1. Time's A-Ticking
A flurry of papers danced in the air, fluttering softly as they scattered across the cold steel floor of the dim laboratory. They slid in all directions, but their owner paid no heed.
"Ugh, where did I put it?" an anguished female voice groaned. The source was a petite female, long purple hair held in curly pigtails by decorative purple and pink ornaments that seemed out of place in the research facility. Without her crescent moon-shaped barrette, her bangs bounced with every movement, only causing her more distress.
Eve is going to kill me if I don't find it, Aisha thought to herself as she hastily dug through her messy desk some more. After unearthing food that had long been expired, other papers she had been searching for last week, countless hair ribbons and clips among other junk, she retrieved a crumpled sheet of paper from the pocket of her white lab coat, mentally facepalming herself.
I should really start being more organized. Maybe I should ask Eve to hire a secretary for me. She probably will after I show her how messed up my reports are. She rubbed the wrinkled sheet against the edge of her desk in an attempt to make it presentable. However, it only made the coffee stains more noticeable. Sighing in exasperation and still mentally beating herself up over her lack of organization, the Dimension Witch headed out of her lab and to the elevator on the other side of the room, her high-heels echoing through the darkened, metal room.
She jabbed her finger on the up button, sighing once again. Behind her, computer monitors glowed dully, the main source of luminance in the room with the lights off. All of the data of her precious research was stored in the mass of wires and electronics Eve provided for her. Though it wasn't exactly Aisha's belongings, just being able to research gave her immense joy and satisfaction.
Especially because it was about her favorite subject ever.
Time.
"Rena, hurry up and pick a job for us. Do you know how deep in debt we are?" Ara whined to her partner in a sweeper's bar hidden within the convoluted back roads of Rubeck City.
"'We?' Who was the one who ran straight into the guy's trap? You're paying for those medical fees yourself!" Rena replied with a deadpan expression on her usually smiling face. Her verdant eyes scanned the board quickly as she played with her ponytail with one hand, looking for a nearby job that would net them a good amount.
"Hey, not all of us can summon healing fairies, alright?" The brunette walked to the bulletin board, staring at the faces of some of the most dangerous criminals. Though the incident with Creed had been long over when she became a sweeper, it didn't help that most criminals had the same psychopathic smile he did, the same smile that had given her nightmares when she stared at the covers of newspapers as a child.
"How about this one?" Rena held up a wanted poster for one million for Dan Seur, a purse snatcher who waited outside operas to steal from the rich. "It should be easy to get info on small fry like him."
Ara smiled, her umber eyes twinkling with excitement. "Let's—"
"Sorry to disappoint, but he's long gone," a male voice beside them said.
Both females turned around, astonished at the way he had managed to sneak up on them. Even if they were in a relatively safe place, it wouldn't do for a sweeper, or anyone who lived by fighting, to let her guard down.
Especially this guy. With his shock of red hair and flashy way of dressing and accessorizing, he should have been easy to notice. His earring and necklace gleamed in the dull lighting. His sword was in its gray and red sheath, a shade darker than his hair.
"Um… excuse me?" Ara finally managed to say. Who was this guy?
"I ran into him last night. I figured I might as well since he was easy money anyways." He shrugged nonchalantly. "But I guess he would've been perfect for a team like you."
"What do you mean 'like you?'" Ara narrowed her eyes as Rena placed a soothing hand on her shoulder.
"Now, now. We shouldn't be picking fights with fellow sweepers. We share the same goals after all, right?"
"I don't know what kind of naïve goals you have but whatever. I have bigger fish to catch." The swordsman grabbed a poster from the top of the board, where all the S ranked missions and above were located. He smirked at the two before heading to the busier part of the bar to look for information.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Rena finally said to break the pregnant silence between them.
Ara rolled her eyes, still slightly miffed by the way the cocky redhead had treated them. "Don't tell me that your nature senses are tingling again. We are not following that jerk."
The elf gave her a saccharine smile. "Remember the last time my 'nature senses tingled?' And then you didn't listen to me and ended up at the clinic for a week and a half? You wouldn't want that to repeat, do you? Only this time, I'll be the cause of your injuries."
The Yama Raja winced at the memory. While they were chasing a serial bomber around Laver City, Ara had ignored Rena's warning, dismissing it as mere foolishness and paranoia. But to her dismay, the damn bomber had planted explosives in the garbage can that she was cornered behind. If it weren't for her agility, she would've been roasted by now.
And plus, an angry Rena was worse than Creed Diskenth and all the outlaws on the posters put together. Death by Rena or death by sweeping, huh.
"If it helps, he grabbed the poster for Chung Seiker," Ara replied slowly after weighing her options.
Rena shot her a thousand watt smile. "Well, what are we waiting for?" Turning around, she headed toward the main area of the café, choosing a seat that wasn't too far but not close enough to warrant suspicion from the swordsman. With her better hearing, the elf would have little to no problem eavesdropping on the conversation.
With a little shake of her head, Ara repositioned her spear so that it was more comfortable to carry and followed faithfully her partner.
Elsword slammed his fists furiously on the wooden table, causing the sword-shaped accessories he wore to shake violently. "What do you mean you don't know where he is? What kind of information broker are you?!"
"I-I really have no idea where Seiker is located," the cowering man stammered nervously. The intimidating sight of the Infinity Sword, combined with a temper that threatened to blow up without a second's notice, made Elsword one of the hardest and scariest clients to deal with. "It is very difficult to keep track of dangerous criminals because–"
Another fist slam on the table cut off his sentence, this time with Elsword's hand dangerously closer to the information broker's nose. "I don't want to hear any more nonsense from you. I'll find this Seiker bastard myself." With that, he stormed out of the bar, leaving a wake of silence behind him.
