I'm playing this story by ear. I don't know where it's going, or really what I want to do with it. I'm not even sure if I want to keep going. If you like it, make sure you let me know.
I like people who review. Just a heads up.
There are a number of reasons to start a story, and a lot more reasons to finish one. This story starts with an ending. A ending a great deal sadder than that of the classic fairy tale; 'and they all lived happily ever after'. I wish those endings could be abolished. Stories never end that way, there is always more coming after.
Creed knew he would die. He knew his fate as soon as he saw the blade, as black as night, sweeping though the room.
He felt honoured, for a few minutes before his death, that Chronos still considered him a threat. He was also a bit honoured that they still considered him worthy of a number. And not just any number…
Sephiria did not smile as she approached. She was hesitant in killing him, he was so weak, so frail. He had not even been able to stand for more than a few minutes after the fight with the black cat. It was almost too easy to kill him now, unlike the last time she had tried.
The woman, Echidna, had not heard her enter this house. Nor did Sephiria plan on letting her know she was here. This was nothing personal, just business. For peace to be ensured, threats needed to be taken out.
Only a few ever managed to escape from Chronos, and Creed was a fool to think that he could get away with all the treason he had committed.
She walked slowly forward, keeping eye contact with the sickly man in the four poster bed.
He had seen her, probably caught sight of her the moment she had set foot inside his bedroom. But he had not made a sound, had not alerted his wife, sitting in the living room a few metres away, to the presence of an intruder.
She held her sword menacingly up in the air, and then released it with ease, bringing it down in a lightning fast graceful arch.
And so the end came for Creed Diskenth.
"Target has been terminated." Zoe looked up over her book to stare at the woman talking to the computer screen on the other side of the room.
I haven't heard Sephiria talk that stiffly ever, she isn't usually this cold, even for an eraser.
"Creed will no longer bother us." Sephiria continued. "The apostles of stars should not be able to be a threat to us again."
So it's about the apostles of the stars, I remember, they caused trouble for the numbers a few years ago. What's it got to do with now?
Zoe glanced back at her book, a Shoujo manga she had picked up at a bookstore before coming in, she knew that it might be awhile before the bosses actually got round to giving her assignment to her.
No real life is like Shoujo manga.
Zoe tossed it aside and stood up. She cleared her throat slowly, catching the attention of Sephiria arks.
"I'm sorry Zoe, were you called in today?" she said calmly.
Zoe nodded her head, unsmiling.
"I was told there was an urgent target for me, is that still the case?"
"No, I'm sorry, I took the assignment instead. I wanted to finish things myself. You can return home now." Sephiria smiled gently, she looked really sorry that she had dragged Zoe there on a Saturday night only to tell her she wasn't needed.
"Ok, fine." Zoe turned to go, not sure whether she should be happy or not.
"Look, Zoe, I have another assignment for you tomorrow, if you want, I can give it to you now for you to study."
"Nah, it's cool, do I have to come in tomorrow?" Zoe picked up her book, intending to finish it later.
"Don't bother, your next target isn't in the prime place until Monday, come in that morning, okay?"
"Sure thing, see you then." Zoe pushed at the door and walked out into the night.
There was something about the streets that both scared and intrigued her. On one hand the night's streets were always dark, crawling with shadows and dark crevices where anyone could hide. Zoe despised those people who had to wait for dark to hide, to catch their prey. The real skill was to hide in broad daylight.
Even so, she preferred the night's streets to the day's.
At night she was in her element, the ability to sneak away silently was so much simpler in the dark. She knew these dark streets like the back of her hand and she was never crowded.
The day's streets were a different story. There were all those nosy people, who wanted to know why a small girl like her was doing wandering all by herself. Total strangers were worried about her.
She could crush them to a pulp if she wanted to. But she didn't, because she didn't want to.
People jostled her, crowded her, until she wanted to scream.
There were still plenty of bad memories of crowds stuck in her head.
