COIC Chapter 1 Part 1
The generic brown door was first opened by a tall, lean male, paper folder in hand. He glanced quickly about the scarce room, yet didn't remove his reflective wraparound Oakleys. Shane sat down at the head of the table and carefully placed his case file on the table, sighing briefly, the death of Gant still on his mind. If only he could've saved her…
The door abruptly flew open of its own accord, ripping Schofield out of his daydream. The door stayed open, yet no one entered. Finally, a case file similar to Schofield's floated in lazily, followed by a teen with a shock of blonde hair. He wore loose fitting jeans, a heavy jacket and a beanie, and as he walked in the boy nodded at Schofield.
"You're Reed, I'm guessing," Schofield said, waiting for the younger boy to acknowledge him with actual words.
"Ya, you?"
"My name's Shane Schofield, but I usually go by Scarecrow."
Reed raised his eyebrows. "Scarecrow?"
"It's my call name," Schofield elaborated.
Silence enveloped the room, thankfully broken by a young Asian girl dressed in harajuku like outfit. She flounced in excitedly and smiled brightly at the two guys already in the room. "Hey! I'm Aya! Isn't this like, so bubbly-making? It is so Crim that I was asked to join this group!"
Both of the guys sat in silence as they tried to figure out what Aya had just said. Scarecrow was the first to speak. "Bubbly-making?" he asked, sounding absolutely ridiculous. Reed busted out laughing but was silenced by his glare.
"Like totally uber exciting! Almost as crazy as boarding at night on the coaster at the Rusty Ruins…"
Both Scarecrow and Reed stopped trying to figure out what she was saying. Suddenly, a white round ball floated out of Aya's purse and flicked about the room. "Moggle!" she cried. "Come back, and quit film-making these guys. We don't even know their names yet!"
Reed reached his hand across the table and Aya shook it. "I'm Reed. This guy here, is Scarecrow. Don't ask me why such a weird ass name, I don't even understand the answer he gave me."
"Well, that's totally okay." Aya slipped off her jacket, revealing her skintenna tattoos.
"What the hell are those?" Reed asked, almost entranced by their flashing. The door opened once more, but all of them were too busy staring at Aya's arms to notice.
"It's a skintenna. I can communicate to all of the other people that have it, and it flashes in time with my heartbeat. Oh, hey!" Aya said excitedly to the new person who came in the room.
He was African American and dressed in old English clothes as if he had just walked out of the 18th century. The guy turned his face away.
Aya waved her hand in front of his face to get his attention. "What's your name? I'm Aya!" she extended her slender hand to him, and the guy looked up in surprise.
"Me?" he asked, confused.
"Yes you!"
"I… I'm Friday." They shook hands and Aya excitedly introduced everyone else.
Scarecrow finally looked up from his feet and stood. "We are waiting on one more person, but I can begin to debrief you now. All of us have been brought together by the COIC to restore order to a world overturned by turmoil. They have specifically enlisted each of us for a certain mission we will accomplish. Our first mission is…"
Scarecrow's speech was abruptly cut off by the roar of what appeared to be a dragon. There was a rapid knock on the window and Aya hurried to open it. A young guy a little bit older than her gracefully leaped inside and smiled smugly at the group. "What'd I miss?"
Scarecrow shook his head slightly already recognizing the lack of discipline among his partners. "You must be Murtagh. I had just begun debriefing everyone on what our status in the COIC is. Our first mission is a sting operation; the recovery of kidnapped agents and scientific information that was stolen. It is currently 1138 hours, and we leave for Texas at 1300 hours."
"Then why'd we have to meet so fricking early?" Reed grumbled.
Scarecrow's head flicked over to Reed and he frowned slightly. "Because I need to discern how powerful each of your abilities are, and we will then have to equip you according to my decisions."
Friday and Aya nodded in unison, and Murtagh and Reed glanced at each other with angry looks on their faces. "Your discernment?" Murtagh asked. "What makes you so qualified to decide?"
"What makes you so qualified to question me?"
"This." Murtagh leaped up from his seat whirled around and yelled, "Brisingr!" A jet of blue flame flew from his hand towards where Scarecrow had been standing. But he was long gone. Murtagh winced at the feeling of a gun pressed to the side of his head.
Scarecrow quickly put Murtagh into a headlock and cocked his gun. "As I told you, each of us was chosen for our abilities. I'm the only one who knows what each person can do." Murtagh's eyes met Reed's and his hand slipped to the hilt of his sword. Murtagh drew it out as quietly as possible, the red blade glinting in the light.
"Drop it." Scarecrow's gun pressed even harder into the base of Murtagh's neck. "You make any other movement other than dropping your sword, I shoot."
A slow smile crept across Murtagh's face. "You wouldn't dare." He spun quickly, whipping out with his foot, followed closely by his sword. Scarecrow dropped and rolled, and aimed his gun. The shot echoed around the room, and Murtagh cried out in pain.
"Holy shit!" Reed's exclamation was heard above the rest. "You just shot one of your partners!"
Scarecrow stood up slowly and pointed his gun at Murtagh on the floor. "Heal it." The red sword slipped out of the blackhaired boy's fingers and he pressed his hand to it. A small sucking sound was heard, and the bullet fell out of his foot onto the floor. "I told you I know what each of you can do. Don't expect me to forget."
Aya looked at Scarecrow in amazement. "You are so totally Crim. And what are each of our talents?"
Scarecrow sighed and sat down on his chair, followed closely by Murtagh. "Well, Aya, your talent has to do with the fact that you can sneak very well, and you probably have the most courage out of anyone here. Murtagh is a Dragon Rider, so we need him for his dragon, his expertise with a sword, and his magical ability. Reed is one of the Six families from Salem. He has magical powers too, and he is well-known for his risk taking and loyalty. Friday finds his talent in his harboring of vendettas. He knows one of the agents that had been captured- Robinson Crusoe. And lastly, I'm highly skilled in the art of plan making, and use of a gun, along with many other expertises. This is our team of agents."
A wide range of reactions occurred around the room. Aya began excitedly bouncing in her chair, Friday looked once more at the floor then back at Scarecrowe know He HHHH9832p9r8u42h3fe while frowning slightly, and Murtagh and Reed glanced at each other, both with looks of hate and disrespect on their faces.
Scarecrow could tell it was going to be a very long day.