new fanfic while i got others to write i know, but idc i'm gonna keep doing this
updates will probably be sporadic and slow while i finish uni and move house, but im really enjoying writing this so who knows?
I hope you guys enjoy Alice and her weirdness so enjoy!
I only own Alice and anything else you don't recognise
Chapter 1
"The World's Strongest Woman"
When she awoke it was to darkness and pain. She grimaced.
She searched for answers behind closed eyes, her brain thumping and hurting at the effort and she cringed in horror when all she found was a big, black hole where her memories should be.
She had no idea where she was, or who she was. She was terrified.
Beeping reached her ears, and she blearily opened her eyes to a blinding stark whiteness that chased away any remains of the darkness. She missed it, the darkness was painless, it was safe.
"You need to stay awake," a voice said. Monotone and still, like a an undisturped lake.
She shook her head, "I don't want to..." she whispered, fear clawing at her gullet.
The voice didn't reply, but she heard a something metal clink against something porcelain, so she reasoned that the man must still be there.
The silence was long, but not uncomfortable.
Eventually, she opened her eyes.
The man was pale, with a mess of black hair and deep soulful eyes. He sat almost like a frog, and he was staring those dark soulful straight into her.
"Where am I?" she asked him.
He didn't drop his gaze, even as he added far more sugar cubes than necessary into his tea, he stared at her as if she was the abyss. She stared right back.
Another moment passed and still neither let their gaze up, and eventually the man diverted his eyes to his tea.
"You are in a private hospital." he finally replied.
"That means nothing, I know I'm in a hospital, where am I?" She iterated, eyes narrowing.
The man seemed undisturbed by her tone, a small smirk lilted his pale lips, "California, USA."
She frowned again, "You're British, I'm British, I can hear it, were we travelling together? Do I know you?" She questioned.
The man seemed surprised but he quickly squashed the emotion. But she still saw it.
"We do not." Was all he said, offering no more explanation.
Her nose scrunched in annoyance, "You need to elaborate."
He shook his head, "I do not need to do anything."
"I will find out eventually." She reasoned.
The man smiled at her, "And how will you do that? I deduce that you don't even know who you are. Do you remember anything?"
She swallowed thickly, shaking her head.
He smiled again, "I thought not," he added more sugar into his tea, "you can call me L." If he was waiting for any indication of recognition from her then he never received it.
"L?" She said, crossing her arms, "Not your real name, I take it?"
He smirked this time, "You will never find out my real name."
She snorted, "And I doubt you'll find out mine unless I remember,"
"What makes you think I don't know your name?" He countered.
She was quick, quicker than he thought, "You haven't used it and we don't know each other. You're not a doctor, or a nurse, and you speak to me with little emotion. We literally have no history."
He was silent after that, biting his thumb as he kept staring through her.
The clock was ticking in the room, disturbing the silence as the two regarded each other.
"Alice."
She was surprised, "What?"
"That's what I'll call you; Alice Cadogan." He said, leaving no room for argument.
Alice nodded, "That's suitable."
Silence was their companion for a short time, Alice counted each tick of the clock but she refused to be the first one to speak. From what she had learned of L in the short time they had known each other, he was secretive and cunning, strange and elusive, calm and raging. He was a contradictory of traits and Alice knew that he was testing her from the moment she opened her eyes.
He still hadn't answered why she was in a hospital either.
"There are a few...tests...that I need to conduct on you." He said simply.
Alice narrowed her eyes, "Tests? Weird ones?"
He smiled enigmatically, "Perhaps,"
"And do I get to say 'no'?" She asked mistrustfully.
L let out a small chuckle, "Of course you can, but I will conduct them anyway."
She wasn't certain what she made of that response but Alice had nothing. She didn't even know her name and her only hope of survival in this unknown world was with L, whether she wanted to or not.
"The first test is to lift that safe." He said, extending a thin arm and pointing an equally thin finger at the large safe in the corner.
Alice grunted, crossing her arms, "You're kidding, right? There's no way I'll be able to pick that up." Yet, she moved from her bed, ripping out her IV carelessly and walking on wobbly legs to the safe.
She was short, very short actually, that was the first thing she noticed about herself, and her hair was long and blonde, from what she could see without a mirror anyway.
L spoke, "It weighs 1500lbs, by the way." Alice rolled her eyes.
"Alright," she said under her breath, bending down and gently laying her hands on the safe, "hope you're ready to be disappointed!" She called over to L behind her. He stayed silent.
Alice grounded herself, bare feet placed firmly on the cold tiled floor as she squatted and braced herself to attempt to life the safe. It would be heavy and even if she wasn't injured she doubted she would be able to move it even a centimetre.
And then, she lifted the safe high into the air as if it weighed nothing.
For a one long, torturous moment, Alice held the safe above her, eyes wide in disbelief as it stayed suspended in her small hands. She couldn't hear L, nor could she see him, everything was washed away by the sheer force of realisation that hit her; she was holding a 1500lbs safe as if it were a feather.
And then she screamed, dropping the safe on her head, body scrunched together as the safe's metal curved and bended, falling to the ground and leaving Alice untouched.