Zoe slouched around the corner, not sparing another glance for the high rise office building that was Chronos. The lamppost was flickering to life around the corner; she launched herself across the road, pushing herself up into the air powerfully. She grabbed hold of the lamppost on her way past and used it to change direction rapidly.
She grabbed hold of the smooth marble of the building around the corner and across the street from the Chronos building. Clinging to the white marble of the small building, she began her climb up the slippery surface.
She paused on the roof top, a fifteen year old girl gazing off into the blackness of the city night. Her white short hair whipped around her face in the stirring breeze and her small limbs were limber and strong looking. She was thin, but not to the point of sickliness, like a lot of the fashion conscious girls of the world. Her simple clothes were ideal for her lifestyle; Black shorts that came halfway down her thighs, white knee high socks, black sneakers. Her singlet top was simple and grey, easy to replace if it was torn or worn out. Her only vanities were the black beads fastened into the front locks of her hair, stark and bold against the white.
Her skin, being pale white, glowed in the moonlight. Her eyes, blue and sharp, seemed to fill half of her face, displaying nonexistent innocence.
Zoe turned away from the edge of the building and walked over to the rooftop door, her entrance for when she had to go out after dark. It was always locked, but it was never a hard lock to pick, for her anyway. Zoe never got why they even locked the doors of the Chronos children's boarding house. Who would want to sneak into a place stuffed full of children learning how to use weapons and training to become Erasers or thugs for the most powerful crime syndicate in the world? The Mafia was small fry compared to Chronos. Everyone knew the Mafia, whereas most people lived totally in the dark about Chronos. That was what made them great.
Zoe sighed and swung into the boarding house, breezing past the night matron. She gave her a curt nod, eyes as cold as everyone else who worked for chromos. Like most of the people Zoe knew, she was an ex-eraser. Even though she was nearing fifty she still carried around a gun strapped to her bulky leg.
Needless to say, not many people dared to get out of bed without permission at the Chronos boarding house.
She didn't bother being quiet when she entered the girls wing of the house. All of the girls were still awake anyway. Some of them gossiped, others read or studied for school, more practised with weapons by torch or candle light.
She barged into the small room she shared with Jasminda, a dark skinned, hollowed eyed girl who had arrived at Chronos at around the same time; six years ago.
She was awake, swinging twin knives around in smooth circles wearing her Hello Kitty Pyjamas.
"So, what did they need you for so desperately?" She said evenly, thrusting the knives rapidly into one corner of the room.
"They didn't." Zoe sighed and flopped onto the grey covered bed, she flipped half heartedly through the manga, now realising how boring she actually found the plotline.
"They called you in for nothing? At eleven o'clock at night?" Jasminda flipped the knives over in her hands and sheathed them with a whisper of metal.
"Well, they did have a target for me, but Sephira took him instead." Zoe explained, closing her eyes and chucking the manga to the messy floor.
"Sephira? Why'd she take him?" Jasminda sat cross-legged on her own bed, across the room from Zoe's.
"It was a finish up from the Apostles of stars case a few years ago." She explained, "Not sure who, but It looked like Sephira wanted to finish things personally."
"Guess that's cool, but it's still annoying." Jasminda placed her knives carefully on her bedside table and climbed under her scratchy sheets.
Zoe sighed and wriggled out of her shorts and singlet, replacing them with beat up black track pants and a baggy white t-shirt.
She walked over and flicked off the dim light, seeing that Jasminda was under no obligation to get up until morning, and padded back over to her bed, skilfully dodging the clothes and possessions that littered the floor.
The last thing she couldn't help thinking about before she went to sleep was Sephira. She was acting strangely, and Zoe couldn't help but wonder what sort of feelings that the captain had invested in this Apostles of stars case. In theory, they were defeated two years ago, just before the explosion that had killed the former numbers Three and Nine. Just after the former number Eleven was killed trying to kill the leader of the Taoist group, Creed Diskenth.
