(A/N:

Me: Hello and welcome to my first published fic. I hope you like it. The cover image is a picture I drew ^_^)

-*Chapter 1*-

It was a beautifully sunny day. Strong yet elegant rays of liquefied sunlight descended down like an army of benevolent angels, dying the concrete walls of a high reaching cafe in Yorknew City a washed out buttercup as two 13 year old boys sat cheerfully chatting on either side of a table stationed beside one of the windows. One of them, with his unruly silver hair and piercing icy blue eyes, cracked a dumb joke causing the other black haired boy to chuckle loudly where he sat. The whole atmosphere was a stunning mist of childhood wonder. To the general onlooker watching it would be impossible to come to the result that these two boys sitting there talking about ice cream were actually very strong just from watching them interacting, and that they have the power and ability to take down strong criminals if they ever needed to. But they were. Unbelievably. One a Hunter and one with more experience than any serial killer.

"What do you mean? The chocolate is definitely the best. The strawberry ice cream at that shop just tastes like soap." The white haired boy complained with one of his signature smirks, causing the black haired boy to roll his eyes in good humour, leaning back and pretending to be hurt.

"If you say so..." The black haired boy grumbled with a chuckle. "But... I think they ALL taste nice! Strawberry is definitely the best though. Or maybe they all taste like soap and it is hard to tell."

The two boys were silent for a moment before breaking out in small laughter. "Maybe that shop is just crap then," The white haired boy exclaimed dramatically, throwing his arms behind his head with a groan. "There's a better one down the road. We can just go there next time."

"Yes!" Cried the black haired boy, fist pumping the air and collapsing back down onto his bench-like seat.

The light hearted atmosphere was suddenly broken up when the white haired boy's beetle-styled phone buzzed a merry tune from within the pocket of his thinly laced brown checked jacket. Confused, the discussion broke up as he fished it out of his pocket, the black haired boy watching on in wonder as the other tapped through his cell phone.

"It's a text... It says it is from Leorio." The white haired boy, Killua, commented in confusion as he read through it with several more taps on his cell phone. Leorio was one of their friends, one of the unstoppable group of four that cleared the Hunter Exam together as a single force... Well kind of. He wanted to be a doctor, and usually he only really contacted the two when he found an exceptionally tough job or just wanted to catch up again after a relatively long time. He had actually seen them recently as he helped them to gain up the money to buy Greed Island, an extremely expensive video game for the Joystation which is predicted to hold hints of where to find the black haired boy, Gon's, missing Hunter father. Now they were just waiting for the auction to take place where the game would be sold. Simples. Or so they thought it would be.

"Leorio?" Gon said confusedly, before leaning over the table and giving one of his familiar smiles, the plastic red and white tablecloth crumpling like paper beneath his elbows. "What did he say? Is he doing alright?"

Killua didn't reply. A look of bewilderment crossed over his features as he took in the contents of the message, and Gon could hear him constantly clicking his pale fingers on the keyboard as he returned to the beginning of the message a few times, reading it all over again. Gon tilted his head, watching the boy for any sort of reply or reaction, but when Killua remained silent he sat back down and looked over to him, waiting for the paler boy to speak.

"This is... Really weird..." Killua began after a short period of staring at the small screen, handing it over to his best friend so he could take a look at it. "All I see is a bunch of scrambled pixels."

Gon raised an eyebrow before taking the cell phone off Killua and reading through the text message. Sure enough the scrambled pixelated mess of a message was enough in itself to kill off a certified genius. There was no way Leorio coded something like this without it being some kind of absurd prank or forward. Unless he wanted to communicate something untraceable to others that he thought the kids should be able to figure out on their own, like a code, this simply looked like a glitch; a coincidental incident with the phone decrypting the text as it was received. But how would that suddenly happen now? He had received plenty of texts today, and this was the first one to muck up like this.

Killua and Gon exchanged puzzled glances. What the...?

Killua got up off the chair, sliding his wallet out of the pocket of his jacket and inserting 5.44 Jenny into the small plastic bill pocket lying in the middle of the table. "It's probably a glitch, but perhaps we should ask him about it." He pointed out before having one last sip of out of his now empty milkshake glass. "He could have sent us vital information about the auction and when it is going to take place, but the phone messed it up. It's best if we don't take the chance."

Gon looked like he was about to speak, only stopping when he saw the other boy tapping away on his phone. Killua sent it with a smile. Perhaps the auction ended up being brought forward a week or two due to that absurdly massive festival going on over in Jappon? He surely hoped as much. This waiting was killing him.

"Either way remember we have a brief job later on. We must be careful not to go over the time that guy specified." Killua commented afterwards, his eyes directed towards the window possibly in thought. Gon gave a small smile and a nod, and the two fell silent.
***

Yorknew City was a crowded sea of sardines during the day. As the elegant beams of radiance blessed the canopy of the many stalls littered around the crowded street, a tall figure in a tight fitting blue suit growled as he passed through the looming confines of the city, shifting life present all around his form as he moved. He shoved his way through the crowds until the sea filled up the corner of his line of sight, peeking up from above the crown of tall buildings like a glitter-coated blue canvas peering up from behind paint. He heard the giggling of a few cheerful children as they ran along the streets around him, the light bathing them in a pale light as they ambled along.

