Alicia walked through the halls of the AED head quarters trying to prepare herself for the eventual berating from Claire. The early sun was rising from behind the buildings, the light creeping in from the windows to her right, the clacking of her boots echoed down the corridor.
There were also the faint echo of two more pairs of boots. As Alicia turned a corner she came face to face with none other than Claire, her long flowing black hair which contrasted against her pale complexion, reached till her waist. Her cold blue eyes looked onto Alicia's. She had bloodlust in her eyes but held herself back so as to uphold her public image. She was wearing her usual outfit which was a buttoned white coat under which Alicia could make out a light blue shirt. She also wore white trousers along with a pair of black boots which completed her outfit.
Beside her was the boisterous Ryan, his unique spiky, long hair jutted upwards and then to the right. He had confident brown eyes. An old scar covered a small part of his tanned forehead. The scar was jagged with unsymmetrical lines probably done by a blunt hit. He looked like he was desperately trying to hold his laugh. He was wearing a teal sleeveless blazer, a white shirt underneath, light brown pants and brown shoes. He also always wore his weird belt which had a bunch of small 5×5cm² metal cubes dangling from it. 8 cubes to be precise.
"Ms. Lockhart. Are you not ashamed to show your face to me? If I was you I would have quit the AED immediately. After all it was your fault that a criminal now has classified government files. What excuse do you wish to make for your short coming?"
"I admit that it's my fault, Captain. I promise I will catch him no matter what. All I need is a week, no 3 days. That's it. I just need three days. I will fix my mistake and catch him even if it's the last thing I do" Alicia said with determination.
Suddenly Ryan burst out laughing, "That's enough... Haha... Stop messing with her, Fret"
Claire burst out laughing as well and then her form turned into a white jelly like substance. It moved and swirled for a few moments before solidifying in the form of a young woman with grey eyes. She had shoulder length wavy dark red hair. She was wearing a yellow short gown, white stockings and gloves finished with a pair of blue sandels.
"Sorry" Fret said, "Ryan put me up to it"
"Hey now don't put the blame on me" Ryan said.
"But it's the truth"
"Even so. You don't just snitch on your partner"
"Partner? In crime is what you meant?"
"Yup. Of course. What else" Ryan said with a nervous laugh.
"... " Alicia said nothing. She simply glared at them.
"We will uh.. Be on our way now. Lets skedaddle Fret" Ryan said and started pulling on her hand
"We are sorry" Fret said as she was being pulled away by Ryan.
'Stupid kids and their stupid pranks.' Alicia thought. Ryan and Fret were the youngest members of the AED.
'Although I suppose Fret was right. It was my fault and no one else's. I should have been more alert. More vigilant. I should have focused more. It was my fault in the end that the files were stolen.'
As she was overthinking she found herself in front of Claire's office.
"Well, here goes nothing" Alicia took a deep breath and entered the office.
Inside, Claire was barely visible behind the mountain of papers, files and documents. The office was quite a small room. It was completely empty, except for a table with two chairs on either side. Claire was sitting on the chair facing the door. The only other hint of life in the room was a bulb of purple hyacinth, planted in a small flowerpot by the window sill. The room was dim, while a beam of sunlight made its way through the window lighting up Claire and her monstrous pile of documents. There was also a strong smell of coffee filling up the room.
"State your name and purpose" Claire said from behind the paper monster.
"It's... Me. You asked me to visit you" Alicia said.
"Oh Ms. Lockhart, finally. I was beginning to think that you weren't going to show up" Claire said as she shoved the stacks of papers away revealing her unkept hair and tired eyes.
"Well of course I was going to show up. I just got held up by those two dumb kids"
"I see, take a seat now" Claire said and pointed at the other chair, "We need to talk."
Alicia nodded and sat down waiting for the eventual berating. But it never came.
Claire sighed "Now at first I was going to discipline you for your mistake but now's not the time. I just received some information from the house of Lords this morning that the stolen files were far more important than anything you or I could even think of."
"Wh... What do you mean? What were they about?"
"The Chaos chronicles. Have you ever heard of it?"
"Chaos chronicles? I believe I haven't?"
"Thought so. Even I didn't know about till this morning" Claire said and then passed a piece of paper to Alicia. It contained a picture of an old book. Its leather cover was worn. It had the word "Chao" in old rusted iron words, bolted to the leather cover.
