The Alternates
"Mr. Joker I have terrible news," Wendy rushed into the office, the
blonde haired woman barely avoiding tripping over a pile of books as she
breathlessly reported, "we've lost contact with Yomiko and the others!"
"For how long?" Joker looked from what he was reading, his expression
only mildly curious as the business suit clad man closed his book,
slipping a bookmark in place.
"It's been nearly two hours since they were supposed to be on the plane
home, sir," Wendy reported, her skirt and matching vest a bit wrinkled.
She looked good in her buisiness clothes, true, but she always seemed
out of breath and mildly late.
Joker nodded gravely, "Since we don't know if there is a crisis we'll
have to give them some more time." He rose suddenly, startling Wendy as
he declared, "But as a precaution we'll activate Library special
missions team two!"
"Eep!" Wendy fell on her bottom in surprise, the files she had been
carrying fluttering down around her. "You mean the alternates?"
"Precisely," Joker nodded.
"But.. aren't they a little green for field ops?" Wendy asked him
tentatively as she tried to collect her documents.
"There's no better time for them to become less green," Joker smiled at
her then airily said, "see to it, Wendy."
"Yes sir," Wendy hurried out only to trip in a cloud of papers and
folders.
Meanwhile, in the depths of the headquarters of the Great British
Library a young woman typed away intently, her light purple hair flowing
in waves down her face. Her expression was oddly emotionless as she
typed, eyes scanning the document as she quickly worked, her all black
clothes giving her an oddly gothic look.
"Yue, I found the books that you were looking for," the shorter haired
woman said as she rushed into the cubicle with a armful of tomes, her
woman's suit a bit dusty, "and they had the tomato milk you wanted too."
"Thanks, Nodoka," Yue Ayase said, her voice softening even if her face
didn't, "you've been a great help in this."
"I'm an archivist," Nodoka Miyazaki said cheerfully, "I'm glad to help
find the materials we needed." She pushed her darker bangs away from her
eyes, "How is it going?"
"The compendium you, I and Haruna are developing for Library Island at
Mahora is nearly finished," Yue said gravely. "Once it's incorperated
into the Great British Library's database researchers should have a much
easier time."
"Uhm, excuse me?" Wendy stuch her head into the small room, mildly
astounded at the piles of books and documents, the clutter nearly
rivaling Joker's office.
Quite deliberately Yue saved her work, having had some experience with
Wendy's legendary clumsiness. "Good afternoon," she nodded to her
respectfully.
"He.. hello," Nodoka bowed, her nervous stutter cropping up around a
relative stranger.
"I'm sorry to bother you," Wendy took one step inside, her toe jabbed a
loaded table and she, the table and the mountain of books all went over
in a loud crash.
"Are you all right?" Nodoka raced over to pull books off of the stunned
blonde, checking the books over carefully as well as seeing if Wendy was
all right.
"Oweee," Wendy rubbed a bruise on her head. She looked at Yue and tried
to take on a businesslike attittude, "I'm..."
"You're here to activate us as the Special Missions Team two," Yue said
calmly as she tidied up her desk and folded up her laptop.
"How did you know?" Wendy blurted out as she got up, tyding her clothes
again and trying to brush off the dust.
Yue put her computer in a backpack as Nodoka looked on in awe. "There's
no other reason that the executive assistant of Mr. Joker would be down
here," she said, "other than a important manner." She looked up at
Wendy, "What's the situation?"
"The Special mission's team has been out of contact for," Wendy checked
her watch, "two hours and ten minutes, and we're getting concerned."
"Are they in trouble?' Nodoka asked anxiously.
"We have no communications at all," Wendy said, "we just don't know."
"So the mission profile is to track down and make contact with Yomiko,
Nancy and Drake," Yue noted coolly as she slung her backpack in place,
"determine if they're in trouble then rescue them or reestablish
communications as needed."
"That would be correct," Wendy nodded.
As Yue hefted her backpack over her shoulder she calmly said, "In
addition to Nodoka and myself I'd like to activate another agent."
Wendy nodded again as she backed out of the room, "Of course."
Yue flipped her cellphone open, the device looking like a phone dating
back nearly a century. As Wendy bumped another table and fell with a
crash she dialed, watching Nodoka rush to recover the books, not to
mention help Wendy up.
In the lush forest of another part of Japan a figure stopped as she
bounded between the trees, feeling the silent vibration of the phone in
her pocket. Pulling out a more conventional phone the brown haired woman
perched on a branch, her long brown hair flowing in a ponytail down her
back. "Yes?" she asked pleasantly, her eyes oddly half closed, almost as
if she was squinting at something off in the distance.
