuse to go." Reo said, folding his arms. "No point of seeing them again."
"I don't have that much interest in those guys." Allen said.
The boy stopped tossing the crystal and said, "Is V.V. there?"
Everyone stared at him.
"You know V.V.???" Allen said, awestruck.
"Heh. We had a long history." The boy said. Although his flaming red hair is cropped short, it seems to get even longer and became a scythe. His amber eyes looking murderous. "I can't wait to see her face again."
"If that's the case, then let's go." Dario said. "Where is their hideout anyway?"
"They are like nomads, you know." Reo said. "But they should be at one of the streets."
"What the heck?" Mind's Shadow snarled. "Then I'll just track them."
Allen's eyes glowed red for a few moments, then he said, "Brooklyn."
***********
The four of them walked down the rows of warehouse near the bay side. Most of the warehouse are abandoned and gratified.
"You sure they are here?"
"Yup, absolutely." Francis said. "Should be right around...here."
They stopped right in front of a warehouse that seems to hid in the shadows.
"This is it?" Glenn wrinkled his nose. "You think they might want to get a better hideout."
"The murkier, the better. But the more suspicions raised." Francis said. "You know what? I'll go first. You three can sneak in later, but watch out for Lupercus."
"Over and out." Lloyd beckoned the other two to follow him.
Taking a deep breath, Francis banged on the door three times.
"Hellooo???? Anyone hooooooome????" He asked.
There's no answer.
"Hello???? It's me...." Francis banged even louder and without warning, the door smashed down. "Ooops."
"Way to go, Franciska." Lloyd rolled his eyes.
"But he did managed to get us in..." Glenn grinned.
"By breaking down the door???" Lloyd muttered. "That is bound to cause people stare at us."
"Good point." Glenn nodded.
Francis tried to put the door back together, but is having no success. So he put it against the frame. "Come on in. I think nobody's in."
Cautiously, they went in.
It's not exactly nice. It's piled with many crates. There's a stairs that spiraled upwards to a landing. A crate was being used as a table, 'cos there are paper plates filled with leftover food, and paper cups that are half-finished with juice. The only source of light is coming from a few naked bulbs hung high in the ceiling. In the corner, there's a pile of well-worn mattress squished together, poorly-sewn pillows,and very thin sheets used as blankets. But they did tried to brighten up the place, such as painting patterns on the walls. There are two boxes used as a storage for food and water. A mini refrigerator that looks as though it's fished out of a junkyard is making a humming sound. For a moment, Lloyd felt a little pity for them.
"Boy, this is sure one heck of a hideout." Glenn said, prodding one of the blankets.
"That's weird." Francis said. "Nobody's in. And there's no stolen cash."
"Think again, Muscle Head..." A voice said.
As they looked up, fireballs started heading towards them.
"SCRAMBLE!!!!!" Francis yelled.
Everybody split as Blaze Vinegrove (aka Pyro) hurled a whole lot of fireballs at them. Some of the crates burst into flames.
"Damn. This guy is crazy!!!" Glenn said, shooting at Blaze, except a wall of fire protected him.
"I would appreciate it if we take it outside." Blaze said. "Otherwise my hideout will be turned into ashes."
The others shrugged and went out. The crates are turning into nothing right now. A bit of the embers are all that remains.
As soon as they reached outside, Blaze hurled a ginormous fireball at them, except this time they ducked, causing the fireball to splash into the sea. A wall of water blasted out at least 5 feet tall before crashing back into the water.
"So, tell me, who are you all suppose to be. The cops?" Blaze's tone stared to drip with venom.
"No, we're not." Lloyd answered.
"Funny. You sure look like one. And let me tell you, you can't put me in jail forever. I can melt the bars easily. And I had not done anything wrong."
"You didn't." Glenn said. "But your comrades did."
"What do you mean? Are you framing Ray and the others?" His eyes glared at Francis. "You...You defected no good low-life algae. Why did you tell us off?"
"I'm doing this for your comrades sake." Francis shouted at him. "They robbed the Bank of Manhattan."
Blaze cooled down for a moment. "The robbery in the news?"
"Well, yes!"
Without warning, Blaze hurled a whip-like stream of fire and bind Francis.
"Got anymore lies to spread, Muscle Head?" The fiery whips started licking Francis, but luckily, he's wearing a thick polyester jacket, so it had protected him from the major damage.
V.V., her hair turning into blades, charged Blaze from right behind. Blaze tried to burn her but she then started to strangle him, saying, "Don't even think about it..."
"You're not human. So, why are you helping them?" He asked.
"It's none of your beeswax." V.V. answered.
"How old are you anyway, 16?" Blaze asked, trying to struggle his way out.
"Yeah..." She then wrapped her legs around him and said, "Stop struggling and make things easier for me."
"No can do." Blaze surround himself with flames that caused V.V. to untangle him and stumbled back, but Glenn automatically reached out to catch her to stop her from falling.
"How chivalrous." V.V. muttered as Glenn set her on her feet.
"Thanks." Glenn said.
Francis ran off to the side of the warehouse and came back with a fire extinguisher. With it, he tore off the top with his super strength and just let the carbon dioxide spray all over Blaze, who yelled. Well, if you're fire and you got sprayed by carbon dioxide, wouldn't you shriek your head off if you had a voice?
