Note: Oh gawsh guys thanks for the great response :D. I didn't think that short chappie would get that much attention! Thank you, thank you all. I am currently writing chapter 2 and if I finish within the one and half hours till dinner then we might just have a double update~.

CHAPTER 1: CONFRONTATION

Snowflakes fell and settled themselves onto three figures crouching suspiciously on the shingles of a clock tower and its neighbouring dwellings, the pure white in stark contrast against their ebony black cloaks. They overlooked a large, ornate structure in the middle of a ring of buildings, a crowd seemed to be forming around the art museum. Something flickered in the dark night sky as a tennis ball-shaped object flew towards one of the roofs.

"So Tim, any sign of our target?"

The golden golem shook with a definite 'no' as the white-haired figure sighed. A faint static noise crackled over the silence as a voice came over the transceiver the figure wore; "The target's not due to come for another ten minutes, Allen. Let's try to be patient."

"Well we wouldn't be in this situation if the baka moyashi hadn't gotten lost like a little kid..." the transceiver ratted out, adding a new voice to the conversation.

Allen sighed yet again. "If this turns out to be a dead end then you have every right to be irritated, but there's a good chance that this is Innocence. So please, Bakanda, suck it up for another ten minutes..."

Three hours ago

Allen had a problem...a really big problem.

Allen Walker, the child of prophecy, successor to the 14th, new musician and above all, exorcist, was handcuffed and being detained as a suspect for theft.

"I told you," Allen started for what seemed like the hundredth time. "I am not a thief, I am an exorcist. My friends and I were just passing by this town when you jumped on us and took me here."

"I haven't been long in the force," the rookie policeman in charge of interrogating Allen said. "But that's the lamest excuse I've heard in the three days I've been working. Come on, you should be able to come up with something more believable than 'being an exorcist'."

The white haired teenager groaned. "On what grounds again are you making this presumption?"

"I've heard reports about you!" the rookie screeched, pointing an accusing finger at Allen. He whipped out a small note pad and recited; 'Recently there have been a string of thefts involving a white-haired youth where incoming travelers arrive at their destinations stripped to their underwear with not a penny on them. The travelers, brought to tears, confessed that all their money and belongings had been whisked away from them by a devil child who had a peculiar scar on his face and hair as while as an old man's' Now try to tell me that the evidence doesn't point to you!"

"Did they actually say that they were robbed by a thief?" Allen asked.

"Well no, but it's sort of implied."

"Why don't we play a game, officer?" Allen said in the most innocent voice he could muster. When the rookie still hesitated, he added: "You can bolt the doors; take your gun out or anything to make you comfortable. I just want to play some cards to show something to you..."

A strange group of people walked into an even stranger game of cards that day at the police station.

The tallest and most surly looking of the group stepped forward, his long, dark ponytail swishing behind him. The irritated looking Asian took a breath and yelled, "MOYASHI!!!"

Allen looked up from his cross-legged position on the floor. "My name is Allen, Bakanda."

A red headed Caucasian peeped around a fuming Kanda. "We've come to pick you up Allen. I should be wondering why there's a man stripped to his underwear sitting in front of you. The poker game's a bit of a give away though."

"Officer Sanderson!" cried a stout moustached man in another police uniform. "What the hell are you doing in your underpants?!"

"CHIEF!" the rookie, apparently named Sanderson, wailed. "This boy robbed me of all my clothes! He's definitely Kaitou! He has to be!"

"Ah, but did I actually take anything from you by force?" Allen asked. "All we did was play a little game of poker. I didn't force you to keep betting did I?"

And as Sanderson stared shivering with his mouth agape, the Chief took it upon himself to unlock Allen's handcuffs. "No hard feelings I hope, Sir Exorcist. Him being new and all, Sanderson doesn't know about the Order yet."

Snapped out of his stupor, Sanderson seemed to have regained the ability to talk. "You mean he's really an exorcist, Chief? But that's total nonsense!"