"It's me, Kaede," Yue answered promptly, "we need you for a job."
Kaede Nagase smiled cheerfully, "Of course Yue-dono."
A surprisingly short amount of time later Yue and Nodoka were racing to
where a private jet waited to go, Kaede standing beside the hatch
calmly. "Hello Kaede," Nodoka looked up shyly at the nearly six foot
tall woman, she topping out near five and Yue only around four and a
half feet tall.
"Welcome aboard," Kaede smiled as she waved them to their seats.
"Ready to go?" Yue asked briskly as she belted in by the window seat.
"The plane will take us to Cairo," Kaede said as she sat by Yue, Nodoka
taking a seat in front of her, "we'll have a car waiting there."
"Egypt, wow," Nodoka murmured, shaking her head.
The trip was fast, the jet soaring from a private airfield in Japan to
the north west. They landed in the afternoon, all aware of time passing
by, then picked up the car waiting for them there. Kaede took the wheel
with long practice, "Where to, Yue-dono?"
Quietly Nodoka offered, "Do we know if they acquired the book from Cairo
Museum?"
"We'd best check," Yue agreed, "let's go to the museum first."
The trip to the museum was something of a bust, though they did confirm
that the manuscript had been picked up by Yomiko and Nancy on schedule.
After bodily pulling Nodoka out of the library there they returned to
the city itself, soon tracking down the hotel that Nancy and Yomiko had
been booked by the Library.
The hotel boasted a five star rating, and it was clearly well deserved.
The outside glowed white, shining in the blazing sun while within was
beautifully decorated. The style was fake Egyptian, inspired by movies
more than reality, with fine cloth draped from collums and statues of
animalistic gods at the corners of the grand entry room.
"The man at the counter was open to a bribe," Kaede said with some
satisfaction after she strode across the polished floor to their side,
"he's confirmed that while Drake Anderson checked out, Yomiko and Nancy
are still here."
Nodoka's eyes were wide, "Oh no! They must have returned here with the
book only to be ambushed! They're probably..."
"Easy, Nodoka," Yue put her hand on her friend's arm. She looked at her
two companions, "The best thing to do is simply go up and check."
Kaede haven gotten the room number when she bribed the manager they
headed up, walking down the hall to a door with a 'Do not disturb' sign
hung on it. Kaede gently tried the door handle, quickly discovering it
was locked.
"Do you want me to break it down?" Kaede asked, taking on a fighting
pose.
"Let's find out what's going on inside first," Yue said, rummaging
around inside her bag.
"Did you bring a listening device from the Library?" Nodoka asked
excitedly.
"Something like that," Yue removed a standard water glass, put the open
end against the wall and her ear against the bottom.
Both Nodoka and Kaede faceplaned. "I wasn't expecting that," Kaede
muttered.
Yue listened for a moment, her face as blank as usual. Oddly a blush
began to color her cheeks, brightening as she pulled away from the wall
and briskly put the glass away. "What's going on?" Nodoka finally had to
ask.
"I'd say they're fine," Yue said briskly, "though I suspect they've lost
track of time. We'll go downstairs and use the hotel phone to call their
suite."
"Why not just knock?" Nodoka blinked, moving towards the door.
Yue quickly moved to stop her, "Trust me, you do not want to do that."
Kaede's eyes widened as she added up Yue's blush with her distracted
comment. "Are they doing what I think they're doing?" she smirked.
"Huh, huh?" Nodoka looked confused.
"I think so," Yue confirmed then pulled Nodoka close to whisper in her
ear exactly what she thought Yomiko and Nancy were doing. "We'll phone
an avoid distracting them," she said firmly, "unless you want to go in
there?"
"Oh no," the fiercely blushing Nodoka said.
"Are you going to tell Joker about this?" Kaede asked as they got into
the elevator.
"No, I don't think so," Yue shook her head, "we'll just tell him they
got.. distracted."
"Dwah dwah dwah," Nodoka shook her head, trying to dispel the lewd
images Yue's little talk had put in her mind.
"We'd better find her a paperback when we get downstairs," Yue noted as
they descended, "that always calms her down."
End
Notes: I had originally planned to have several book oriented characters
from different anime in this group, but I couldn't come up with enough
characters from other series. The characters are mostly as shown in the
manga and anime, tho I've made Nodoka a bit more book obsessed tha
normal.
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