Disclaimer: Victorious and all of its associated copyrights are not my property and I stake no claim to them.
A/N: When I get back into writing, my creativity just decides to run wild. That said, I have another multichapter story, but I flipped into nerd mode for it. So what do you guys think? Would you be interested in reading a Jori story about gaming? (Not like Game On) Either way, I am working on the sequel to Life in the Fast Lane, so my sudden desire to write these other stories didn't entirely overshadow that one. And I'm rambling, read on!
Receiving confirmation texts from some, Jade paced furiously in her living room as she waited for the rest to arrive. Once they were all in attendance, she gave them the rundown of what she had come across. Handing them the piece of paper with the messages, she told them, "That's all of what was said in those videos. Whatever that voice is, whatever it means, I think it has something to do with what we saw."
They were all quiet, trying to process what was even happening, and Robbie eventually spoke up nervously, "Jade, I think I know what's going on."
Jade motioned for him to continue, and he pulled up the sleeve of his sweatshirt, exposing the large number 4 on his forearm, "I saw this this morning, I think that's what it meant by, 'You are each marked.' And I'm willing to bet any money that the burns we felt last night were these."
The rest of them looked, and they all indeed had numbers now.
"So what does this mean? Why didn't they show up last night?" Beck asked.
Robbie cleared his throat, "See, we're each marked with a number," he said, showing his on his arm as evidence, "Each number represents a person somewhere in the world. These people are all apparently horrible excuses for human beings, and in turn, they'll pay for it. We've been chosen to make sure these people pay the ultimate price; death."
Their eyes widened at his words and some let out gasps of horror, but Robbie continued, "They're not well known criminals though, which means at least two things; the feds aren't after them, and they'll be easy to find for that very reason. That in mind, according to this list Jade assembled, we have to kill in order, we also only have six days to complete all six assassinations, and nobody must find out who committed the murders. If any one of these rules isn't followed, we all die."
"What's the order?" Tori asked hesitantly.
"Well first is one, according to this list, next is four, two, five, three, and finally six," Robbie said.
They all double checked their numbers, and made a list of their names and numbers in order.
1. Cat
4. Robbie
2. Beck
5. Tori
3. Andre
6. Jade
"Alright so we know that, who's our targets?" Jade asked impatiently.
Cat let out a squeal and hid herself in Beck's side, "I don't want to kill anybody!"
Robbie looked at Cat with a sad expression, but answered Jade anyway, "My guess is the answer is in those videos somewhere."
"Then let's find them," Jade said, making her way to her room to grab the cameras so they could all review the videos. After retrieving all of their laptops, the six teens set to work inspecting each of the clips, one by one.
2 hours later they met back up to review their findings. Comparing their numbers with the names and hints of locations they heard, they made a more detailed list.
1. Cat: Joshua Hartman, age 35, American serial rapist – second city demon
4. Robbie: Vincent Trevisano, age 39, Sicilian crime boss – a splash of color
2. Beck: Lucas Preston, age 24, Australian robber – theory of evolution
5. Tori: Jose Cavalcanti, age 43, Colombian drug lord – street tycoon
3. Andre: Eva Payne, age 26, European mass-murderer – deceptive entertainment
6. Jade: Ambrosine Rossi, age 17, Los Angeles high school student – cloak and dagger
"Well this looks fun…" Jade muttered as she looked over the list.
"Is this a joke? Please tell me this is a joke," Andre said anxiously.
Robbie stood up and slightly raised his hand in a vague gesture to gather attention, "I believe the marks showed up when Jade listened to those videos. I really hate to be the bearer of bad news, again, but those six days it said we had? It's already started, at the same time these marks appeared; the timer started as soon as at least one of us knew about what was going on. "
Five pairs of bewildered eyes were suddenly locked on him, "Fuck. What are we waiting for then? We've got work to do," Jade said with a noticeable amount of annoyance.
"We can't just kill people!" Tori exclaimed, exasperated with her girlfriend's willingness to murder.
