Rhythm Divine
an Elite Beat Agents 'fic by
Indigo X

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Opening Beats: So I'm totally into this game, right? And as infectious as it is, I'm awfully surprised that only ONE person has written a 'fic on it. So, here we go. Chieftain, Laura and Lucy Stevens, J, Spin, and the rest of the EBA crew are property of Nintendo and Inis. Megan 'Agent Spice' Abernathy is (c) me.

No love for Morris and Derek in this story, sorry... I just like the idea of J, Spin, and Chieftain being a three-piece squad. P

Oh, yeah. The story begins just after 'You're The Inspiration', so anybody not having played past that level's about to get spoilerfied.

Story is... GO!

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Verse 1: Ain't Talking 'Bout Love

"...whoa."

Nobody else said anything as the trail of light evaporated into the sky. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Not to Agent Chieftain's knowledge, and he had been with this organization for years. He'd seen many things brought about by what the Agents had done... he himself couldn't count all the people he had inspired and encouraged through his moves, though he could remember every single one if mentioned. But never once had he seen this sort of thing, and truly the only apt comment was the word that slipped out of Spin's agape mouth.

They'd come to help. They didn't count on witnessing an honest to goodness miracle. Honestly, if four others hadn't seen the same thing, Chieftain (or just 'Chief', as he let his friends call him for short) would've sworn he'd just been working too hard. For someone whose duty was to provide support and encouragement through dance, Chief was a realist almost to the point of being a cynic. (J had once made the severe error of asking if the stick up Chief's ass had been surgically inserted. He'd almost gotten his pompadour knocked clean off his head for that remark.) So, it was probably because of this he was the first to recover from the mild shock of seeing a dead man appear out of nowhere to keep a promise to his daughter.

"...alright, I think we're done here. Agents, let's roll out."

A moment of still-stunned lack of motion.

"I said let's GO!"

"Awlright, awlright, we're comin' man, keep yo' hat on... geezy cristo, y'd think given we just all saw a dead guy..." Spin shrugged his shoulders, almost sulking as he started walking behind J back to the car.

"Shut the yap rookie, less talkin' more walkin'. We need t' get back and... try to make some kind of report on this for the Commander. If anyone's got any brilliant ideas on how t' make this thing not sound like a fairytale an' sound like a missions report, I'm open for..."

Chief stopped short. Someone had grabbed his hand from behind, and seeing as both J and Spin were ahead of him, he startled, spinning around in a rather dazzling heel pivot/quick backstep combo (it was easy to forget how graceful Chief was, considering he was built rougly like a Sherman tank)...

...and finding himself colliding into the gaze of the damn prettiest baby blues the big man had ever seen. And he'd seen a LOT of pretty girls in his line of work.

She wasn't a beauty queen or a supermodel, an idol or an actress. Her beauty was in her down-to-earth good looks. Her normalcy, her believability. Her hair was blonde, tied up in a twist behind her head, and her girl-next-door pretty face was just showing the lines of not only time and the stresses of motherhood, but bereavement as well. Those baby blues were a little misty, too.

"...ma'am."

He removed his hat. It was a gentlemanly courtesy thing, something his mama'd drilled into him as a pup. Always take off your hat in the presence of a lady. He probably should've removed his silver shades as well, but he was so used to wearing them he'd just forgotten. It didn't seem to bother the woman, though. She smiled at him in a bittersweet way that made Chief's heart bleed a little.

"Sir..."

"Chieftain, ma'am. Agent Chieftain of the Elite Beat Agents."

"Yes... oh... ah, Laura. Laura Stevens. I... I wanted to thank you. What just happened... I can't help but think it happened because of you and your partners. It meant so very much to Lucy... she's such a good little girl, and she needed something like this so much. If... if what we saw was just a miracle, Agent Chieftain, then you coming here tonight was a godsend. Thank you... all three of you... so much."

Chief tried his damndest not to blush. He wasn't a damn rookie anymore... not like Spin, who jumped over the moon every time someone thanked him. Helping people was part of the job... no, it was the whole kit and kaboodle of the job. No thanks were necessary, and a simple show of gratitude hadn't flustered him so much since he was just a kid.

Maybe it was the dead guy. The Spectacular Spectral Spectacle. Yeah, that'd knock anybody's professionalism off kilter. Your still good, Chief, just keep it together. And stop with the blushing, dammit.

"Well... you're mighty welcome, ma'am. That's our job- servin' the people and all that. Don' hesitate to call out if you ever need us again, Ms. Stevens. Make sure lil' Lucy knows that, too."

"Mmmhm. Thanks again, Agent. I'm... going to go get Lucy out of the cold. I'd do the same... it's freezing out tonight." Laura nodded to Chief, and went off to walk little Lucy back into the house. The girl was snuggling both her teddy bears and still shedding tears of joy as she looked once more back over her shoulder. She waved, and Chief waved back, smiling a bit in spite of himself.

He wondered how wrong it was to wish something else came up so he'd have an excuse to come back... oh, man, are you crazy? That's a damn fool thing to wish for. Everything's clear here, good work, now let's move on, shall we?

Hoofing out a huge sigh, Chief slipped his hat back onto his head as he slid into the driver's seat... and shot an icy, sliver-lensed look through the rear-view at J and Spin, who were smiling at him a little too widely. J was just about to open his mouth...

"...if this ain't about that missions report, I'd close that mouth, kid."

...when he promptly shut it again, but he didn't need to say a word. The grins and the looks being shot between J and the rookie spoke for themselves.

"She was jus' thanking me, okay? Damn, you knuckleheads can read into anything to something that ain't there..."

"Then why're ya still blushing, Chief?"

"J, can it. First off, she's a target. It's just not professional. Secondly, she's a widow. Third..."

"...Chief's too straitlaced to act on l'amour and'll probably dance hisself alone to the big discotheque in the sky. You gotta take it when it comes up, man. Like, Foxx. Foxx is totally into me."

J rolled his eyes. "Spin, Foxx is totally into your headphones. She's a tech junkie. She'd probably just as soon build a robot and date that than date you. Still, you got a point. Chief, I really think Ms. Stevens liked you."

"...damn kids don' know nothin'."

Chieftain hunched his massive shoulders over the wheel, white-knuckle gripped on, and was both dead silent and dangerously speeding the entire way back to HQ.

Kids really didn't know a damn thing. Laura'd never go for him... even if he was the kind of guy, lacking Spin's boyish mack-daddy charm or J's smooth ladykiller charisma, who had the ladies falling at his feet... he knew that the loss of someone you loved wasn't any simple task to get over. Despite Spin's philosophy, the easiest way to get over someone was NOT to get under someone else. Sometimes, little to nothing worked but time.

And time... despite what sort of situation Laura may be in right now... still hadn't freed Chief from the ghost of Megan...

(To Be Continued)