CHAPTER 2
Hey there my dear readers! I forgot to mention in the introduction of the first chapter – but well, I am old so what would you expect – the idea for this story is based on a plot suggested by my fellow author Sianascera, so thanks again darling! Also, I wanted to say how happy I am with the feedback received! So thank you so much for all the support that's motivating me more and more every single time! Big hug to you all!
"This will be your office! I know, it's quite small and rather crowded, but until we can find a better place for you, Mr. Michaelis... Anyway, make yourself at home!"
I plopped down onto the rotating office chair and gave myself a quick spin, half hoping that the incessant ranting of the blonde – who had introduced herself as 'Elizabeth, but you can call me Lizzy, everyone calls me Lizzy' – would eventually stop. Father Faustus was apparently extremely busy, so for my first day on the new job he'd let me into the capable hands of one of his support staff to show me around. It would have been a lie to say that I was oh-so enthusiastic about it, I'd simply decided to take things as they came. I hadn't even bothered with a proper office outfit, but for the active work that would have most likely been assigned to me – like chasing low breeds into the sewers or something – wearing an Armani suit wasn't exactly crucial.
"Right... and now a bit about the job," she said, sitting down on the opposite side of the table, "We have only four operational teams for the moment, and so you'll be part of the fifth. Each operational team consists of a fighter and an investigator, who work together all the time, they are practically inseparable. The fighter's main duty is of course to protect the investigator... Now, I understood you'll be a fighter, right Mr. Michaelis?"
"Yes. But please, call me Sebastian." Because 'Mr. Michaelis' makes me feel like I am a thousand years old, and even if that is partially true, I'd rather not be constantly reminded of it...I smiled sheepishly and that only deepened the girl's blush. What an easy prey...
"Of course, Sebastian... Oh! There they are!" Lizzy suddenly exclaimed, craning her neck to peek over my shoulder, and I turned around to see what exactly the source of her excitement was. "They are our 'golden team' – Finnian and Mey-Rin," she went on explaining, as the said pair entered a separate office nearby. "They've only been here for about three years now, but I've heard that Father Faustus has trained them personally since they were very young, so there's no wonder they're that good! Of course, Finny is the fighter, but Mey is one hell of a shooter too!"
Golden team, eh? How interesting... although Lizzy really needed to get past the high school who's who mindset and all. I pretended to pay attention to her while discreetly observing them through the glass panels, and noticed that they were watching me too. The girl, a bespectacled redhead, had a shy and rather skittish air –but hey, we all have hidden qualities – and the boy...well to put it bluntly the boy was a half-breed at most. That much was obvious (at least to me, even if everyone else around here was probably unaware of it). From the vivid, unnatural green colour of his eyes, to the way he moved, crystal clear. No wonder he was that 'good'...
"So they're the best team, I see..."
"Well, not like the best best, but they're definitely the most popular! The best team is of course Father Faustus'. He and Alois don't have a match yet, but that's natural, I suppose," the blonde explained, "Finny and Mey are not that experienced yet..."
Now...Who would have thought that Father Faustus and his cute little choir boy are an operational team? Now that's even more interesting... I already had a few questions about my new workplace, but I would not even dream of asking her anything, she was too much of a loud mouth anyway and showing myself to be too nosy could have proven a bad idea, since I knew that my employer was probably keeping an eye on me, if not more eyes...
"Okay, so..." I clapped my hands, as if all ready for work and finally averting my gaze from the unusual pair, "do I get a fancy computer like that or something?" I asked pointing to the expensive looking laptop that lay abandoned in one corner of the table, before I noticed the small crack in the lid.
Lizzy's face fell slightly at my request, and she sighed blatantly. "Well, for now there's only the one over there, but your investigator trashed it last week... He was very upset, you see..." There was an obvious wave of sadness about her that she did nothing to hide, and so I cleared my throat loudly, eager to be rid of that atmosphere that tended to become uncomfortable.
"My investigator?"
Her head snapped up at my words and she rummaged through her large bag, pulling out a rather comprehensive file. "Oh, here. Father Faustus asked me to put this together for you, Ciel's file. Ciel Phantomhive, that is. He will be your investigator"
I leafed curiously through the file, starting from the back to the front (weird, I know, but this habit had always given me a feeling, however false, that I could finish things faster this way), and reading random passages. It seemed that a great deal of all those pages were about the investigator's family history and their activities within the NUIT organisation, but not so much on the man himself. And no wonder actually, as I discovered when I eventually arrived at the first page – his resume - since he was...
