Hello everyone! I realize that I should not be starting a new project before finishing an old one, but I was having some trouble trying to find the motivation to pick up where I left off with my other fic (Asuka's Fairy Tail Adventure) and so I just started getting my writing gremlins out. I have gotten into a really good series of books lately, the Stephanie Plum Novels by Janet Evanowich, and that is were the inspiration came for this. Please enjoy!
As always, I do not own Fairy Tail, it belongs to Hiro Mashima and I thank him for the use of the characters for my own creative expressions *bows*
The room was dark and deathly silent except for the ticking of an old fashioned coo-coo clock on the wall and the shadows dancing through a grungy window from the light of a lone streetlamp outside. A small woman was literally sitting in a pile of books on the floor, some of them stacked neatly in rows and others in disorganized piles, she was leaning against a packed bookcase with a half open book in her lap and her head rolled on her shoulder in silent sleep. The clock continued to tick closer to the top of the hour until finally it hit 9pm and the little birdies popped out to sing. "Coo coo, coo coo."
"Arg!" The sleeping girl knocked over some of the books and sent her red-rimmed reading glasses flying across the room in surprise as she looked around the dark book store trying to remember where she was.
"Oh yeah, Little Women…" she looked down at the open book in her lap. Mr. Crux's bookstore mainly carried second hand and antique books, most of which were found at garage sales or junk shops and then repaired and restored by Mr. Crux before being resold. However, every once and awhile someone would think ahead and just donate their old books to Mr. Crux directly and it was while going through one of these boxes that 23 year old Levy McGarden had discovered an old but well treated copy of one of her favorite classics. She had just wanted to read the part where Jo met her Mr. Bhaer, but before she knew it she was reading through the entire thing for about the billionth time. She glanced at the clock and gasped again, quickly getting to her feet and knocking even more books over as she did.
"Dammit, my glasses…" she squinted across the room and spotted them under one of the reading chairs that dotted the cluttered room. She picked her way carefully through the spilled piles and retrieved her reading glasses, cleaning the lenses on her dusty summer dress before replacing them on her nose. She then turned on the small lamp sitting by the antique cash register on the counter by the front door. She frowned in dismay at the train wreck of spilled literature in front of her and the mixed piles that she had spent hours sorting that afternoon. The truth was that there was almost no room left on any of the sale shelves anyway and they had started stacking books wherever there was room. The shop was not very big, 4 bookshelves bursting with hardcover novels and then a few smaller glass cases that held the older and more fragile antique books.
Levy glanced at the clock again, five minutes after nine, technically the book store was closed at 7pm but she must have slept through the last few hourly chimes. Not that Mr. Crux would mind, Mr. Crux was nearly 80 years old, almost deaf and went to bed before the sun went down. Right now he was probably snuggly in his room above the shop, oblivious that his only employee had nearly spent the night passed out in a pile of merchandise on the floor. He wasn't known to be an early riser either, she could have been there all night and he would have never known the smiled to herself, the old man was a pain the butt sometimes, but she loved him dearly like a grandfather, giving up many a Saturday afternoon perusing junk sales with him in search of old books. This job may not pay very much, but she got to read as much as she liked so it was the perfect employment for a shy bookworm.
She looked again at the pile of books on the floor and then the clock on the wall. It was now ten minutes after nine and she was still tired even after her 3 hour nap on the floor, the books could wait until tomorrow to get resorted and tucked away where she found the room. Levy grabbed her satchel from behind the counter and flicked off the light before turning to the door, stopping suddenly when something caught her eye. It was the bag of garbage that she had filled earlier and was going to take out before she left, still leaning against the counter, the light from the window gleaming off the black plastic. She could wait and take it out tomorrow she reasoned with herself, that dumpster was a pain to handle in the daylight, it would be a menace to try and open in the dark. But then she thought about old man Crux coming down early and discovering the bag, books on the floor was one thing but garbage left in the shop was another. She didn't want to be the cause of him losing his fingers on the snappy dumpster lid, or god forbid he fell while trying to heave the bag over the side and broke a hip. With a sigh she snatched up the bag, it even took her two hands to manage to get it out of the front door and then she locked up the bookstore with her key.
