A/n: There might be some inaccuracies, I can't get all the information to match up with the anime so if you find one, please forgive me. I can't remember everything. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "I tried to hack into Meg's cell phone. There's a tracker that I installed in everyone's phones, but for some reason it's not picking up." "They took it from her?" "Yeah, that could be very likely or" Amy continued, "It could be that she's too far out of reach for us to track her." Sei, who had been leaning up against a desk for the latter part of this conversation, ditched her comfortable perch and walked over to the young brunette. "But those trackers can work anywhere within Japan. What are you trying to say, Amy?" The brunette shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know. It seems like a stretch and there could be a number of logical reasons why we can't track her, like her kidnappers took away her phone, they destroyed it, she lost it during the scuffle...but something Leo said. It's bothering me." Amy cupped her jaw, "When he was describing the guy's uniforms that attacked him, and even the weaponry." Amy hit a button on her laptop and the screen was suddenly flooded with images of military and swat gear. "The make of the guns, knives, and even the uniforms are foreign based. Leo even said he heard one of the guys speaking English. I think the reason why we can't track Meg anymore is because she's no longer in Japan." Amy finished. "But then who...I at least had a list of possible suspects in Japan, but overseas...?" "I know." Amy said sounding defeated. "My network is scratching its head. Even though we now know those glowing brain things are involved, I haven't been able to get any leads. Just a bunch of stupid rumors." "Rumors?" Sei asked sounding curious. "Yeah, but my friend put them through the wringer and they didn't pass. There're too many restrictions in Tokyo right now to get a good network going. Rapt is killing me." Amy said, the familiar whine creeping into her voice. "There was one about the glowing brains being an after effect of Tokyo's heavy pollution rates. There was one about a videogame in cyberspace that could make your brain glow. But I checked that one out and it seemed the informants got it all botched up. It's actually supposed to make your brain melt...I duh know." Amy rolled her eyes, "Although my brain isn't melted." "Anything else?" Sei questioned. "I tried to trace it to a pharmaceutical or mainly medical researching companies. Anything that dealt in brain research, lobotomies, the works, and I found that currently in Japan, there are over two-hundred and fifteen companies that specialize in such fields. And out of the two-hundred and fifteen, seventy-nine have foreign divisions." She took a big breath, "And out of the seventy-nine, thirty-four are based in countries where English is the predominant language. Then taking that number, I found out that almost sixty percent of those companies are U.S. based." "But maybe those two things have nothing in common." Sei said, she hated to second-guess Amy's information, but these things did happen. "It could be a fluke." "Oh, there's a ninety-nine percent chance that all of this could just be a big flop. Trust me." Amy said with a tired dismissal of the hand. "Ninety-nice percent chance, huh?" Sei pondered as she turned to look at the other angel present in the room, who had been quietly listening to her and Amy going back and forth. "What's our one percent chance?" Sei asked, still keeping her eyes on Jo. "Well it's in...New York City." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- It was like a barren wasteland, the dusty streets, the monochrome backdrop, the lifeless and pent-up rails of fencing that twisted and turned around each corner, scaling around every building with an aura of rejection, of denial for anyone walking these streets. It'd been a long time since she'd last seen her old stomping grounds. It'd also been a long time since she'd navigated through it dark, mazelike alleyways and sewer systems. This place had once been a home for her and Meg. They had gone through a lot here And even though it seemed so far away in memory, like years ago instead of a year, Jo couldn't get over the feeling that this place held a special meaning for her, because it had been here that she had found Meg...or really, Shirley had found her and then Meg had yelled at her and then kept her. She remembers those quiet days spent robbing ATM machines and corrupt, back-alley stores. And she remembers watching Meg splurge all their money in one fantastic go at Coney Island or at an uptown Manhattan boutique that really didn't suit them in any way, but Meg having forced herself through—like many things— would always be indignant to leave without purchasing something. There were many other little incidents like those while they lived in New York, and she had never fully understood a lot of what was happening while with Meg, but the girl had promised her. One day, when they had been sitting out on a rickety balcony that was clearly not suitable for relaxing purposes, Meg had promised her. Had explained to her that since she was the boss—Meg was very bossy—that