"Even though he's a walking flame, he can't stand carbon dioxide, which I must say, comes in handy during the right circumstances." Francis patted the fire extinguisher tucked underneath his arm.
"To hell with you! All of you!!!" Blaze coughed.
"Spare us the threats." Lloyd said, wrapping him up with fireproof blanket.
"You people just wait. I'll get you guys when I burn my way out." Blaze tried to start a fire but nothing happened.
"Sorry, Fireboy." Lloyd said with mock pity. "But this is a fireproof blanket. Found it at the dumpster near your hideout. Very convenient, huh?"
Suddenly, cards started to charge towards them. Lloyd grabbed some of them in between his fingers whereas some hit the crates behind him, slicing them into half.
Lloyd looked up to see a boy, holding a pack of cards, and aiming it towards him. This must be Sniper aka Lance Granger. Beside him must be Inuestigandum aka Jake McCartney.
"Look out! The whole gang is here!" Lloyd called out to the others.
At that moment, hornets started buzzing towards them with a huge gargantuan wolf, who pounce on Glenn.
"Arrrggghhhh!!!!" Glenn yelled, trying to push the wolf off him.
Hornets buzzed towards Lloyd who started dicing them with his blade. Francis was defenseless, so he tried to run for cover, luckily V.V. grabbed him out of safety while her hair turn into blades and started killing off the hornets.
"Sorry I can't do much here." Francis said as she dropped him on top of a roof.
"You could always try to take on the sniper and the tracking boy." She nodded at the two who are at the other side of the building.
"Got it." Before he move, Francis turned back to her and said, "Hey, Vivi."
V.V. turned back to him with a puzzled look on her face.
"You're not human. But I am curious, how old are you?"
V.V. smirked and as she goes back into the battle, she replied, "I had been around long enough to witness World War 2 til now."
Francis gave a laugh and said to himself, "I like her attitude."
Glenn is still struggling against the huge wolf when this voice said inside his head. You have power, why not use it?
What the- You again? Glenn fought the voice in his head.
You are a descendant of a clan of vampires. You ought to be proud to possess inhuman abilities. The voice said.
Stop it. Go away. Glenn tried to shake the voice off him, but it kept penetrating his head.
Bring me out, the voice said. I'll finish it soon enough.
Hell, that'll be the day.
"Get off me, dog!" Glenn kicked the wolf hard on the jaw.
The wolf yelped as he was thrown back and knocked against a pile of crates. As Glenn straightened himself up, he ducked again as a swarm of hornets tried to sting him. When he ducked, kunais, shurikens, kumbis and senbons aimed for his vital points. He ran for cover behind a wall and the weapons bounced on the wall.
"Whew. That was close." Glenn sighed with relief.
"Hiya!!!!"
A girl with a single long plait aimed a flying kick at him, but that is not what he's afraid off. It's the kumbis that she's holding on each fist. She thrust both fists out, releasing her hold on the kumbis and the the sharp projectiles flew towards his chest, causing him to lean back as low as possible to avoid them from thrusting itself deep into his chest.
"Cripes. That was scary."
The girl, whom he assumed is Hornet, flew towards him and landed two powerful kicks straight onto his stomach. He doubled up in pain as she flicked shurikens at him.
Two struck his arms.
Two struck his legs.
And before he could even blink, Hornet threw him towards a wall. At that moment, Lloyd rammed Hornet hard with the handle of his blade, causing her to cough violently.
"Sorry I have to do this." Lloyd said as he ran off.
But Hornet isn't going to let him off easily, as soon as his back was turned, she took out a scroll hidden well inside one of her sleeve. She unrolled the scroll and did some complicated hand seal movements, muttering under her breath as she did so.
There was a huge cloud of smoke and weapons of all kinds charged towards Lloyd's unprotected back. Katanas, daggers, kunais, senbons, kumbis, shurikens of all kinds, sickle with chains, nuchakus, blades and many other various kinds of weapons all are aimed at him. However, he deflected every single weapons with his blade in swift silent movements.
Hornet gasped in shock. No one could ever survive her ninjutsu skills, certainly not this one, which summons various weapons which she had sealed inside the scroll.
As Lloyd left Hornet, who seemed to have surrendered, acidic bubbles started floating towards him. Corrosive to everything they touch.
Francis managed to win his battle against Lance Granger, but Jake managed to flee to Terra's side, who is sending dangerous acid bubbles to Lloyd who is in a pinch.
"Geesh... I never liked those acid bubbles..." Francis said, walking back, bracing himself and jumping off the building, yelling, "EN GARDE!!!!!!!"
Glenn, who was pulling the shurikens out of his wounds, caught sight of Francis doing a crazy flying leap from the roof top.
"WHAT THE HELL- FRANCIS!!!" His eyes popped.
Francis started to fall back to the ground. Glenn's first instinct tells him to run, but if he did, Francis would go splat and that won't be a pretty sight.
Here goes nothing, he thought, stretching out his hands and-
Francis fell right into his arms with such powerful force that knocks both of them down.
"Thanks, Glenn." Francis said, getting up. "You're a pal."
"Ow...I think I broke a rib or two." Glenn rubbed his backside. "And my back hurts."
"Sorry, man." Francis pulled him back up.
"Why don't you have the ability to levitate or something?"
Francis shrugged.
Lloyd was ducking every acidic bubbles that floated after him. When they touch something, they pop into thin air but also melting anything it touches.