Zoe rubbed her shoulder blades as she thought of the old number. It didn't matter about the old Apostles of the Stars anymore, they were defeated years ago.
Zoe turned over, pulling the sheets tighter around her body, trying to think better thoughts.
Monday was a typical boring day. There was boring practice with the other boarders, then slightly less boring practice in the numbers' training rooms, then there was a very boring mission briefing that she paid only a little attention to. It wasn't even her target, they hadn't gotten to her mission yet. She just had to wait outside until Sephira was free, and she couldn't help having such brilliant hearing.
She hoped that Jenos would have fun picking off that Conman turned politician. It sounded like an exciting assignment. Not.
At last she was signalled in to talk to the captain, her boss.
Sephira wasn't her usual slightly friendly self. Today she was stern faced as she slid the thin folder across the plain wooden desk.
Zoe hefted the folder up, surprised at how light it was. She open it up to see only a single sheet of paper, one sided.
Sephira leant against the side of the desk, looking straight into Zoe's eyes.
"This is Leon Elliot." Sephira brushed the small blurry photo on the page with her fingertips then her eyes flicked up suddenly and coldly. "He's a Taoist, an ex-member of the Apostles of the stars."
"A Taoist?" Zoe felt a shiver of thrill vibrate up her spine. She had heard so much about these enemies, but had never faced one in battle. Now that was an exciting assignment.
"All we know of him is that he is around fifteen years old and a master of wind Tao, he has complete power over Air." Sephira pointed to the details on the slip of paper. "Apart from that we know nothing about who he is or where he came from. Most of the apostles came straight from escaping prison or were on the run from the law. We don't even have to sweat to find out things about them. Leon, however, is a complete and utter mystery. We don't even know why Creed picked him up."
Zoe nodded, "So... Have we located him?"
"We have received reliable Intel that he will be in Stocktown tomorrow, it's a small town, you should have no trouble locating him once you're there."
Zoe frowned and stared at the picture of the blue haired boy the same age as her. "Why now?" she asked.
"Pardon?" Sephira sat upright.
"Why are we eliminating these people now, after two years? I mean, a person can change a lot in two years. What if he's no threat now?"
"We have no choice; there have been rumours of Tao arising again. Chronos has to squash her enemies flat before they even have a chance to rebel. It's not an easy choice, but the apostles almost won two years ago. We can't take that chance again."
Zoe nodded. She could get that.
"There is another reason," Sephira continued. "There have been a lot of reports coming in from around areas where Elliot has been sighted of chaos, damaged buildings and casualties. We believe that he may be the cause of this mayhem, and we want it to end."
Zoe felt cold. She wanted to believe that a person that got given a second chance handed to them on a silver platter would not squander it. But this Leon Elliot has done exactly that. That made Zoe cross.
Leon Elliot was tired of running. He was tired of cheap hotel rooms that all looked exactly the same. He was tired on scrounging random honest work that only lasted an hour or so and paid peanuts. He was tired of living of stale bread and two minute noodles.
It's not fair! He moaned in his head as he watched a group of teenagers on a school field trip gawp at the huge ornate fountain in the middle of the city square. How come they get to go to school, have a family, have a life?
The teenagers were pushing and shoving each other, flinging their cameras around and laughing.
"Since when has life been fair?" Leon muttered to himself, turning away from the happy children.
Over the past two years Leon had learned a lot about what a perfect life was like. He was missing a lot of elements to what people called the basic mixture for happiness. He had no family; they were all killed back in that hell hole of a country he had left years ago. He had no home, he wasn't even sure he knew what a home was. He used to think that the abandoned shell that he used to hide in as a kid counted as a home. But now… he wasn't so sure. In the society that he now mingled in, that former home was called poverty, and disgraceful. He didn't know what to think anymore.