all she had to do was follow her lead. There's nothing to it at all, and thinking about stupid stuff like that will only take the fun out of living those moments. Meg, she noticed, had a strange way of translating seemingly complicated matters into simple terms. The term here being..."have fun" instead of worrying about when the next meal was coming, or why where those guys shooting at them, or where were they going to sleep tonight since they'd spent all there remaining money on the Ferris wheel ride. She didn't know it back then, but those moments, each and every one of them she had lived and in that life, she had been deliriously happy. Life had been so simple back then. And with that thought, Jo could feel her reality pulling her back into the fold. She was turning another gray corner, blurred with trash and the rusted paint of a dumpster. She immediately spotted the shadow of the informant, the man obscuring his face with a baseball cap and hood, and even though they were hidden within this dark gem of a maze and the outside seemed like another universe trapped on the other side of one of those impossibly high guard fences she had passed by, he was still being extra cautious. "Jesus Christ, you're only a kid." She heard, before she could even walk all the steps needed to put her face to face with this man. "Crap, what the hell did you get me mixed up in." The man complained, as he flopped off his hat and dusted it on his pants so he could get a good look at her. "Bailan's fucking crazy," he looked her over with an annoyed, frustrated and almost pitiful stare, like she was some orphan begging for money and blocking his way to get it. And Jo guessed right off the bat that this mystery informant was a family man. She even spotted a ring on his finger. "Little kid, you betta get outta here. I ain't drownin' in the blood of no minor. You understand?" He shook his head and it looked like he was preparing to leave. Like he was preparing to leave her in this pitfall of an alleyway, completely clueless and hopeless without any leads for Meg. Jo pulled out her Desert Eagles on him almost instinctually, like he was going to do her bodily harm instead of mental with his abandonment of this case. It had almost been two weeks since Meg's kidnapping, an agonizing two weeks of waiting and pondering. Of scrapping together money from missions and funds from Sei's grandfather whose reputation as of recent had suddenly tanked in the worse ways possible. Tokyo was in complete chaos. And she had learned through Sei that a mysterious rival faction had vetoed Bailan's power and future and submerged them into the depths of another. Like a shark swallowing a fish, or a hawk snatching the snake up into the sky, Bailan's dragon was no longer the ruler of heaven and earth. Sei was officially on the run, as she was the one true heir to the clan and it had almost seemed like destiny's puzzle piece when they'd taken that flight out of a fast deteriorating Tokyo. It had almost been too convenient. And here they were, with everyone practically running on their last legs. With her this close to breaking apart and this...man had the audacity to dismiss her so easily, to turn his back on her and not even give her the time of day. Well he was lucky she had only pulled out her guns instead of just going ahead and firing. "You don't have the option of taking another job." She said, the anger and the frustration and everything else straining her voice. "You will lead me to where they're keeping Meg," the man wide-eyed and shocked from the sudden threats tensed up expectantly when she shoved the mouth of her pistol under his chin, "And you will do it with a fucking smile on your face." She growled out and it was apparent that she would kill him if he'd said no, or she'd torture him for information, family man or not, Meg was the only person she could think about and call her selfish or ignorant, but Meg was the only one that mattered. She could see beads of sweat collecting between his thin eyebrows; there was a deep scar under his lip, the skin there gnarled like a tree root and taking in the topography of this man's face, Jo concluded it was also like a wasteland. It was like everywhere she turned she encountered that hopeless, dead feeling and that everyone around her was feeling it as well. Like they were all mirrors reflecting each other's wounds. This place was meant to drain the life from people. "Walk." She seethed under her breath. She remembered Sei explaining that this man would no doubt lead them to where they had to go. It had taken a little over a week of pitfall leads and exhaustive pavement grinding, but they had found a lead and she had practically ran out the door when Sei had given her the news. She didn't give a shit for this man's life; she didn't even give a shit for her own. She hadn't been given the choice in the matter; she couldn't just drop this man off somewhere and leave their search at that. It wasn't an option. "Move, or I'll fuckin' blow your head off." And he was walking now, tripping over himself in the alleyway until they had come out into the almost deserted streets, walked until they'd found the subway and taken an express towards this man's workplace. She