"Oh, for Pete's sake." Lloyd said, running as far as he could to put the distance between Terra and him. "I know that to nullify acid you need alkali but there's just no alkali."
V.V. ran past him, charging towards Terra, who quickly move her bubbles to a nearby warehouse. The bubbles melted part of the building, bringing it down. She's planning to crush V.V. with the collapsing building.
Lloyd skidded into a halt. "Oh no, you don't."
He ran back towards Terra, making a high jump and slicing the building into half so that it split apart without hurting V.V. who did a headbutt at Terra, straight into the head. There was a splintering crack and Terra fainted. Jake, who was with her, tried to make a run for it, except V.V. caught hold of him with her hair, binding his arms and legs.
"Hell, no!!!!" Blaze was struggling with the fire-proof blanket that had bound him tightly like a sausage roll.
"Hell, yeah!" Glenn said, whooping into the air. "We rock!"
Lloyd came over to Blaze and said, "We won't hurt you and your buddies. But we might have to turn you over to the police for some explaining."
"No!!! You can't!" Blaze yelled. "You have no idea what it's like for us to be shunned by the community!"
"So you steal to survive?" Glenn said, shaking his head.
"Only food and the basic necessary to survive. We don't harm people unless they harm us."
"You could have come to us." Lloyd said gently. "We help supernatural cases and the helpless. Then you needn't end up this way."
Blaze grunted.
"Look." Lloyd said. "We are trying to help you. I have a friend who is a doctor in this kind of stuff. I could ask him for an antidote-"
"No need!" Blaze spat. "Just promise to get out of my sight and don't come back!"
Lloyd gave a shrug and said, "I tried."
"I have a few questions for you." Blaze said, softening a little.
"Go ahead." Glenn said.
"Alright then." He held Glenn's gaze. "My first question, you are not exactly human, are you?"
"Yup." Glenn said. "How do you know?"
"Please." Blaze snorted. "Vampires possess supernatural beauty that are used to charm their victims. Except....You sure do possess the beauty part. But do you ever....drink?"
"Heck, of course not!" Glenn looked horrified at the thought.
"So you're not exactly a pure one, huh?"
"No."
"My next one." He turned to V.V. "You are not human. Why help them?"
V.V. fixed her gaze with his. "I had done a lot of things that I'm not proud of in the past."
"You're not going to open up to me, are ya?" Blaze smirked.
V.V ignored him.
"My last question is for the defected Muscle Head." Blaze said. "But you're going to have to let me go first."
"And why should we do that?" Lloyd asked.
"'Cos there's something I need to show him, dammit." Blaze wiggled around like a caterpillar. "I won't run."
Lloyd looked at Francis. "Do you trust him?"
"Yeah." Francis said, but he tightened his hold on the fire extinguisher, which he sealed the broken top with his thick sweater.
"Okay, we'll let you go." Lloyd said. "But if you try to run, Francis will spray you with carbon dioxide and we'll turn you into a sausage roll and you'll be heading into a confinement center."
"Fine."
Lloyd loosened the thick cords that held the fire-proof blanket and tugged the blanket so that it came loose around Blaze.
"Thanks." He said, rubbing his shoulders. "I had an ache."
"Get to the point, Pyro." Francis said. "I believe you have a question for me that needs you to move around."
"Oh, yeah." Blaze put his hand into his pocket and drew out a photo, saying, "I'm sure you know him. He left us a few years ago. And Jakey tracked him at your school."
Francis looked at the photo and gasped.
It's Reo.
But it's a younger Reo. His hair isn't shoulder length like now. He doesn't even looked as cold as he is now. He looks kinder and younger.
Even Glenn gasped.
"Reo Minamio?"
"Yeah." Blaze said. "We call him Mizutsuchi 'cos he can manipulate water and earth. In Japanese, Mizu means water whereas Tsuchi means earth. He is one decent guy and used to be our leader."
"You're kidding." Glenn exclaimed.
"I never joke." Blaze said seriously. "When he left us, we had been trying to find him but we're having no success, until Hornet found him in the internet."
When everybody gave him a puzzled look, Blaze sighed. "You guys never use the internet?"
"Of course we do but we don't bother checking up on him." Everybody retorted.
"What's going on, Pyro?" A deep voice asked. Everybody turned around to see Ray, in his human form, glaring at them. "Why are you negotiating with them? Especially him." He jerked his head at Lloyd.
What the hell did I do to offend Wolf Boy here? Lloyd thought.
"Ray, let them see it." Blaze said.
"Are you crazy?" Ray yelled.
"Now!"
Ray cursed under his breath and took out a picture printed in black or white from his waistband and held it gingerly towards Lloyd. He took it with a word of thanks but Ray only scowled deeper.
Lloyd stared at the picture. Even though it's in black and white, he could make out Reo's handsome features facing the camera. Standing right next to him is....
"Dario Darkmatter." Lloyd whispered.
Dario's hair isn't shoulder length and straight cut like now. Instead, his hair is cropped short, just like Lloyd's. Since the picture is in black and white, Dario's blonde hair was basked into a darker colour, nearly like his own dark hair.
And scarily, they looked exactly the same.
Lloyd felt a shiver down his spine as he handed back the photo to Ray, except this time he stood far away from Lloyd. So Hornet took it instead.