She half dragged, half carried the black bag around the building and into the back alley where the dumpster was. She set her satchel down against the dumpster's side and peered at the lid while trying to make a plan of attack. She tried lifting it up with one hand, the door opened a few inches but not wide enough for the bag to slip through. I need to be about one foot taller and three times stronger to deal with this, Levy thought to herself and she struggled to push the lip up further. Finally she gave up and let the lid door slam; she was going to have to resort to the trick she had learned since starting at the bookstore although she had never done it in the dark before.
"Please let me keep all my fingers," Levy prayed as she placed both hands palm up on the outer lip of the trashcan's lid. She gave it a heave with all her might and let go of the door once it was high in the air, quickly grabbing the heavy garbage bags and forcing it over the dumpster wall before the lid came back down with a hellish bang. It had been close, but Levy managed to make it with all her fingertips intact. She smiled at her accomplishment while picking up the strap of her satchel; she had turned to go back down the alley when she was body slammed against the dumpster by someone running full tilt down the narrow road. Her satchel slipped from her hands and lost some of its contents as the unknown runner tripped over Levy and her bag and fell to his knees. The fall didn't seem to slow him down; he scrambled back onto his feet and continued to run at breakneck speed down the alley.
"You could at least apologize!" Levy growled after him as she crawled on her knees scooping up the contents of her bag and pushing them back into the satchel. She blew out an angry breath and watched him run away, "Idiot."
But then suddenly, before she had a chance to get to her feet, the sound of a motorcycle made her jump. It came out of nowhere and just appeared right beside the running man, who was now a fair ways down the alley. The motorcycle stopped in front of the man, blocking him from going any further and he tried to back into the darkness of the buildings that lined the right side of the alley. The running man had his hands up and Levy could vaguely make out that he was talking to the person on the motorcycle but it was too far away for her to hear any of the words. Just then, the motorcycle rider pulled a shining object out of their black leather jacket and pointed it at the man backing away. Levy didn't realize until she heard the crack of gunfire that the rider had shot the runner in the alley and she let out an involuntary yelp of shock. She tried to rise, but her legs had turned to jelly, she was clutching her bag in her left hand and trying to pull herself up against the dumpster with her right. When she was finally upright she looked up to see the figure on the motorcycle was now off their bike and leaning over the shot man. Levy tried to make her legs move, but she stood frozen to the spot, leaning against the dumpster in terror as the rider finished their search and turned their helmeted head in her direction.
"No, no-no-no-no no," Levy squeaked, she willed her legs to move but was only able to get about two steps away from the dumpster when the rider raised their gun in her direction.
"GET DOWN!" She heard the call just as something hit her in a flying tackle that knocked the air out of her and sent her sprawling for the second time in under five minutes. She heard the bark of the gun again and curled up behind the dumpster, aware that someone much larger and much stronger was holding her down on the ground. The zipping sound of the motorcycle was getting closer and she realized in horror that they were coming around to that side of the dumpster for a clearer shot.
"Not today asshole," She heard a voice above her growl, it was the same one that had yelled at her just a second ago. She saw another flash of light and recognized the gleam of a gun. Not another gun, her inner-voice was screaming at her, why is there another gun? This time though, she was on the right side of the shootout as she heard two shots being fired the motorcycle screeched to a halt before reaching the dumpster and retreated back in the direction it had come from, the thrumming of the engine quickly getting quieter until there was just the silent again except for the beating of her heart in her ears and her ragged breathing.
She looked up from the ground, her arms still covering her head in a feeble attempt at protection against a rogue bullet. There was a large figure crouching in front of her, covered in darkness except for the silver gun he held in his left hand and she watched as he placed it back into a gun belt at his waist. "Must not have brought an extra clip," she heard him murmur to himself. "Otherwise we would have been sitting ducks, the winner of a gunfight is the one with the most bullets and the best luck." He started to turn towards her. "How ar-" There was a large thud as Levy's satchel hit him square in the face.