She fainted.
In a few months Alice had successfully managed to accomplish each task Ryuzaki, the name that L insisted she used for him, set her and each technique in training that Watari had taught her.
Several cases were completed, and Alice understood why Ryuzaki specifically wanted an actress as his partner. Suspects were idiotic and greatly underestimated Alice's abilities by her miniscule appearance.
Shinji was none the wiser to his girlfriend's job either, Alice had been careful to ensure that, she had told him that a "wealthy benefactor had requested an assistant with much better pay than any old job could offer" not exactly a lie but she didn't really tell the truth.
Alice had also fallen into a simple companionship with Ryuzaki, he was often by her side or whispering his her earpiece to give directions. Alice even sent him pictures of things she thought were funny.
"Can you see the door yet?" Alice heard Ryuzaki say through her earpiece.
She crept along the hallway leading to Mr Iwata's office, a corrupt businessman who was secretly funding a war in the Middle East to gain power and expand his business over in Iran. But L had found out, because he always finds out, and decided to stop the would-be dictator.
"Nearly," Alice whispered, ducking into a small alcove as a security guard passed by her, mumbling about his boss and ungodly hours, before she stealthily continued towards the door at the end of the hallway.
The lock was a combination of traditional and digital, and it also looked like a pain in the ass to crack open.
"Fuck." She whispered softly, "It's encoded, what do I do?"
Ryuzaki answered without fail, like always, "You've cracked worse, Alice."
"I know," she said, before quieting her voice and checking behind her for security, "but this is real and does not contain your favourite cake behind it." She snapped.
"Calm down and listen to me." Ryuzaki ordered calmly.
Alice calmed her breathing, still conscious of the security guard walking past the corridor and begging that he didn't shine his light down the hallway.
"Okay," she said, "first I pick the easy lock." She pulled out her lock picks, "I can do that."
"Don't set off the alarm, those guards are paid to kill anyone that gets to the boss' door on sight." Ryuzaki said, around a mouthful cake, Alice thought from the muffled tone of his voice.
She scowled, carefully twisting her lock pick, "I wish you hadn't told me that."
"Just being honest with you, Alice."
Alice snorted, "That's a first."
"Focus." Ryuzaki sounded as stern as a man could while eating cake.
The lock broke free and Alice muffled her whoop of victory before turning her gaze to the digital lock. This one was going to be much, much harder.
"It's got a fingerprint." She whispered, squinting her eyes as she made out the tiny fingerprint left on the scanner, "And I think it's got an eye one too."
Ryuzaki swallowed his cake, "You can bypass the eye one if you get into the fingerprint one and hack the system."
Alice groaned, "You make that sound way easier than it actually is."
"I make everything sound easy."
Ryuzaki could almost hear Alice smirking, "I'll be sure to tell your future girlfriend that."
Alice reached into her pocket, pulling out powder foundation, a brush, and a plaster. She lightly put some powder foundation on the finger scanner and pressed the plaster to it, watching as the scanner flashed green before returning blue, signally that the fingerprint was successful.
Now, this was the tricky bit.
Alice carefully detached the cover of the eye scanner, being very careful not to trigger any alarms, and delicately attached her smart phone, specifically used for hacking, to the wires that connected the finger print scanner to the eye scanner.
And now, she had to enter in a sequence code to shut down the scanner without setting off any alarms which meant she had to get it right on the first try.
No pressure then.
"Let me see it." Alice heard Ryuzaki in her earpiece and quickly adjusted her position so the camera attached to her night goggles, a ridiculous but useful item, could see what she was doing.
"Right…" It was rather disconcerting to hear Ryuzaki concerned, "So this may end up being harder than I initially thought…"
Alice rolled her eyes, "You owe me the last slice of cake when I get back."
"You're not having it."
"Yes I am, with a really big strawberry on top." She grinned.
Ryuzaki didn't sound impressed, "Nope."
"And I'll eat slowly, with a shiny fork, right in front of you as I lick all that icing off…"
Ryuzaki took a deep, exhasberated breath, "Please stop making eating a cake sound erotic."
Alice giggled, "Didn't know you were into that, Ryuzaki." She flirted.
"Alice." He was using his warning voice again, the one which basically told Alice to shut up and focus on the job at hand.
"Right sorry," she waved him off, focusing again on the hacking, "so what do I do?"
Alice nodded as she listened to Ryuzaki's instructions, her fingers quickly tapping away at the touch screen whilst she input the sequence of numbers Ryuzaki was calmly whispering into her ear.
She grunted, her leg beginning to feel numb from the awkward couching position Alice was in as she carefully hacked the lock, careful to not set off the alarm.
Alice let out a sigh of relief as she heard it click and the red light turn green.
"Hello?"
The young woman stilled, pressing her dark-clad body against the wall and prayed for the security guard not to find her. Guns may have been banned in Japan but people still carried them, albeit illegally.
Seconds ticked by but the guard didn't walk forward, merely flashed his torch around in the darkness carelessly, as if he himself couldn't really be bothered to search for a nuisance.
"Fucking rats…" he muttered before walking away down the corridor.