"We though if we could find this guy, we find Mizutsuchi, except...you're not him, are you?" Blaze gaze cautiously at him.
"No."
"Yes, I am ." A familiar voice said.
Everyone looked up to see Dario gazing down at them from the top of a building.
Supernatural Demon Slayers : Chapter 13 - The Bonds Between Friends ( フレンズ間の結合 )
"Hills, what's that supposed to be?"
Francis was busy punching a punch bag. He was covered in sweats already when the coach startled him. "Pardon?"
"What on earth was that move you're doing just now?" The coach stared at him.
"I was just doing brushing up some basics..." Francis said, shrugging.
"But you aren't even doing it properly... This is kickboxing, not some plain old wannabe-boxing-club. If you wanna do kickboxing, then do it for real, feel the passion burn inside of you...Like Minamio over there."
The coach nodded at a the far end where Reo was doing some complicated kickboxing techniques without a punch bag. He wasn't even breaking a sweat since from the past hour where they were paired up to duel.
When the coach left, Francis sighed and went back to his training. When it was time to hit the showers, Francis was about to go into one of the showers when a cool voice said, "You're Franshiska Hills, right?"
Francis turned around to see Reo staring at him. Francis had never came up close to Reo before. But now he could see that Reo is quite handsome, although from afar, he may look like an oddball who only bury his nose into a book.
Francis gave a moan of annoyance and said, "It's Francis, not Franshiska."
"Do you know Glenn Skyler?"
Francis gave a huge stare before answering, "Hell yeah, we had been best buds since we enrolled into Columbia."
He then caught sight of something. A bandage covering the side of his neck. Reo caught him looking at his neck and quickly covered the bandage with his hand, hastily replying, "It's just a small bite. Do you know the girl who is currently living with him right now?"
Francis gave him another huge stare and said, "No, I don't know much about her. Except, her name is kinda funny. Vivi... What kind of girl's name is- Huh?"
Reo had already vanished in front of his eyes while the whole time he was talking.
*********
SPECTACULAR BREAK-IN AT MANHATTAN BANK
Mon - There was a break-in at Manhattan Bank last night. Police believes it is the work of a criminal gang but most people claimed that no ordinary human could pull out these kind of stunts which involves melting the metal security gate, destroying the alarm with a sharp object, or putting the security guard into a deep sleep, not to mention there are huge scratches and ripped out metal at the security vault. The police had not managed to gather any evidence but will keep on investing this case further, of course.
Lloyd sipped his early morning coffee as he read this. There's only one thing the police and reporter got right for sure. This is not the work of an ordinary human. He walked over to the mail and saw a whole lot of Chinese, Japanese and Western-take out menu on the mat where the delivery boys shove them through the slot. The only thing that is not about take out delivery is a handwritten letter by Dario who normally sends a letter to taunt him.
So, I guess it's another supernatural case is it? He wrote.
Lloyd almost feel like writing back to him and said, "Look, pal. If you really wanna taunt me so much, then get your butt out here and said it straight to my face and STOP wasting paper and ink for God's sake!!!!!!"
Instead, he chucked the letter into the shredding machine as Glenn got up, wearing only a vest and khaki pants as pyjamas.
"Uhhh...What time is it? Did I miss anything?" Glenn mumbled.
"Nothing..." Lloyd said. Glenn went over to the fridge and took out a fresh OJ. As he sipped the juice, he said, "Doesn't sound like nothing."
"Well..." Lloyd pointed at the paper shredding machine. "I just shredded a letter."
Glenn's eyes widened and said, "It had better not be MY letter."
"No, of course not. It's a letter addressed to me."
"Then why did you shred it?"
"Dario."
Glenn frowned. "What did he write this time?"
Lloyd handed the newspaper to Glenn and took the paper shredding machine and dumped the shredded contents into the wastepaper basket. "He wrote a letter concerning about the mysterious break in." Lloyd muttered.
V.V. got up, clutching a Minnie Mouse plushie, and rubbing her eyes sleepily. "Uhhh...I had a reallly bad dream..."
"What kind of dream?" Glenn asked.
"About a giant mushroom trying to devour the world..." V.V. mumbled, taking out a couple of chocolate chips pop-tarts and tossing it into the toaster. "Anyway, I applied for a job at Maggie's Bookworld downtown. Today is my first day."
Lloyd and Glenn both sweatdropped. A giant mushroom devouring the world???? But when they heard the last part, they shouted, "Say what???"
"Don't worry. I'm using a fake name." V.V. said. "I have to leave by 9."
Glenn shrugged and said, "You want to investigate this case?"
"Maybe." Lloyd said, heading over to the window. "But as mentioned, not a lot of people have evidence yet."
RIIIING!!!!!!
Lloyd swiped the phone up with his usual gutso.
"Hello, Supernatural Demon Slayers (S.D.S.). How may I help-"
"Is Glenn there?"
"Eh? Who are you?"
"I'm Francis, for God's sake. Can you please put Glenn through the damn phone?"
Lloyd tossed the phone to Glenn and said, "For you."
Glenn picked up the phone and said, "Hey, Francis. What's up?"
"Glenn, have you seen the news?"
"I just finished reading it. Why?"
"Well, how would you react if I told you that I know who are behind the theft?"
"WHAT?!!!!!!"
**********
Francis was at Grand Central Park, leaning against a lamp-post when Glenn came over.