"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Levy screamed, the adrenaline had finally kicked in and she was ready to get away from all of this craziness. She swung the satchel again and caught him under the chin while he was still partially stunned from the first hit. "LEAVE ME ALONE, ALL OF YOU!" Then she took off running, not down the alley but in between the buildings towards the residential streets in the next block. Her apartment was only three blocks away and with any luck she would get there without being shot at anymore.
"Wait!" She heard the man with the gun call behind her but she didn't turn around or slow down, instead she weaved between two buildings and slid through a small space she was sure someone that big couldn't get through to follow her. She stayed in the shadows and listened for any sounds of being followed or for that stupid motorcycle but she could barely hear anything over the thudding of her heart. Finally she made it to her building, with a shaking hand it took her 4 tries to get the key into the outer building's lock and then she ran up the two flights of stairs to apartment 302, shoved the key in the lock and wrenched open the door. Once inside she dropped her satchel on the floor, slammed the door and locked the deadbolt with a snap, her legs gave away again and she fell to the floor in an exhausted heap.
"At least it isn't fucking raining," Gajeel Redfox murmured under his breath. He was standing between two large bushes in the darkness of the street while watching a lone figure lurk in the shadows of the building in front of him. He was starting to think that the lucky break he had caught with a tip off this afternoon that some kind of deal would be going down tonight would be a bust. So far, all he had learned was that shady characters were even worse at punctuality than their crime fighting man he was tailing, a low level gopher for the Grimoire Heart, had been waiting around for the better part of an hour and seemed to be taking the delay in an even worse attitude than Gajeel was. Zoldeo kicked at the stones on the street, stuck his hands in his pockets, pulled out his cell phone every thirty seconds to check the time; someone is antsy, Gajeel noted. He couldn't blame the guy, this was a pretty open area in a decent part of town, not the best place for criminal enterprising. That was part of the reason why Gajeel didn't believe that anything was going to go down, Grimoire Heart were smarter than this, Hades was smarter than this. But what if Hades has nothing to do with this? Gajeel's subconscious mused to him while they waited. This might just be some chump deal between two low-level knuckleheads, barely worth your time. Well, Laxus had sent him here, so here he was, not that Laxus was his boss or anything or told him what to do all the time. The truth was that they desperately needed a break in a case they were working on, any crumbs or tidbits of information that were new might just be what was needed to jumpstart the investigation again. Leave no stone unturned, wasn't that the point in all this private detective crap anyway?
"I think we've both been duped," Gajeel mumbled to the figure bitterly. He was just about to give up and crawl back through the bushes from where he came when he heard the humming from a motorcycle in the distance. He crouched down lower in the greenery, internal fingers crossed for something to happen. A motorcycle came into view, it slowed up in front of the building until pulling up onto the sidewalk and coming to a rolling stop. Gajeel noted the insignia on the bike and on the rider's jacket; it was someone from Quarto Cerberus and his eyebrows rose in surprise. This was getting nuttier and nuttier, something wasn't right; these two groups didn't run in any of the same circles.
Zoldeo and the mystery rider were speaking to each other, the mystery rider not taking off his helmet or even removing the visor, therefore Gajeel couldn't make anything out that he was saying. Zoldeo reached into the inside of his jacket and pulled out a plain white envelope, too thin to be any kind of a money payoff, which meant it had to be information. Just as Zoldeo started moving forward to presumably give up the envelope, the mystery rider pulled a gun from somewhere in his jacket and pointed it right at the poor bugger. Shit! It's a hit, Gajeel's mind was racing with what he should do, call the cops or let it ride out. Before he had a chance to choose the mystery rider squeezed off a shot in Zoldeo's direction, unfortunately the little weasel had chosen to throw his cell phone at the rider's helmet. It would be hard enough to see in that thing here in the dark to get off a clear shot, but even harder if you had to dodge something coming at your face. The shot went wide and Zoldeo had squeezed into the spot between the two buildings before anyone else had a chance to blink. The rider could try and squish his way through there, or stick his gun in there and open fire but Zoldeo was quick and was probably halfway down the back alley by now. The rider seemed to have come up with the same conclusions since instead of following him they backed up and searched for a spot big enough for the bike to fit through.