had her hands in the pockets of her flight jacket; the steel of the gun was cool against her fingertips even though stuffed in the warm fabric of her pocket. This man understood what a gesture like that meant and he wasn't about to tempt faith in order to find out the full extent of it either. "This is it." He said, and Jo watched him carefully exit from the car, she was following behind closely, keeping him within reach in case he felt jumpy and wanted to bolt on her. They had walked until they were coming across a rundown building with boarded up windows and fencing all around. He stopped. "You follow my lead, alright." He threw a glance back at her and she slid her guns back into the hostlers and zipped up her jacket. The doorway she noticed had a number over it and one side was painted green for some odd reason. "I brought another one." The informant said casually to another man, this one looking like he was in his early twenties. He had expensive shades on and a jacket that had an army patch on the arm. "He doesn't look that tough." The man said, and Jo not paying much attention to the easy conversation between these two, a sort of comradeship being expressed by their familiarity in speech, tried to see if the man was packing any heat. "Hey boy, you ever killed anybody?" The man with the shades suddenly asked and she didn't know if she was supposed to say yes or no, so she answered truthfully, "Plenty." The man looked skeptical. "What kinda punks you bringin' us, eh Tommy?" Despite his words the man rapped his fingers against the door and as if it was some signal, the door opened and the man let them pass. "Go on ahead, street urchin." Jo wasn't annoyed by the comment, because she was too busying checking out the interior and her potential opponents. She saw two men at the back of what appeared to be a rundown billiard room, but that wasn't what caught her eye. It was the man at the forefront, standing next to a crate that seemed to serve the purposes of a table, as he smoked a cigarette and drank stale coffee between puffs. He had a white coat on. He looked like a doctor. "Hey Mavors, I brought you somebody." They stopped in front of this man as he, flecking a bored gaze over to them, responded flatly, "Not interested, go sell your breakables somewhere else, Thomas." "Shit, look you're not even goin' to look this one over. This guys on the up and up. Just check him out. He really wants to try some of the good stuff." Tommy nudged her in the stomach and she walked forward. "Just take ‘im in the back room and if you don't think he's up for it, then shit, the drinks'll be on me later. What'dya say?" The man called Mavors stubbed his cigarette out in his chipped coffee mug, "How about you promise me to never, ever bring me out for "drinks" hmm? That seems like a fine exchange." Tommy looked kind of offended, "Yeah, okay, just go. I gotta get back to the Misses, yuh know how they get." "Hardly," the doctor answered back, hitching his glasses up on his straight nose and beckoning her forward with a white-gloved hand. "This way boy." They passed the other two men in the room, and like some cue had been switched, both men were getting up from their card game and following after them. They walked through another set of doors, these ones however were much newer looking, and much more fortified, as they were steel framed. They opened electronically and suddenly Jo was thrust into the darkness. She heard the clipped footsteps of the man named Mavors in front of her, "Since it takes a bit of walking, how about we get to know each other. Is that alright?" The man asked smoothly and Jo remained silent, as she knew he wasn't waiting for her answer. "What's your medical history?" He began like this was the most natural thing in the world to talk about. "Have you ever broken any bones? Punctured in the foot by a nail with tetanus? Have you ever suffered a concussion to the head? What about STDs? Young people are rife with those." The man said, his tone lighter and almost funny and Jo didn't know what to say. So she went with the general answer of no. "You're a real talker. I like you." He said and they were suddenly strolling out of that darkness and into a brightly lit room. She could hear a rhythmic beeping sound. "Bellona." He called out and she could suddenly hear the clicking of heels as they came out from behind a large computer. A young woman with black hair and glasses came out. She was very pretty and Jo didn't understand how she fitted into this picture. Or even how the doctor fitted into this picture, as he seemed strangely out of place in this dilapidated building and rundown atmosphere. His clothes were neat, he was clean-shaven, and he had a certain polished look about him, with his exceptionally shiny, black shoes and white, starched doctor's coat. Both of them seemed so out of place. "He's very young." The woman said in a calm and steady voice. "Just think of it as another way to manipulate god's will." He told her and they were both studying her with keen, clinical gazes. Something in the air smelt like aspirin and over expired cough syrup. She felt like gagging. The two men behind her were shuffling about, their steps heavy compared to the two doctors in