"Look, it's these criminals, or us. Take your pick. Haven't you ever heard the legends of that place?" Jade replied.
Tori frowned, "Why would I know them? I'm not obsessed with all things morbid."
"Ignoring that, I just thought it was bullshit when I read it, but it said that if you encounter your doppelganger in there, you die. The only way to cheat death is to kill someone else before your time."
"If it can be anyone, why was…it so specific about who we needed to kill?" Beck asked.
"I think I know the reason," Robbie started, "Jade I don't know if you've heard about this, but there's another legend that has no specific place, it just happens. There's a portrayal of Death in Breton Mythology, the Ankou. There're multiple myths surrounding this being, and one seems like it matches up. Basically, people can be face-to-face with Death at any time, even if they aren't meant to die; it's a test. The good live, the bad die. My best guess is these people all encountered Death, and failed the test."
"Alright…so why us?" Tori inquired, voicing the question they were all thinking.
He looked around nervously, "Well, I believe it's because we've all faced Death, and passed the test."
"Wait, Jade passed a good or bad test?" Andre said with a laugh.
Jade rolled her eyes and sighed, "Go on, Rob."
"It's most likely selected at random, or, which situation we would each handle best."
"I'd handle a situation of killin' a chick better than any of the others?!" Andre whined.
Jade shrugged, "I think they all fit."
"Yours isn't even a criminal though," Tori pointed out.
Jade looked at the paper again and pointed to hers, "'Cloak and Dagger', you sure about that?"
"Alright, alright. Let's focus here, we can at least figure out the location of these people and get some info on them. We have some time," Beck told them.
Getting back on their laptops again, the gang set to work on each of their 'riddles'. Cat was probably the most reluctant of them all, but complied anyway when she realized the reality of the situation and the potential consequences. She looked at her clue for a moment and thought, before typing 'second city' into the search engine, and it came up with records of Chicago, IL. She figured out that Chicago was nicknamed 'The Second City'. After that, she used the police database Tori technically hacked into to find his criminal records, and his address from there.
Robbie was rather nervous with the whole 'kill or be killed' concept, especially when it wasn't just his life at stake. He knew what he had to do, and looked over his information. He recognized the 'Sicilian' part of the clue, with that he looked up Sicily, Italy; from there he browsed local attractions to get a feel for the city. His attention was caught on an art museum, when he went to the street view of Google Maps, he could vaguely see a large warehouse in the background, covered in colorful graffiti. He wrote down the address of the museum with the rest of his information, figuring he could look into it more when he got there.
Level-headed and stoic as always, Beck was willing to do whatever he needed to, to protect himself and his friends. With his information, he was slightly confused at first, as his clue was rather vague and seemingly just out of left field. While looking at the map of Australia to decide where to look first, he briefly saw one city name that rang a bell. Looking again, it was Darwin; he knew he had heard that name before and typed it in the search. It of course came up with Darwin, Australia, but also of Charles Darwin, a major contributor to the theory of evolution. He was easily able to put two and two together to realize his target was in Darwin, he wrote down that information and decided to go with the flow when he got there.
Tori's target already had a minor criminal record, so it was easy to find him once she, uh, borrowed her Dad's information to the police database. She looked at her clue again, and thought that a 'street tycoon' wouldn't work out of his expensive penthouse, given that it may be compromised. But knowing her target's address, it would be fairly easy to locate him from there.
Andre was uncharacteristically anxious, but considering he was facing death, whether giving or receiving, he had a right. He looked over his clue, and took a wild shot in the dark and thought that his target was in some type of entertainment business, and used her popularity to lure victims to their death. He figured that should be his starting point; finding out where Miss Payne worked, find his way into her view, and trick her into thinking she had the upper hand.