"Shit!" Gajeel fumbled in his pocket for his phone and ran to the opening that Zoldeo had crawled through. It was going to be a tight squeeze; he was quite a bit bigger than that skinny rat. "You have a situation in the back alley between 13th and 14th, close to Stone Ave," he yelled into the phone at the police dispatch. There was some fuzzy answer on the other side of the line; the service between buildings was less than perfect."Just send someone down here, now!"
He ended the call and stuffed the phone back in his pants just as he came out into the alley, he turned to his left and saw Zoldeo running like his ass was on fire down the narrow road. He took off after him, trying to listen for the motorcycle that was sure to be nearby. Just then Zoldeo collided with some poor sucker throwing their garbage into a dumpster and he watched as they bounced off the side and biffed it into the dirt. At first he thought it was a large child with bright blue hair, but he got closer and realized it was a small woman crawling around trying to pick up her things. Then the motorcycle reappeared and Gajeel's stomach went cold and he pumped his legs harder as he watched the rider gun down Zoldeo in the alley. The stupid girl was still searching on the ground, probably unaware of what was going on, he watched as she finally got to her feet at the same time as the rider turned and raised their gun towards them both.
"GET DOWN!" The words were out of his mouth before he even realized he had yelled, he closed the last bit of difference between himself and the girl with a leap and pulled her down under him. Thankfully she was light, small and too stunned to realize what was going on and did what anyone would do in that situation and curled into a protective ball. Gajeel heard the motorcycle rev and come closer; he sat up beside the dumpster and pulled his own gun out of his belt and held it to his side.
"Not today asshole," he growled and peered around the metal corner, aiming the gun low at the bike. He fired off two shots, he couldn't afford the waste any bullets and he wasn't in the best place to get perfect aim. The motorcycle stopped suddenly and turned around; the rider probably hadn't expected them to have any weapons and realized that escape was safer than the unknown. When the sound of the motorcycle faded away Gajeel holstered his gun. "Must not have brought an extra clip," he muttered to no one in particular. "Otherwise we would have been sitting ducks, the winner of a gunfight is the one with the most bullets and the best luck." He remembered the girl, who was silent and probably scared shitless behind him. "How ar-" He wasn't expecting something heavy to hit him right in the face.
"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" He heard a shrill voice scream, he was still reeling from the first unexpected shot when the second took him in the chin. "LEAVE ME ALONE, ALL OF YOU!" When his eyes started to refocus he realized that she was gone, running off between the buildings. "Wait!" He called out but he knew it was too late, she was lost in the darkness. She shook his head to try and clear it out and process what had just happened. It had been a hit, that part was absolutely fucking certain with Zoldeo's corpse laying not even 20 feet away. The rider had also taken something from the body, the envelope that was the original purpose of the meeting? Gajeel wouldn't know for sure unless he searched the body himself and he heard the wail of cop cars coming from a distance but gaining quickly. "Shit!" He swore out loud, he needed to get out of here, his call to the cops probably wasn't the only one with all gunfire and this place would soon be flooded with people. Something brushed up against his foot and he looked down and saw a scrap of fabric held against his leg in the slight breeze. He bent down and snatched it up before it blew away, it looked familiar and he swore that the girl had been wearing it in her hair before he tackled her behind the dumpster. He stuck the hairband in his jacket pocket and loped off towards his truck, carefully avoiding being seen by anyone. "Quiet night my ass."
There you have it! I hope it is off to a good start. I am not sure if there is anything out there like this already, I know there are lots of AU fics out there floating around so hopefully it is something new and different. Expect more soon!
