AN: Hey, guys. So this was actually only recently a thing in my head. I was planning to shift my schedule of fanfics around because I didn't have any ideas that were developed well enough for my liking. Those ideas will still be coming, but not any time soon. This is mostly to keep you guys satisfied with some kind of material until I can get one of the bigger ideas figured out. This one won't be that long, it'll probably be shorter than The Rose and the Candle. But hopefully you guys enjoy this as much as that one. I'm still surprised by how many people liked that one. With that said, one with the story…

Human Alchemy

It was late in the night in Vale. Most of the city's inhabitants had long retired to their beds and pleasant dreams. Sure, there were always night owls who preferred the night and got most of their activity done during that time, but there were very few of them out and about. If they were, they were most likely at Junior Xiong's place dancing the night away. In any case, it was good that there were few out and about, especially tonight.

Roman Torchwick was waiting with a couple of Xiong's borrowed men and his little helper, Neopolitan, in an alleyway in downtown Vale. Here, where there were a lot of overpasses and tall buildings, it was easy to hide criminal activity. Roman was expecting a delivery soon. A delivery he had to keep hidden from his current boss, Cinder Fall, and that wasn't an easy task. This woman seemed to know everything that was going on, whether you tried to keep it hidden or not. But this was not something she needed to know about. It was a wonder Roman managed to keep it a secret. Something told him she already knew but wasn't going to say anything until after tonight's transaction. I swear, that woman has the worst timing.

Roman was pacing back and forth, smoking on one of his favorite cigars. Neo was standing over by a wall with her parasol slung over her shoulder. Junior's boys were just leaning against a wall or sitting on the ground waiting for some action to happen. One was even throwing rocks down the alley away from the rest.

"When is this guy going to show up?" one of the goons leaning on the wall asked with impatience.

"He'll show up when he gets here. Now, I'm not paying any of you to complain, so shut up!" Roman answered.

The goon just shook his head and went back to being bored. Several minutes passed before a new figure approached the group in the alleyway. He wore a mess of an outfit, his trench coat torn along the bottom with patches of ash and burns and a layer of dust all over. His fedora was equally dirty and also a little worse for wear. In his hands, held in front of him, he carried a rather small box. His beard was gray and unkempt, with equally unkempt hair sticking out from under his fedora. He stopped in front of Torchwick and looked up at him.

"I have what you requested, sir," he said in a raspy voice.

"Good. I have the Lien you wanted for this job. But before I hand it over, I want to be sure you have exactly what I wanted."

"I can assure you, the items are in here."

"A verbal confirmation isn't going to cut it. I need you to open that box and show me visual proof that everything's there."

"This must be an important project for you."

"Just open it and show me," Roman said with great annoyance as he tightly gripped the hook of his cane.

"Very well," the old man said as he opened the box up. Roman peered in as the man opened it.

Roman looked for a solid minute and then said, "Well. Looks like you didn't disappoint. Neo?"

The girl perked up and skipped over to her boss. "Give the good man the Lien I promised."

Neo reached to her belt and pulled out a bag of Lien. She handed it to the old man and walked back behind her boss. The old man opened the bag and counted the Lien inside before splitting his mouth into a wide toothy grin.

"Pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Torchwick," he said as he handed the box to Roman and made his exit out of the alleyway.

"Yeah. Sure," Roman said as he gestured for his crew to leave.

Neo walked alongside her boss as the returned to the hideout, looking at the box he carried with a curious look on her face. Torchwick noticed her expression.

"Consider this as a little experiment, Neo. We're about to dabble in forces that only our boss knows about."

Neo's expression turned from one of curiosity to concern. If these were the forces she thought they were, then she didn't like where this was headed.

"Don't worry about it, Neo," Roman tried to reassure her. "I know my plans tend to blow up in smoke (sometimes literally), but I have a good feeling about this one."

Neo just shook her head slowly. She knew her boss had grandiose plans that more often than not ended up failing miserably, but this may be a bit too much, even for him. And she would always be there to tell him 'I told you so'. Well, not literally tell him, but he'd get the idea. She always had those handheld signs she made to fall back on.

As the crew of criminals made their way back to their hideout, none were aware of the two figures silently making their way across the surrounding rooftops following them. They moved close together, never straying too far from each other, but never losing sight of the criminals underneath them.

"Are you sure you got that exchange?" the female figure whispered to her partner.

"Of course, I did. I've never failed in our duties yet," the male responded.

"I wonder what this story has in store for us," the female whispered.

"Whatever it is, I'm sure the aides will like it," her male counterpart whispered back in response.

"We'll just have to see," the woman responded.

The two figures followed Torchwick's crew until they reached the warehouse where they had set up shop. Neo led the way into the warehouse, followed by Xiong's men. Torchwick was the last to enter, checking around to make sure they weren't followed. The figures had disguised themselves into the shadows of the night to avoid detection. They let their disguises down when Torchwick entered the building.

"Did you see what was in the box?" The woman asked her partner.

"No. But he seems to think it's important. Whatever it is."

"Hmm. We'll just see where it goes."

"That is our job, after all."

"True."

The two figures parted ways and disappeared into the shadows, off to observe other players in this new game.

AN: Not the best start to a new story, is it? Oh well, things should be getting more interesting later on. I'm doing the best I can with this idea. Not gonna say what idea that is yet, but it'll be apparent later, most likely in the next chapter. Wait…I put it in the title, didn't I? Uh…Fröhliches Lesen!