"That's an... Interesting design for a book. But i still don't understand what it is."
"Well to put it bluntly, it's a supposed map to a supposed wish granting relic."
"Map? Wish granting relic? I still don't understand what any of it has to do with the files?"
"Sigh. Use your God given head sometimes will you? The files contained the location of the Chaos Chronicles."
".... And we are sure that it's actually real? The wish granting relic?"
"That there is no way of confirming. But I was urged by the House of Lords to treat this matter with the outmost importance."
"So, they believe it's real?"
"Yes, thus we must stop that thief from getting to it"
"But... Do we know the location of it? The book?"
Claire heaved a long sigh, "We don't. The files were given to Lord Beningham via unknown means. Only the thief with the files knows it's location."
--------------------------------------------------------------
"So we are sure that it's real? Because it all sounds bogus to me" Jacques said as he crossed his arms.
"Yes. It is real" Noah said as he caressed the handle of his cane.
"How are you so sure that it is though? Do you have any proof that it can actually grant wishes?"
"Just believe me on this one, ok? Besides my intuition has rarely been wrong"
"Wow, I am just supposed to believe it is real because you simply said so? Wonderful logic dumbass" Jacques scoffed. They were in the study of their rented apartment. A small chandelier hanging from the ceiling provided ample light. There was a table in the middle of the room and 2 armchairs facing each other. One side of the wall was filled with bookshelves containing primarily story books. Noah stood by the window looking below at the bystanders scuttling about, blissfully unaware.
"All I ask is for your cooperation my friend. Surely that's not asking too much of you now, is it? After all if it wasn't for me you would have died that night, two years ago. Wouldn't you like to pay off your debt?" Noah said as he turned with a scheming smile.
"You dirty little scumbag, fine. I will help you just this once." Jacques said with a scowl.
"Many thanks my dear Jacky" Noah said as he bowed a bit.
"Enough with the flattery, where even is that damn book?"
"That is.... Just read it" Noah handed Jacques a sheet of paper from the files.
'Location of the chaos chronicles:
th're once wast a toweth'r, which didst not reacheth a cloud.
in its rid, an empire's gl'ry is hath lost and hath found.
the key wast hath lost 'mongst the dusteth,
but can beest hath found with the holp of trusteth.
desire thou art amus'd while solving the riddle'
"I'll give you a great idea. Burn this paper"
"Fantastic idea, I will think about it later. Anyways as I was say-... " A knock on the door interrupted Noah.
Jacques and Noah looked at each other.
"Go and check who it is" Noah said and as soon as he did so Jacques was already by the door with a gun in his hand. He looked through the peephole, let out a sigh of relief and opened the door.
Outside stood Veronica the landlady. She was probably in her late twenties, her blonde hair was in a low bun and a pair of angular spectacles rested on the bridge of her nose. She was wearing a simple gown signifying that she was about to sleep soon, after all it was pretty late at night. She had an envelope in her hand.
"This is for Mr. Rozelle" Veronica said as she handed the letter. "It's from Mr. Jones"
"Thank you, Mrs. Veronica. I hope you have a restful night." Jacques said as he tried to close the door but she had managed to place her foot in the door.
"It's not Mrs. Veronica. It's Ms. Veronica" She said, "Also I would like to remind you that you are already 2 days late for the rent. I better have it by tomorrow."
"Of course Ms. Veronica we will have your rent by tomorrow. After all it's bad manners to keep a beautiful lady such as yourself waiting after all." Noah interjected as he took the letter from Jacques.
"... It's fine. A week. If I don't get the rent with in seven days, I will kick you out" Veronica said and left with an unmistakable blush on her face.
"Scumbag" Jacques said.
"Oh? Pretty sure you only have a roof over your head because of this scumbag"
Noah said as he opened the letter and in bold letters it read
'DID YOU STEAL IT???????
-- A. J. '
-----------------------Envoy stats----------------------
1 Fret
Mutation : Type - G
Ability: Change
Limit break : 1
Power - 2
Agility - 6
Trick - 9
Defense - 1
2 Ryan Tudor
Mutation : Type - D
Ability: Ferrokinetic
Limit break : 1
Power - 5
Agility - 4
Trick - 6
Defense - 6
-------------------END OF CHAPTER--------------