Lots of people would laugh if they heard him complaining, if they knew the whole truth. He had a great power, one that allowed everyone to pay attention to him; he wasn't ever regarded as a child. He had the power to kill, and he had used that power before.
Now he wished he had clean hands. His hands were stained so deep that no amount of scrubbing could cleanse them of what he had done.
Leon glanced down at his hands, then back up at the teenagers, splashing each other as they lingered over the historic fountain.
Leon Elliot may be fifteen, but he was never like them at all.
Zoe watched him mope from the other side of the square. She had been watching him for the last twenty four hours, as per her orders. Recon was a standard part of any mission, and she was ordered to take extra care while surveying the target.
She peered over the back of her chair, pretending to search the crowd for someone, but keeping her eyes on the same spot. Leon had not moved for the past twenty minutes, which made her job easier.
Why was this boy looking so sad and lonely? Zoe wondered. It's not as if he is lacking anything major.
She watched the blue haired boy splash one hand in the fountain slowly.
She snorted, flipping her hair over one shoulder. Elliot had no right to mope. He was a free man, a lot more free than she was. He was probably a spoilt middle class kid that had thought that getting 'superpowers' would be a good idea, then turned into a bloodthirsty killer for the monster that was Creed Diskenth. Zoe had read the file. Creed was responsible for killing two time guardians and many Chronos leaders.
Leon Elliot was bad news. Zoe could just tell.
Unfortunately, it was her orders to kill the boy as quietly as possible. So she couldn't jump him just yet. There was a great deal of people milling about the square. The noisiest being the school group that had stopped at the fountain. She would have to wait for the perfect moment to strike.
Leon sighed and stood up, wiping his wet hands on his shorts. The water didn't show on the dark material, and they needed a clean anyway.
He picked up his skateboard, trying to keep the underside shielded to the people around him. They might be slightly surprised that the skateboard had no wheels.
He started to make his way to the west side of the square, to the small alley that led to the crappy hotel where he was staying.
As he walked, he glanced back. The teenagers were still goofing off around the fountain, taking crazy pictures of one another and pretending to push each other in.
Leon knew that he envied them.
CRACK!
Leon darted to the side just in time to avoid the bullet. It whizzed straight past him to embed itself into a white statue behind him. Leon looked up, wide eyed, to see who was trying to kill him now.
Zoe almost blinked and missed it.
CRACK!
Her target jumped aside, letting the bullet smash into the ugly statue behind him.
The whole crowd froze, staring in shock at one another, uncertain of what to do.
The stupid teenagers near the fountain were the first to panic. One girl screamed shrilly, breaking up the silence that had resulted from the shot.
Zoe's target looked around, expertly peering at all the likely sniper posts in the square.
Zoe stepped forward, dodging the running people all around her. She tried to keep the Tao boy in sight, but the square was quickly turning into chaos.
I'm not going to get to kill him. She realised as she elbowed a hysterical woman out of her way. Someone else is after Elliot. They're the ones causing all the damage.
Leon Elliot is innocent.
Leon sprinted for cover, swearing like a sailor as he dived behind a fruit stall. It was scant cover, but there wasn't much choice.
He was internally yelling at himself for being so stupid as to be out in public so long. He knew that someone was out to get him. The ruckus that had been caused in other towns enough proof for that.
Now his carelessness was going to get him killed.
Zoe flung herself into the hotel at top speed, after she calmed down fractionally she realised that the sniper was most likely to be on the third floor of that building.
As she pushed past the startled porter and sprinted up the stairs, she ran through the trajectory of the bullet in her head. According to her calculations, the sniper would be placed in the third room. Hopefully.
Leon covered his head and hoped like hell as a storm of bullets rained down on him.
There was panic in the square, panic he knew was all his fault. Leon had to protect these people; he had to fulfil that promise to Eve, no matter what it took.
Leon dropped his skateboard on the ground, feeling that familiar sense of glee that came with igniting his Tao powers.