"Francis, you got to be kidding me..." He said as he got closer. "You know who was behind the break-ins???"
"Yeah." Francis said, avoiding his eyes. "To tell you the truth, I'm surprised as well."
"When did this happen???" Glenn asked, sitting beside him.
Francis got up and said, "How much do you know about me, Glenn?"
"Erm...Not much. Except that your dad is the leader of a Mafia gang. Oh, and your mom divorced with him and raised you with the Jews."
Francis looked thoughtful. Then, he said, "Don't get freaked out, okay?"
Glenn's eyes widened. "Freaked out???"
Francis gave a sigh and went to a nearby parking lot. There's a silver Volvo, a SUV, and a Mercedes parked in the parking lot. Taking a deep breath, he lift the Mercedes up into the air as though it weighs nothing.
"HOLY COW!!!!!!" Glenn yelled. "Have you been taking steroids or something?"
Francis put the Mercedes down and said, "No. Have you heard of the Radioactive incident in 1900's?"
"Yeah. I heard about that one." Glenn said, getting up as well. "Why?"
"In the 1988, a group of scientists tried to create super humans as in, humans with supernatural power through radioactive. The cops caught them and hush it all up and sealed up the radioactive toxic waste, but some leaked out in the same year."
He then paused for a while and said, "I was one of the few victims that survived that incident."
"Blimey, you never told me about that before." Glenn said, awed.
"You never told me anything about your part-time job either." Francis countered.
"There's a valid reason for that." Glenn protested.
Francis then continued, "I fell into the waste that polluted a river near an abandoned warehouse in Washington. Believe me, it isn't fun. At first, nothing happened. The next few days, I felt painful and burning sensation all over my body and my genes felt like bursting. It's only a week later I realised I gained the ability of super strength."
"Blimey, Francis. Why didn't you tell me this before?"
"Because I thought you would have shunned me. I'm a freak. My mom couldn't even sent me to a normal school because of it. She have to home schooled me and work at night." Francis smashed the marble edgings of the fountain. "It's like a curse."
"That's not true!" Glenn grabbed him by the shoulders and said, "So what? I'm not normal too."
"That's easy for you to say." Francis muttered. "You're normal."
"I'm not, Francis. I'm actually a skipped generation descendant from a line of vampires. Including a 5000-year-old vampire who happens to be be my great-great-great-great-great and so on ancestor who is hell bent on getting rid of me to prune his family lines."
Francis stared at him. "But you don't even drink blood."
"I only inherited some vampire traits. For example, supernatural beauty to lure victims and inhuman strength, speed and stamina. I'm not sure about the blood part, but Lloyd said I drained Reo's blood."
"Minamio??? But I saw him in kickboxing today. And he's not a vampire." He then remembered the bite. "The bite injury on his neck. Was it...you????"
"Yes. I lost control." Glenn said. "But I won't bite anyone. Honest. I'm not dangerous. My great-great-great-great-great and so on ancestor said my venom isn't poisonous."
Francis stared at him, straight into his eyes. Then he said, "OK. I trust you." He then grinned. "So, can you transform into a bat?"
"No, I can't transform..."
"What a shame. That means you can't help me beat the traffic from the Brooklyn Subway."
Glenn started laughing and said, "Believe me. I prefer flying than using the bus." His expression then turned serious. "OK. Back to buiness. About the radioactive incident, are there any more victims???"
"Yeah. They probably take refuge at some old abandoned factory or warehouse." Francis said. "Pyro had been persuading me to join him for years. But I always rejected his offer."
"Are there any more of them?"
Well, why don't we grab a coffee at Starbucks and I'll tell you the rest of it?"
**********
"Vivien, could you help put these magazines back into their rack?" Kelly, the cashier asked.
V.V. smiled at her and said, "Sure." She picked up a stack of magazines and neatly put them back into their places, with the edges neat and not bent of folded. This is a perfect job for her. Working in Maggie's Bookstore is quite fun, actually. When she first applied for the job, she had given them her project, a detailed history of the first World War , the Russia and Japan War. They were so impressed that they hired her on the spot.
The door pings and a customer entered. V.V. straightened up and smiled, "Hi. Can I-"
She froze.
Reo was standing at the door, holding a cup of hot chocolate and carrying his Adidas sports bag. He is also staring straight at her.
Uh-oh, V.V. thought. She quickly dropped the magazines and ran to Kelly, saying, "I need to use the bathroom. Can you help me serve that guy?"
"No problem." Kelly said. "Hi, sir. What can I do for you?"
"I'm looking for a sports magazine and a few paperback novels. Here's the list." He held out a list for Kelly to see just as V.V. darted into the bathroom and shut herself into a cubicle. Her heart beating fast.
How does he know I'm working here??? She thought. How??? If he tells this to his gang....
Taking a deep breath, she stared herself at the mirror. Mostly, she would be wearing the same white dress and the rikka brooch. But Maggie's bookstore employees all have to wear a uniform. For boys, it would be a white shirt and pale grey pants. For girls, it's a white top and a pale grey skirt, oh, and tennis shoes. They don't look flattering but it's uniform all right. It's a strict dress code.
V.V. then emerged from the cubicle to find Kelly placing some paperbacks into a carrier bag. Reo was leaning against the wall, his eyes fixed on V.V. as he sipped his hot chocolate.
"That'll be 37.99 dollars." Kelly held out her hand.