"Quite a short fuse," Rena mused. Even with her sharper hearing, it was quite obvious that everyone in the facility was able to hear Elsword's outburst.
Sitting across from Rena with a glass of cold water in her hands, Ara rolled her eyes. "Are we really doing this?"
Rena shot her a stern glare. "Don't accuse me of being a pyromaniac then."
Groaning inwardly, the brunette grabbed her spear and stood from the table. Rena followed suit, securing her bow to her wrist. The pair glanced at each other and left silently, with Ara hopping from rooftop to rooftop and Rena running through the convoluted alleyways for a glimpse of familiar red.
The elevator doors opened up to a room of glass windows. Bright white sunlight streamed into the room from all directions save one, where a pair of double doors was located. Aisha arrived at the top of Altera Tower, where Eve spent her time planning whatever she did.
The height of the tower always astounded her. Since her lab was in the basement, she rarely came up to enjoy the view unless it was to report on her latest findings. From nearly ten miles in the air, an observer can view the whole island of Altera through the glass walls. With its eclectic mix of wide plains and industrialized areas, it was hard to believe, especially for Aisha who had never had contact with a Nasod until recently, that the entire floating island was run by creatures made of metal.
"Well?" a cold voice spoke from the other end of the expansive room. "Do you have something for Eve?"
"Oh, hi, Chung! Didn't see you there," Aisha greeted him cheerfully, already used to his frosty tones. She was sure that deep down inside, very deep down inside, he was a softy.
At least towards Eve.
"You didn't answer my question," the blond replied sharply.
"Gosh, you can at least be polite enough to greet me as well, you know. It's only courtesy. And yes, I think I finally made some breakthrough. May I go see her now?"
"I have no need for useless small talk. You may go in and see her, but don't do anything that would make me think less of you. I must leave now." Grabbing his guns, Chung swept past the mage to get to the elevator without a second glance.
"Ouch, so cold. I think I'm getting frostbite," she mumbled under her breath. But that's just Chung being typical Chung and then rushing off to do Chungy things.
With a bounce in her step that not even Chung could eliminate, Aisha bounded across the room to the set of doors that was hidden in the shadows. She pressed her finger to the scanner, waiting for the machinery to identify her fingerprints and let her in. She fidgeted nervously, excited to show off what she discovered. After all, it wasn't every day that one managed to manipulate nanomachines to distort the passage of time.
The steel doors in front of her slid open with a hiss. Following that, more doors opened as she walked through. Even though this was her fourth time seeing Eve in her private chambers, Aisha couldn't help but be intimidated by the layers of security.
But I guess you can do anything if you're rich. Some people buy lavish houses. I guess Eve just prefers to install doors and upgrade security. Sounds like her kind of thing too.
She reached the last set of doors, unless Eve had installed more since her last visit, and knocked on the rich wood hesitantly. For some reason, seeing Eve always made her nervous, no matter how energized and enthusiastic she was moments ago.
"Come in," came the barely audible reply. The heavy doors opened silently to an even grander room, this one decorated with a lush carpet, elegant still-life paintings, and a Nasod-engineered fireplace. In the center of the room sat a large mahogany desk that reflected the chandelier of the high ceiling. Behind the desk sat Eve in a cushy swivel chair.
"Eve!" Aisha bounced into the room, ready to give the regal, white-haired Nasod a hug.
Eve lazily directed one of her drones to Aisha's face, forcing the mage to pause lest she wanted to give herself a concussion. "Enough with the unnecessary actions. Have you found anything new?"
"Jeez, you and Chung are so stiff," the purple-haired girl mumbled. She straightened suddenly. "But yeah! Look at this." She dug the wrinkled report out of her pocket again, this time folded neatly into squares.
Eve glanced at the state of the sheet with a singularly raised eyebrow but made no comment. This is neater than what she handed to me last time… is this what humans call improvement?
"So," Aisha began, "I managed to combine my own magic with these weird orichalcum nanomachines and injected them into an amoeba two weeks ago. Since the average lifespan of an amoeba is only two days and this one is nearly ten times as old, it's safe to say that it won't be dying anytime soon. Upon further investigation, the nanomachines seem to read and adapt to the genetic code within the nucleus of the cell and reproduce themselves, much like Tear–"
Eve held up a hand, silencing the avid researcher's lengthy explanation. "I understand. I will look over the report later. Do you think you can replicate these results in more complex organisms?"
Aisha nodded vigorously, her unclipped bangs fluttering wildly around her head. "Yes, of course. I'm already trying on various fauna, and it'll only be a matter of time until the procedure can be developed to fit mammals."
The Nasod closed her eyes, completely poker-faced. "I see. I will be waiting for results. Please, take your time. I want this to be perfect."
"Aye, aye, captain!" She rushed out of the room, eager to go back to her work.
Eve watched the purple pigtails disappear from her sight with flat, golden eyes. When the doors closed tightly, she glanced at the report that the Dimension Witch had left behind. Dirtied with coffee stains, wrinkles, and folds, Aisha's hasty scrawls were nearly unreadable.
Maybe it's time to hire her a secretary.
A/N: First ever crossover. Yay? But this is also practice because I don't know how to write descriptions and make them sound natural.
Despite being a crossover, most of the characters will be from Elsword. Only the setting and society are taken from Black Cat.