Leon looked down at his skateboard. It was floating in mid air, balancing on a cushion of air that he controlled.
It was a familiar thing of beauty.
As it turned out, Zoe didn't even need to estimate what room the gunman was in. by the time she had sprinted up to the third floor, the hit man had finished trying to snipe Elliot out and had run into the corridor, hoping to make a quick escape.
Zoe grinned as the sniper ran towards her, mistaking her for a normal kid.
Sucker. She thought as she thrust out her foot as fast a lightning, intercepting the hit man's path.
The poor man went sprawling on the expensive carpet, possibly collecting a painful carpet burn. Zoe didn't care.
She whipped out one of her fans from its holster and held it to the man's throat. He was whimpering, and Zoe did not hide her disdain.
"Who was your target?" She hissed, eyes flashing.
The man shook his head, keeping his lips sealed. He was either a trusted and reputable assassin, or he feared his master to the point of thinking death was easier than talking. Judging from the whimpering, Zoe guessed that it was the latter.
"Who was your target?" Zoe tightened her grip on the man. "I work for Chronos!"
She meant it as a threat, and it worked. The man's eyes widened and he immediately started sobbing. Zoe wished that he would suck it up and go back to the whimpering, it was a much quieter sign of cowardice.
"It was some kid… the woman, she said she wanted him dead, any means necessary!" The man forced out. Obviously the rumours of Chronos' persuasion techniques scared him more than his master and death.
"What woman?" Zoe yelled, "Who do you work for?"
"C…c…can't say." The man cowered. "She… she… could do things. Impossible things. Magic."
It sounded suspiciously like Tao now, what were the Taoists up to, killing their own kind?
Zoe dropped the man, knowing that he was too scared to tell me more.
She quickly whacked him on the temple with my fan before he could move, efficiently knocking him out. If she was lucky she could come back for him later and drag his butt before the captain to prove Leon's innocence.
It wasn't that Zoe wanted to prove the kid's innocence, it's just, that if there is something deeper afoot, she wanted to catch the right guy.
Or woman, if this man's information was accurate.
Which I doubt, by the way.
The winds around Leon picked up speed, pushing the crowd gently away form him. He didn't want them to get hurt by his Tao; neither did he want them to get hit in the crossfire if the gunman came back for a second shot.
Leon stood up from behind the fruit stall, confident that no bullet could touch him now. While the winds furthest from him were gentle enough to only send a person in the opposite direction, he had fashion the wind closer to him to give him a cocoon of protection. The high speed winds tore any bullet to shreds before it hit him, that is, any bullet that had been fired at least fifteen metres away. Point blank range caused a problem for him.
Leon pushed his way to the fountain, where he had been sitting and thinking just a moment ago.
The sniper had stopped shooting at him, but Leon knew approximately where the guy had hidden to take his shot.
This dude had better learn that he was no match for Tao with just a gun.
Zoe barged down the stairs and back onto the street, anxious to see whether her target had actually survived. She wanted to talk to him, to see what he had done to piss off another Tao user.
He was almost impossible to miss. He was standing over by the fountain again, but this time all alone. There seemed a ripple in the air before him though, and it was distorting her view.
Zoe rushed over to Elliot with determination in every step; even though the wind seemed to pick up the closer she got to the boy.
"Elliot!" She screamed, trying to catch his attention before he did something rash. "LEON ELLIOT!"
The teenage boy turned to stare at her, and the winds died off a little.
"Who are you?"He yelled over the noise.
"Perhaps your enemy… maybe your friend." Zoe said cryptically.
Leon turned to stare at her. "What?"
She sighed impatiently. "I took out your assassin, can we go already?"
Leon did a double take, staring at the hotel across the square. "Already? Who are you?"
"I'm your worst nightmare." She turned her back on him and began to walk away. "Are you coming or not?"
Well? Review and let me know if I should keep going! I would very much appreciate it.