Reo handed a fifty to her and said, "So, how did you end up working here?"
"We nearly ran into a bit of debt." V.V. muttered.
"You two know each other?" Kelly asked with interest, stacking some stationery into the shelf behind the counter.
"We...er...had a bit of history..." V.V. muttered again.
Everyone was silent for a few minutes, until the phone suddenly rang.
Kelly reached out to it. "Hi there. Meggie's Bookstore. We stock up most books here and we can even deliver them for you...Eh??? Who's this? You want to speak to Vivien??? Okay." Kelly held out the phone to V.V. "Here. It's your call."
V.V. put the phone to her ear and said, "Hello???"
"V.V., what's time is your shift over???" Lloyd's voice rang into her ears.
"Um... 2.00 p.m." Vivi answered. "Why?"
"Well, could you just get out of here, like now?"
"But..." V.V. checked the clock that hung on the wall. "I still have 2 more hours."
"Can't you say something...like a family emergency?" Lloyd said hurriedly.
"It depends on the situation." V.V. said.
"Where's the girl who answered the phone? Let me talk to her." Lloyd said.
V.V. shrugged and said to Kelly, "He wants to talk to you."
Kelly also shrugged but took the phone from her. "Hello?"
V.V. turned back to the counter to see Reo still standing there, his purchase in one hand, his cup of hot chocolate in his other hand.
"If you have no buiness here, I suggest you leave." V.V. said coldly.
At that moment, Kelly said, "Vivien, you had better go back now."
That startled V.V. "What? Why?"
"Why didn't you tell me your grandfather is having grandular fever???" Kelly grabbed a book from the shelf and shoved it to V.V. "Here. Take this book with you. It's a book about grandular fever. You have to check it thoroughly. And since this is a crisis, no charge."
"But, Kelly-" V.V. protested.
"No buts. Your brother is picking you up." Kelly snatched V.V.'s employee key card off her, which hung on around her neck with a strap and slid it into a little silver box to clock her out. "I'll explain it to Maggie. You go to the hospital and be there for your grandfather. And-" She leaned in closer to her. "You must tell me what happened to him. Don't leave out any details."
"Um...Okay..." V.V. gave up. There's no way she could wriggle out of this.
She went into a cubicle and changed into her usual clothing. Just as she was ready, she saw the familiar Land Rover right outside, waiting for her. She grabbed her little bag pack and dashed out, saying, "Thanks, Kelly!"
As she climbed into the vehicle, she said, "Grandfather having grandular fever??? Could you come up with something less extreme???"
"Sorry, it's the best that I could off." Lloyd turned a sharp turn and nearly had V.V. thrown across her seat.
"Where are we going?" V.V. scrambled back up to her seat and buckled her seat belt firmly.
"To the thieves' hideout." Lloyd put the pedal to the metal and the Land Rover leap into a growl and sped off.
Francis was busy punching a punch bag. He was covered in sweats already when the coach startled him. "Pardon?"
"What on earth was that move you're doing just now?" The coach stared at him.
"I was just doing brushing up some basics..." Francis said, shrugging.
"But you aren't even doing it properly... This is kickboxing, not some plain old wannabe-boxing-club. If you wanna do kickboxing, then do it for real, feel the passion burn inside of you...Like Minamio over there."
The coach nodded at a the far end where Reo was doing some complicated kickboxing techniques without a punch bag. He wasn't even breaking a sweat since from the past hour where they were paired up to duel.
When the coach left, Francis sighed and went back to his training. When it was time to hit the showers, Francis was about to go into one of the showers when a cool voice said, "You're Franshiska Hills, right?"
Francis turned around to see Reo staring at him. Francis had never came up close to Reo before. But now he could see that Reo is quite handsome, although from afar, he may look like an oddball who only bury his nose into a book.
Francis gave a moan of annoyance and said, "It's Francis, not Franshiska."
"Do you know Glenn Skyler?"
Francis gave a huge stare before answering, "Hell yeah, we had been best buds since we enrolled into Columbia."
He then caught sight of something. A bandage covering the side of his neck. Reo caught him looking at his neck and quickly covered the bandage with his hand, hastily replying, "It's just a small bite. Do you know the girl who is currently living with him right now?"
Francis gave him another huge stare and said, "No, I don't know much about her. Except, her name is kinda funny. Vivi... What kind of girl's name is- Huh?"
Reo had already vanished in front of his eyes while the whole time he was talking.
*********
SPECTACULAR BREAK-IN AT MANHATTAN BANK
Mon - There was a break-in at Manhattan Bank last night. Police believes it is the work of a criminal gang but most people claimed that no ordinary human could pull out these kind of stunts which involves melting the metal security gate, destroying the alarm with a sharp object, or putting the security guard into a deep sleep, not to mention there are huge scratches and ripped out metal at the security vault. The police had not managed to gather any evidence but will keep on investing this case further, of course.
Lloyd sipped his early morning coffee as he read this. There's only one thing the police and reporter got right for sure. This is not the work of an ordinary human. He walked over to the mail and saw a whole lot of Chinese, Japanese and Western-take out menu on the mat where the delivery boys shove them through the slot. The only thing that is not about take out delivery is a handwritten letter by Dario who normally sends a letter to taunt him.
So, I guess it's another supernatural case is it? He wrote.