Jade was the most kept together of them all, almost excited at the whole aspect of the situation. Though she was slightly put off when she read over her clues. Being a writer, she knew the 'cloak and dagger' phrase to be a term to mean inconspicuously dangerous, so she wasn't thrown off for long. There were very little records of the girl, being as she was under 18. She decided to ask Tori to look in the police database for some type of lead. There turned out to be no records of 'Ambrosine', or even of her parents.
With their newfound information, the gang began a reconnaissance to go over their findings.
"So what'd we all find?" Jade asked.
Cat started first, "Mine is a 35 year old rapist named Joshua Hartman, residing in Chicago."
"39 year old Vincent Trevisano, Sicilian Crime Boss, probably works out of a warehouse in Sicily, Italy," Robbie added.
"Lucas Preston, 24, robber from Darwin, Australia," Beck said.
Tori spoke up next, "Jose Cavalcanti, 43, drug lord working out of a building near his penthouse in Bogota, Colombia."
Andre tried to lighten the mood next with a joke, "Got myself a date with Miss Eva Payne, 26, serial killer from Europe."
"Looks like I'm the only one staying home. Ambrosine Rossi, 17, school student right here in LA. No other leads." Jade finished.
Beck looked to her, dumbfounded, "What? Okay, everybody else makes sense, but yours?" He pointed out.
Jade shrugged, "Clue says 'cloak and dagger', so I'm assuming this chick's got some secrets."
"So wait, we got all of our locations, now how are we going to get there?" Tori questioned, to which everyone nodded, also wondering the same thing.
"We'll put a dent in my father's bank account, no big deal," Jade said as she got up to retrieve her father's credit cards.
They all let it go, figuring they'd let Jade take the heat if they got in trouble. A credit card was given to each of them, to which they were somewhat baffled by, wondering why the hell this man had so many credit cards. Afterwards they all went back to their homes to pack for their trips.
After everybody had left, Jade went to her room to rest until they all came back. Tori was the first, letting herself in and slamming the door loudly to announce her arrival. The noise woke up Jade, who got up to greet her intrusive guest.
"Can't you just knock like normal people?" Jade grumbled as she walked into the living room.
Tori laughed, "You're not one to talk."
"True. Hey, you wanna help me a second?" Tori agreed and followed Jade to her father's den, where there was a large gun case. Jade went over to the desk at the other side of the room and retrieved a key from one of the drawers, going back over to the case and unlocking it. Inside were hundreds of different guns and knives, of all shapes and sizes. She looked through them carefully, selecting 6 pistols and 6 knives, one for each of them. Setting those aside, she went to get the ammunition necessary for the guns she picked.
After Jade finished her selection she and Tori took the weapons back to the living room. Jade set to work loading the guns after checking to make sure every magazine was full, just in case, and took care to put the safety on each after loading them.
As she did that, the rest of the gang arrived periodically, Beck and Cat getting there first, Andre not far behind, and Robbie last.
Once they were all there, they sorted out all of their gear. Each person had their necessities, the credit card, a change of clothes again just in case, and their weapons. After they had everything sorted out, they split into groups of three to drive to the airport; Tori and Andre being driven by Jade, and Cat and Robbie being driven by Beck.
Arriving at the LAX, they all used their separate credit cards to buy tickets to their target locations.
Cat's plane was the first to leave; she reluctantly got up and gave everybody hugs before trudging over to her terminal to board her flight. Andre was next, then Beck, Robbie, and finally Tori. After a prolonged goodbye to Jade, Tori left as well, leaving Jade alone in LA.
Targets remaining: 6
Time remaining: 5 days - 16 hours - 27 minutes - 34 seconds
A/N: Posting this now, as I'll be very busy this weekend. Monday will most likely be the next chapter. The targets/time remaining will continue to be on the future chapters, just to show progression. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and let me know what you thought!
For reference, in case anyone doesn't know, a doppelganger is a spiritual 'twin' of a living person. Also, the Ankou is a -real legend- (literally just saw that episode of Avatar), and such experiences have been reported of people dying if they weren't kind to 'Death'.