"No it's not." Allen said as he got up and dusted himself. "The next time you see someone wearing black clothes lined with silver and the Rose Cross on them, you'll know that he or she is an exorcist. And here," the teen said as he dumped all of Sanderson's clothes on him. "I just wanted to prove a point. No hard feelings, right?"

"Right, I'm sorry um...er...Sir Exorcist, for doubting you."

"Oh, but tell us about this Kaitou person!" Lavi chirped. "He sounds like an interesting guy."

"That's classified information." Sanderson replied promptly.

Lavi grinned at the rookie, "Oh, but if it was so classified, why did you mention it at all?" Turning to the Chief he added, "Is it anything we should know about?"

"Not really," the Chief said with a sigh. "It's just this art thief who's been going around lately. He sends warning cards signed with Kaitou and they tell when, where, and what he's going to be stealing."

"And he gets away with it every single time?" Allen asked. "Even with the security intensified from the warning?"

"Every single blasted time." The Chief hobbled over to a file cabinet and brought out a thick folder with a big yellow CLASSIFIED sticker slapped onto its front. "But he never harms anybody directly, so we can't use the guns on him and quite frankly I wouldn't want to. Catching Kaitou's become more of a challenge than urgency among the force lately; the art he steals isn't even that valuable."

"Any idea why or how he does it?" Lavi said as he continued his little interrogation.

"Don't you think we'd have caught him by now if we knew?" Sanderson snapped, and after a vehement glare from the Chief added, "I mean, no, Sir Exorcist."

"There is one thing," the Chief muttered thoughtfully. Turning to the Bookman he added, "They say that once the heist starts, Kaitou swoops down from the skies, just to prove that he came on time...and I'm not exaggerating on swoops."

"Keh, what nonsense is that," Kanda scoffed. "We would have heard if a flying thief was going around robbing people. In fact, why hasn't he been plastered over the news?"

"For the same reason you have for not believing me," the chief replied. "Half the people who see him don't believe it; they think it's all just a publicity stunt by the police. He's more of an urban legend right now."

"Do you believe in Kaitou, Chief?" Lavi prodded.

"Absolutely," the man said decidedly. "We got his warning card a week ago. He's targeting a painting in our local museum tonight, and this is the second time he's targeted our town. I think I'd know if my own men were planning this. You're welcome to stay, Sir Exorcists, if you'd like to watch the heist."

"What do you think, Lavi?" Allen asked. "Do you think it's worth checking out?"

"Well, why not?" the red head shrugged. "We missed our train anyway when we went looking for you. It'll give us something to do overnight. Besides, doesn't this remind you of Timothy? We might just get lucky and find something worthwhile here. So I'm think I'll help the police a bit with Kaitou, and if we can't catch him then either we're horribly out of shape, or this thief's something special."

"Moyashi, if you hadn't gotten lost like a little kid we wouldn't have to go through this hoax." Kanda spat.

"Well, Bakanda we might as well make good of the situation and investigate." Allen then turned to the Chief and bowed respectfully, "Well, it seems as if we'll be helping out tonight. It's a pleasure to be working with you."

"I never said I would do anything," Kanda grumbled.

"Aww, come on Yuu, what else are you going to do? It's been a while since we found Timothy and nothing's been happening." And Lavi turned to Kanda Yuu, prince of scowls, and did his best puppy dog pout.

This of course, only succeeded in earning the Bookman a death threat with Mugen resting on his throat.

Despite all that, and more irritation on Kanda's part, the three exorcists found themselves lying in wait on the rooftops of the buildings surrounding the museum, shivering in the evening frost. Kaitou's warning note had announced 9:00pm; it was now ten to the hour.

Allen breathed a foggy breath into the air and watched it disappear on the breeze. "Any other idea on Kaitou's motives, Lavi?"

"Nope, nothing," the Bookman responded. "Unless he's doing it for the heck of it all, I don't see why he'd even target this painting. The Maiden's Song isn't by any well known artist, it's not worth much on value, and it's not even on display! The thing's in storage! I can't imagine why anyone would actually announce stealing something like that. It really just might be a publicity stunt, or some kid fooling around with the police."