Lloyd almost feel like writing back to him and said, "Look, pal. If you really wanna taunt me so much, then get your butt out here and said it straight to my face and STOP wasting paper and ink for God's sake!!!!!!"
Instead, he chucked the letter into the shredding machine as Glenn got up, wearing only a vest and khaki pants as pyjamas.
"Uhhh...What time is it? Did I miss anything?" Glenn mumbled.
"Nothing..." Lloyd said. Glenn went over to the fridge and took out a fresh OJ. As he sipped the juice, he said, "Doesn't sound like nothing."
"Well..." Lloyd pointed at the paper shredding machine. "I just shredded a letter."
Glenn's eyes widened and said, "It had better not be MY letter."
"No, of course not. It's a letter addressed to me."
"Then why did you shred it?"
"Dario."
Glenn frowned. "What did he write this time?"
Lloyd handed the newspaper to Glenn and took the paper shredding machine and dumped the shredded contents into the wastepaper basket. "He wrote a letter concerning about the mysterious break in." Lloyd muttered.
V.V. got up, clutching a Minnie Mouse plushie, and rubbing her eyes sleepily. "Uhhh...I had a reallly bad dream..."
"What kind of dream?" Glenn asked.
"About a giant mushroom trying to devour the world..." V.V. mumbled, taking out a couple of chocolate chips pop-tarts and tossing it into the toaster. "Anyway, I applied for a job at Maggie's Bookworld downtown. Today is my first day."
Lloyd and Glenn both sweatdropped. A giant mushroom devouring the world???? But when they heard the last part, they shouted, "Say what???"
"Don't worry. I'm using a fake name." V.V. said. "I have to leave by 9."
Glenn shrugged and said, "You want to investigate this case?"
"Maybe." Lloyd said, heading over to the window. "But as mentioned, not a lot of people have evidence yet."
RIIIING!!!!!!
Lloyd swiped the phone up with his usual gutso.
"Hello, Supernatural Demon Slayers (S.D.S.). How may I help-"
"Is Glenn there?"
"Eh? Who are you?"
"I'm Francis, for God's sake. Can you please put Glenn through the damn phone?"
Lloyd tossed the phone to Glenn and said, "For you."
Glenn picked up the phone and said, "Hey, Francis. What's up?"
"Glenn, have you seen the news?"
"I just finished reading it. Why?"
"Well, how would you react if I told you that I know who are behind the theft?"
"WHAT?!!!!!!"
**********
Francis was at Grand Central Park, leaning against a lamp-post when Glenn came over.
"Francis, you got to be kidding me..." He said as he got closer. "You know who was behind the break-ins???"
"Yeah." Francis said, avoiding his eyes. "To tell you the truth, I'm surprised as well."
"When did this happen???" Glenn asked, sitting beside him.
Francis got up and said, "How much do you know about me, Glenn?"
"Erm...Not much. Except that your dad is the leader of a Mafia gang. Oh, and your mom divorced with him and raised you with the Jews."
Francis looked thoughtful. Then, he said, "Don't get freaked out, okay?"
Glenn's eyes widened. "Freaked out???"
Francis gave a sigh and went to a nearby parking lot. There's a silver Volvo, a SUV, and a Mercedes parked in the parking lot. Taking a deep breath, he lift the Mercedes up into the air as though it weighs nothing.
"HOLY COW!!!!!!" Glenn yelled. "Have you been taking steroids or something?"
Francis put the Mercedes down and said, "No. Have you heard of the Radioactive incident in 1900's?"
"Yeah. I heard about that one." Glenn said, getting up as well. "Why?"
"In the 1988, a group of scientists tried to create super humans as in, humans with supernatural power through radioactive. The cops caught them and hush it all up and sealed up the radioactive toxic waste, but some leaked out in the same year."
He then paused for a while and said, "I was one of the few victims that survived that incident."
"Blimey, you never told me about that before." Glenn said, awed.
"You never told me anything about your part-time job either." Francis countered.
"There's a valid reason for that." Glenn protested.
Francis then continued, "I fell into the waste that polluted a river near an abandoned warehouse in Washington. Believe me, it isn't fun. At first, nothing happened. The next few days, I felt painful and burning sensation all over my body and my genes felt like bursting. It's only a week later I realised I gained the ability of super strength."
"Blimey, Francis. Why didn't you tell me this before?"
"Because I thought you would have shunned me. I'm a freak. My mom couldn't even sent me to a normal school because of it. She have to home schooled me and work at night." Francis smashed the marble edgings of the fountain. "It's like a curse."
"That's not true!" Glenn grabbed him by the shoulders and said, "So what? I'm not normal too."
"That's easy for you to say." Francis muttered. "You're normal."
"I'm not, Francis. I'm actually a skipped generation descendant from a line of vampires. Including a 5000-year-old vampire who happens to be be my great-great-great-great-great and so on ancestor who is hell bent on getting rid of me to prune his family lines."
Francis stared at him. "But you don't even drink blood."
"I only inherited some vampire traits. For example, supernatural beauty to lure victims and inhuman strength, speed and stamina. I'm not sure about the blood part, but Lloyd said I drained Reo's blood."
"Minamio??? But I saw him in kickboxing today. And he's not a vampire." He then remembered the bite. "The bite injury on his neck. Was it...you????"
"Yes. I lost control." Glenn said. "But I won't bite anyone. Honest. I'm not dangerous. My great-great-great-great-great and so on ancestor said my venom isn't poisonous."