The man made one last break for freedom, emerging past the last wide canopy of houses as the blessing of the sea filled his vision. The overpowering smell of fish and other seafood products entered his nose with a vengeance, the sweet scent of sea salt making it seem like he was actually swimming in the ocean itself. The man had always liked ports and beaches, he pondered as he passed across the colossal concrete platform beside the sea making up the port of the city. The smell of salt was very healthy for the body and good for easing stress and fatigue in all counts, so it was a great place to go after a tough mission. The man wandered quietly over to the side of the dock, grateful that it was less crowded in the port than it was on the street, stopping in front of a miniscule door that looked more like the entrance to a house than a restaurant. He stopped.

Staring back the way he came the unforgiving sensation of prickling icicles washed across his back like the touch of a demon. What was that... Horrible unease he felt all of a sudden? And why did it feel like he was being watched? The only visible reply he got was the proud visage of various ships and boats as they drifted peacefully on the ocean, almost waving him a greeting with their flags as they fluttered in the wind.

"The Eagle's Wing..." The man murmured disagreeably, shaking the feeling away and staring with a sigh at the small wooden sign of the pub he was meant to be meeting his client in. "Sounds like some sort of activist group. A rather dumb choice of a name, if you ask me."

The man shrugged and pushed the small wooden door open. This time of day the restaurant was absolutely heaving, the wild chatter of many different men and women audible in his ears as it was pierced by the sudden wailing of some kind of stubborn infant at the other side of the small space. He scanned his gaze across the throb of buzzing people at the wooden tables, hoping to glance a familiar face.

Bzzzzt!

Confused, the man, Leorio, slid his phone out of his pocket and noticed he had a relatively new message from Killua. About an hour ago it was sent. That's bizarre, he thought as he read it. He didn't remember sending any text at the time he specified. He tapped back a reply, and his eyes scanned around the resturaunt once again.

"Leorio!"

The man turned around, smiling a little when a familiar face entered his line of sight. What he didn't account for, however, was the fact that his employer's own had literally came up a bug's width away from his own face!

"Ow!" Leorio cried in annoyance, closing his eyes instinctively and feeling an agonising pain in his nose as a familiar sounding chuckle entered his senses. He gripped his nose tightly, trying to quell the pain, and opened his eyes again. Sure enough standing there in front of him (thankfully further away now) was a man that looked about eighteen, with wavy crimson and yellow hair that seemed to curl around his shoulders and bright green eyes. He was clean shaven with relatively tanned skin and relatively sharp looking features.

Chance Liraniy, a professional... Something or another. Honestly Leorio knew absolutely nothing about this new guy. Just that he had some sort of weird job for a Blacklist hunter.

"How ya doin', mate?" Chance exclaimed cheerfully, lending out a rather slender hand towards Leorio which the other man hesitantly shook, pretty much shaking entirely in the process. Dear God that guy's grip was like iron. The red haired man then gave a small smirk and crashed onto a sofa by a nearby table, waving him towards it. "You here because of the job I contacted ya for? I have a few- mainly five- others contacted as well so we are going to have to wait a bit. You want a drink?"

"Nah I'm fine. Don't feel like paying for it." Leorio replied with a small smile, crashing on the sofa near the other man with a quiet 'pff'. "What the heck was that headnose for anyway?"

"Nothing much. I just tend to do that to people when I first meet them." The other man replied in light humour, giving a small chuckle in the process. Leorio rolled his eyes. What was with this guy? He hoped the other people he contacted weren't too bad if he is going to have to work with them. Not that he knew the direct details of the job yet. He just needed the money. Before he could think about it any more the door to the resturaunt crashed open and Leorio glanced over, his eyes widening when he saw two familiar faces silhouetted against the blaring light of the outside sun.

A white haired boy and a black haired one.

"Yoo!" Killua exclaimed cheerfully as he emerged, Gon giving a small smile as he followed rapidly behind. Leorio smirked. It seems like two of the people weren't too bad after all.

Gon ran over, entirely the enthusiastic boy as he saw the older man wave him over. He only stopped when the bartender yelled at him to stop running, and the boy rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly as he sat down. Killua rolled his eyes and followed suit, sticking his tongue out at the disgruntled bartender in the process.

Chance gave a hyperbole of a laugh at the display, scanning his eyes around the assembled trio as they lazed around like cats on the two sofas they were taking up. "Alright it seems like three out of the five are here. The others will not be meeting here as they are already at the ship, so allow me to brief you in for the time being before you head out as well."

"Listen up, and I am only going to say this one more time: the Swan Song has been found."

An exclamation of pure shock seemed to pass through the assembled trio like a blaze of lightning through a lake. The Swan Song?!

"That ship that went missing about 100 years ago that nobody has ever ended up finding..." Killua exclaimed, pale cobalt irises almost as narrow as slits. Chance gave a small nod, his once cheerful features now dark and rock-level serious as he spoke.

"Yes. That is the case. This morning actually. We simply found it moored against the port. It shocked everyone that has been to the port recently. It hasn't been on the news due to the government, but..."

The trio exclaimed alarmed glances, their minds trailing through possibilities for the situation. So is he saying...?

"And the weirdest thing yet..." Chance began with a frown. "Everyone that went in... Never came back out."