front of her. She had to get rid of them before she could question the pair and wring them of all the information they could give her. When she had turned back to them, they were both regarding him with lidded but sharp eyes and mouths that looked slightly like they were smiling at her. Their gazes seemed to trap her and dissect into her at the same time. Like a scalpel was trailing over the skin of her neck, like fingers were plucking the hair on her head, one strand at a time. "Terribly naïve too." The woman added and turned to her partner. "Glenford will be pleased." "That senile fool." The other man spat back. "You shouldn't speak of him that way." The woman silkily responded. Jo pulled out her guns, but before she could point them at the two in front of her, or even take out the two behind, she heard the ripple of a bullet slinging it's way into skin and digging into bone. One of the men behind her fell down dead, hitting the floor like a ton of bricks. He hadn't even been given the chance to breathe his last breath. "If you think we deal in hostage negotiations, let me bury that silly notion right now." Another bullet rang out, like a death knell, a heavy bell abruptly tolling for a funeral, no need for the casket, as the body was being hefted and thrown into a naked grave. The second man died with his eyes open. The woman had perpetrated the gunshot. Her hands steady as her arms came to her sides, the gun almost forgotten like she hadn't just killed two of her own men. "I'll be sure to get someone to go after our dear friend Mr. Thomas when this has all been dealt with." Mavors, ever the narrator, said with a frown on his face. "Although as poetic justice, we will spare the daughter, since he has brought one of ours back." "An eye for an eye." The other woman responded mysteriously and Jo was still shocked at what had just transpired here. She pointed her guns at them and watched the woman tuck hers away, the man proudly displaying his in the open front of his coat. "Who are you people?" She shouted from across the room and both of them continued to gaze at her, unflinching and strangely calm with a gun pointed at their heads. "You think its brain damage." Bellona said. "It could be. I'm not sure. She has quite good reflexes." This was so unsettling, because she could not wrap her head around the idea that guns didn't faze people. It was like she wasn't even in the room, the way these two were conversing with each other. She shot a screen to show she meant business. "Please be careful around the equipment." Bellona's motherly advice was so diametrically opposed to her passive, neutral actions that it made her even more confused. "Where's Meg?" She shouted, and they were both looking fake quizzical for a moment, before responding in unison, "She's safe." And like that was the clearing force she needed, the murkiness in her head suddenly evaporated. She understood what she had to do now. She had to get them to talk. They were human; they'd talk with pain and blood. She would get the information out of them and she would save Meg. "Tell me!" She shouted and they were again ignoring her and conversing quietly with each other. Both of them seemed to be the epitome of calm, like a wind traveling through a distorting mist and clearing it away, swiftly but peacefully. They were like clear glacier ice, untainted by mud, and soil and rocks and garbage. She moved towards them, and the man was suddenly pulling out his...cell phone and dialing a number. She didn't know why, but she stopped. He put the receiver out to her, like he wanted her to take it. He even made a motion with his hands. "Go on. It's not going to bite you." She looked at it, stared at it like it was a precipice before a dark plunge. "Don't you want to talk to her?" Mavors added again, and suddenly she could hear it. It was Meg's voice. It was Meg's voice coming from the phone and she was crying and screaming and something within her seemed to die at that moment. She reached her hands out and the man snapped the phone close. "Well we can't spend too much time here, but you may feel free to browse around, find some clues here and there. We will surely keep the breadcrumb trail going for as long as you'd like to follow." It was panic that made her suddenly leap forward towards the pair, panic and blind rage and hate, and she wanted to kill them. She wanted to kill them and watch their blood dry on her hands. She wanted to snap the woman's neck and slice the man's mouth's from each side. Two lateral cuts that would trail up his jaw and end under eyes that were gray and cold and would become even colder when she ripped them out of his sockets. However before she could get to them, bars burst up from the floor, abruptly cutting off her path and she slammed up against them, watching in sheer horror as the pair was already making their way toward another door and briskly walking out and leaving her behind. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A/n: I added in my own characters, I hoped somebody liked them...wait you're not supposed to like them. They're names are weird...but there's a purpose for that. And as always feedback appreciated.
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