She heard Ryuzaki sigh in her earpiece and Alice joined him in their silent victory. As quiet as a mouse, Alice slipped through the unlocked door of Mr Iwata's office, grateful that she had shut off the security cameras beforehand.
"Okay," she whispered, "what am I looking for?" The office was dark but Alice was wearing night vision goggles and could clearly see everything.
"There should be a desk with a large padlock on it's bottom drawer." Ryuzaki said, his words slightly muffled from his tea.
Alice nodded her understanding, adjusting her night vision goggles as they wavered.
The office was surprisingly compact for a man of Mr Iwata's status, but it was messy and even had an old mug of stale coffee. The walls and boards were plastered with notes and diagrams and Alice was certain she'd die of boredom if she even took a quick gander at them.
"What a dull man..." she whispered, walking around the desk silently and crouching before it.
Ryuzaki chuckled, "You think everyone's dull,"
Alice grinned, "Mostly," her grin was quickly replaced by a frown as she fingered the padlock, "Do I have to pick it? Or can I just breaky-break?"
She didn't need to see Ryuzaki's to know he was frowning disapprovingly, "You're only to use your 'talents' in case of emergencies."
She rolled her eyes, "I mean this is kind of an emergency," her hand wrapped around the padlock, tugging a few times, "It would be super easy and quick too." She reasoned.
"No, Alice." Ryuzaki said sternly.
"Fine," she conceded, "but I still stand by my opinion,"
BANG! Alice jumped as the door to the office opened violently. She crammed herself under the desk and noticed that in her shock that she had ripped the padlock clean off the drawer.
Voices sounded in front of the desk and Alice could see three pairs of polished shoes from beneath the crack of the desk.
"I swear I heard a voice..." said one voice, the guard from earlier, "I thought the noise was rats but rats can't talk,"
Another man snorted, "Yeah, no shit, Tanaka, got anything else or are you wasting my time?" He sounded angry.
Ryuzaki was silent, Alice noticed, but she knew that he was whizzing through a million different plans in his head to get her out of there.
The third man was silent but Alice could hear his footsteps as he slowly approached the desk. Her heart was hammering in fear as she heard a gun cocking.
Ryuzaki cursed on the other side of the comm. and Alice could hear him frantically typing before the legs of the man came into her view.
"There's no one here." He said, and Alice was thankful for her black attire and tiny body.
He strode to the other side of the desk and the three left the room, but Alice didn't hear them walking back down the corridor.
"Get out of there, Alice." Ryuzaki ordered seriously, any traces of the humour before long gone.
He didn't have to tell her twice. Alice slid the drawer open and gathered all the documents inside, not wanting to stop and check them, before slowly standing from her crouch.
And then, the door opened once more.
She winced as a bright light shone in her face, the man behind the torch smirking.
"Looks more like a little mouse than a rat to me," he gloated, three guns pointing directly at Alice.
Alice herself decided that false confidence was the best way to go in this situation.
She stood up fully, resting one hand on her hip as the other clutched the documents to her chest. She grinned cockily at them as the breeze from the open window caressed her heated skin.
"Ever wondered if mice could fly?" She questioned as she stared at the men.
They looked confused for a brief moment before Alice spun on her heels and bolted for the open window. Gunshots rang out, but each missed her as Alice vaulted through the open window.
In her haste, Alice missed the three men falling to the floor, clutching their chests in agony as their hearts gave out.
"Alice!" She heard Ryuzaki shout, "You're thirteen stories up!" He sounded worried but Alice wasn't.
She whooped loudly, the concrete beneath for feet cracked as she landed heavily onto it, completely unharmed.
Sprinting through the Tokyo streets in the dead of night, Alice grinned, climbing buildings and scaffolding to freerun across the city, unhindered and unharmed by the danger that would kill any normal human.
But Alice wasn't a normal human, and she hated having to pretend she was.
Ryuzaki was telling her off but she ignored him, instead she focusing on the wind in her hair and the heart beating in her chest.
"I'm alive!" She yelled in exhilaration, "And I might not have been!"
Ryuzaki sighed in her ear but she knew that a small, fond smile was gracing his lips at the moment.
The hotel they were staying in was The Peninsula Tokyo and Alice grinned in relief as she saw Ginza shopping centre, knowing that she wa sjust around the corner from the hotel.
"Enter from the window," Ryuzaki instructed.
Alice nodded again and began scaling the balconies that reliably held her light weight as she clibed higher and higher to reach their suite.
She smiled, "Don't worry, Rapunzel, I'm coming," she snarked but Ryuzaki didn't reply, she couldn't even hear him typing so she presumed that he was preoccupied.
Rain started to fall but Alice was nearly at their window, hand gripping the railing and with a final pull she was on their balcony and climbing over the railing.
Waiting for her was Ryuzaki with the last slice of strawberry cake on a plate balanced in his pale hand, offering it to her.
Alice grinned, taking the strawberry of the top and popping it in her mouth, "You can have the rest." She said as she walked into the hotel suite, Ryuzaki followed her, already devouring the cake.
She placed the documents of the coffee table and took off to have a well-earned shower.