"And we still don't have anything on the 'swooping' entrance...,"

"KSHHHSHHHSHKSHHHH,Sir Exorcist? We would like to remind you that it is currently 8:54." The Chief's voice rattled out of the old walkie talkie the department had supplied them with (the police didn't seem to like the radio golems...). "The heist will be starting soon, I advise you to watch the skies."

"Roger that, Chief," Allen replied before stowing the communicator away and turning his gaze skyward. Not looking away from the inky darkness he whispered to Lavi, "Remember Lavi, you and your hammer are our trump card. You ready?"

"Right," the red head grunted as his hammer stretched out in front of him. He closed his eyes while glowing Japanese characters circled him, lighting up the night with yellow-white light. And in five, the Bookman's eye snapped open. Four, his hammer swung. Three, the seals disappeared as the ground at his feet shone with the blown up character for heaven. Two, the hammer grew ten times its size yet again. One, Lavi aimed his innocence to the clouds and roared: "MARUMOKU!!"

The skies cleared as golden light beamed from Lavi's innocence. The clouds shied away from his Wood Seal as the clock hit 8:55 a full five minutes before the appointed time. The crowds below scrambled as police tried to aim a search light at the skies and spectators flashed cameras.

The exorcists ignored the chaos below as they sprung into the action.

Lavi grinned and flipped his hammer, the head now resting on the ground. Bookman pointed his hilt up and squinted his eyes, pin-pointing a rather oddly shaped dot in the sky, too big to be a bird and to small to be a plane. His grin widened as he yelled, "EXTEND!"

He rose up and up and up into the sky, blindsiding the hovering thief in the air. Kaitou faltered for just a bit, but then regained himself

FLAP FLAP FLAP

Two silhouettes flanked Kaitou and they seemed to be...wings. Lavi stared at the two extra limbs that were jutting out of this person's shoulder blades, before looking at his face. His own emerald eyes widened in shock as they were met with glowing ruby irises.

The two hung in the air for a moment longer before Kaitou broke the trance and dove, headfirst, towards the museum. Lavi cursed himself for hesitating and quickly dropped back down on his hammer.

"What's going on? "Allen whispered into the communicator. "They're not moving."

"Don't worry," Kanda scoffed from his place across the building. "The stupid rabbit won't die that easily, you should know that."

"Right..." the younger muttered. He and Kanda were to ambush Kaitou as soon as he landed. Lavi was supposed to be driving the thief towards them. Instead, Allen saw that the Kaitou dot in the sky had just dived, heading to what seemed to be the far end of the museum, while the Lavi dot just stayed there. After a while though the Lavi dot seemed to wake up and rush towards their target.

Kaitou swerved downwards in an attempt to shake Lavi off, but the exorcist easily kept up, only needing to tilt on the head of his hammer. Once they drew closer though, Kaitou made a sharp aerial turn, suddenly zipping to the left.

This was not part of the plan.

Allen now had to make a spit second decision. He either blew his cover, activate his innocence and give chase, or lie in wait and follow the plan. Turns out though, Kanda was more eager to go with the first choice as he unsheathed Mugen, the sword glinting to life

The asian leapt from rooftop to rooftop, following the zigzagging figure below. A figure joined him as a fool's mask flashed next to the samurai. Crown Clown's belt stretched out, heading towards the dark blur that was Kaitou. The thief dipped and dodged, avoiding both the exorcist's attacks and the police's search lights.

Suddenly, Kaitou pulled upwards, buffeting Allen and Kanda in his slipstream. The two barely had time to look up before their target plummeted feet first onto the museum's sun roof, the sound of breaking glass echoing into the night as the clock struck 9:00pm.

Note: Not much happening here...but it's building up to the big meet up 0_o plz review. Oh, and I researched Lavi's seals. You'd think he'd use the heaven's seal, but no that's apparently only used to generate lightning. The wood seal on the otherhand allows him to control nature i.e. the clouds, wind, actual wood etc etc.