Francis stared at him, straight into his eyes. Then he said, "OK. I trust you." He then grinned. "So, can you transform into a bat?"
"No, I can't transform..."
"What a shame. That means you can't help me beat the traffic from the Brooklyn Subway."
Glenn started laughing and said, "Believe me. I prefer flying than using the bus." His expression then turned serious. "OK. Back to buiness. About the radioactive incident, are there any more victims???"
"Yeah. They probably take refuge at some old abandoned factory or warehouse." Francis said. "Pyro had been persuading me to join him for years. But I always rejected his offer."
"Are there any more of them?"
Well, why don't we grab a coffee at Starbucks and I'll tell you the rest of it?"
**********
"Vivien, could you help put these magazines back into their rack?" Kelly, the cashier asked.
V.V. smiled at her and said, "Sure." She picked up a stack of magazines and neatly put them back into their places, with the edges neat and not bent of folded. This is a perfect job for her. Working in Maggie's Bookstore is quite fun, actually. When she first applied for the job, she had given them her project, a detailed history of the first World War , the Russia and Japan War. They were so impressed that they hired her on the spot.
The door pings and a customer entered. V.V. straightened up and smiled, "Hi. Can I-"
She froze.
Reo was standing at the door, holding a cup of hot chocolate and carrying his Adidas sports bag. He is also staring straight at her.
Uh-oh, V.V. thought. She quickly dropped the magazines and ran to Kelly, saying, "I need to use the bathroom. Can you help me serve that guy?"
"No problem." Kelly said. "Hi, sir. What can I do for you?"
"I'm looking for a sports magazine and a few paperback novels. Here's the list." He held out a list for Kelly to see just as V.V. darted into the bathroom and shut herself into a cubicle. Her heart beating fast.
How does he know I'm working here??? She thought. How??? If he tells this to his gang....
Taking a deep breath, she stared herself at the mirror. Mostly, she would be wearing the same white dress and the rikka brooch. But Maggie's bookstore employees all have to wear a uniform. For boys, it would be a white shirt and pale grey pants. For girls, it's a white top and a pale grey skirt, oh, and tennis shoes. They don't look flattering but it's uniform all right. It's a strict dress code.
V.V. then emerged from the cubicle to find Kelly placing some paperbacks into a carrier bag. Reo was leaning against the wall, his eyes fixed on V.V. as he sipped his hot chocolate.
"That'll be 37.99 dollars." Kelly held out her hand.
Reo handed a fifty to her and said, "So, how did you end up working here?"
"We nearly ran into a bit of debt." V.V. muttered.
"You two know each other?" Kelly asked with interest, stacking some stationery into the shelf behind the counter.
"We...er...had a bit of history..." V.V. muttered again.
Everyone was silent for a few minutes, until the phone suddenly rang.
Kelly reached out to it. "Hi there. Meggie's Bookstore. We stock up most books here and we can even deliver them for you...Eh??? Who's this? You want to speak to Vivien??? Okay." Kelly held out the phone to V.V. "Here. It's your call."
V.V. put the phone to her ear and said, "Hello???"
"V.V., what's time is your shift over???" Lloyd's voice rang into her ears.
"Um... 2.00 p.m." Vivi answered. "Why?"
"Well, could you just get out of here, like now?"
"But..." V.V. checked the clock that hung on the wall. "I still have 2 more hours."
"Can't you say something...like a family emergency?" Lloyd said hurriedly.
"It depends on the situation." V.V. said.
"Where's the girl who answered the phone? Let me talk to her." Lloyd said.
V.V. shrugged and said to Kelly, "He wants to talk to you."
Kelly also shrugged but took the phone from her. "Hello?"
V.V. turned back to the counter to see Reo still standing there, his purchase in one hand, his cup of hot chocolate in his other hand.
"If you have no buiness here, I suggest you leave." V.V. said coldly.
At that moment, Kelly said, "Vivien, you had better go back now."
That startled V.V. "What? Why?"
"Why didn't you tell me your grandfather is having grandular fever???" Kelly grabbed a book from the shelf and shoved it to V.V. "Here. Take this book with you. It's a book about grandular fever. You have to check it thoroughly. And since this is a crisis, no charge."
"But, Kelly-" V.V. protested.
"No buts. Your brother is picking you up." Kelly snatched V.V.'s employee key card off her, which hung on around her neck with a strap and slid it into a little silver box to clock her out. "I'll explain it to Maggie. You go to the hospital and be there for your grandfather. And-" She leaned in closer to her. "You must tell me what happened to him. Don't leave out any details."
"Um...Okay..." V.V. gave up. There's no way she could wriggle out of this.
She went into a cubicle and changed into her usual clothing. Just as she was ready, she saw the familiar Land Rover right outside, waiting for her. She grabbed her little bag pack and dashed out, saying, "Thanks, Kelly!"
As she climbed into the vehicle, she said, "Grandfather having grandular fever??? Could you come up with something less extreme???"
"Sorry, it's the best that I could off." Lloyd turned a sharp turn and nearly had V.V. thrown across her seat.
"Where are we going?" V.V. scrambled back up to her seat and buckled her seat belt firmly.
"To the thieves' hideout." Lloyd put the pedal to the metal and the Land Rover leap into a growl and sped off.
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