"Wait! It says here he's... eighteen?" Oh no... You've got to be kidding me. I hated the whole concept of prodigy kids with all my black little heart, they all turned out to be damn nasty brats like you've never seen. Damn! Father Faustus had done it to me...
"Well, almost nineteen..." Lizzy corrected, the pink shade dusting her cheeks even more visible now. "But he's barely a year younger than me, so...Anyway, I know what you're thinking, Sebastian, but he's really mature, you know... " Yeah, mature like he's smoking something you haven't tried yet or what? Pffft...
"I suppose he's like that because of what's happened to his family two years ago..." she went on, oblivious of my slight scowl," His parents never wanted him to be a part of this, but after they were killed he decided to join us and-"
"Yes?"
"His parents had been working with NUIT for almost twenty years, they were a magnificent team...but then one night, about two years ago, their base was attacked by some breeds and they were killed, together with the rest of the operational staff housed in there. Only their son survived, but he too was pretty badly injured..." Lizzy whispered, fidgeting. "It's been quite hard for him, going through all that, you know?"
"Yeah well, I suppose..." I hurried to say, pushing the file aside and instead busying myself with the laptop. Maybe it wasn't a lost cause after all... and maybe if it still worked it could spare me of all that drama I had no desire to hear about. I pressed the start button and to my relief the screen came to life.
"Good morning. I suppose you must be Michaelis?"
I lifted my gaze up in the direction of the voice which had uttered my name with the kind of aristocratic disdain I had thought extinct until I had the pleasure of meeting my investigator. And there he was – a skinny, fragile boy who wouldn't have looked 'almost eighteen' under any circumstances, dressed (or rather, wrapped) in a black hoodie that was hanging loosely over some equally baggy jeans. One large, strikingly blue orb was fixed upon me coldly from under dark bangs, while his other eye was covered by a black eyepatch. But hell, he would have been kind of cute if it wasn't for the 'total pain in the ass' vibe he so blatantly gave off.
"Indeed... so you must be the investigator?"
"I am Ciel Phantomhive. And yes, I am an investigator." He sat down across from me, on the chair rapidly vacated by Lizzy the very second she'd spotted him coming, and crossed his fingers onto the file that still lay on the table. "Father Faustus said you'll be my new fighter, so I took the liberty of reading your file prior to this meeting," he informed me bluntly.
"Yeah? I take it you're not impressed..." I replied casually, leaning back in my own seat, intent on observing the boy's expression.
"No. Where exactly were you educated?" Oh my, Mr. Ciel Phantomhive was serious.
Mostly in hell, but no need for you to know yet, pipsqueak...honestly? "What happened to your last fighter?" I served it back to him promptly, and registered with some satisfaction that his eye narrowed oh-so-slightly. By the way, did I mention how much I like getting onto people's nerves? Especially when I feel they've got 'potential'.
"He's dead," he stated dryly.
"I thought so," I pointed with the shadow of a grin, turning my attention back to the laptop and proceeding to check the internet connection. Damn, password protected! But maybe I could catch a free wireless, let's see now...
"HOW DARE YOU?! You were just a bodyguard at some shit nightclub!" the honourable Mr. Phantomhive suddenly spat in my face with all the disdain he could muster, and it was a lot. "You know nothing about this job! Have you ever seen someone attacked by a breed before? Do you even have any idea what breeds are?"
I turned to look the little bastard straight in the eye. Maybe this brat was used to intimidating others fainter of heart with his mini tantrums, but I wasn't one of them and it was best to make that much clear from the beginning.
"Yes"
"Yes what?" he insisted, leaning back in turn and crossing his arms stiffly.
"Yes I know what breeds are, and yes I've seen someone attacked by them (eh, namely attacked by me, but I'll leave that one insignificant detail out...). And by the way, they're only called 'breeds' by those who don't have enough balls to call them by their real name – demons. Things are veeeery simple, really, and I believe that complicating the terms is not going to make them any less ugly." I replied briefly raising my eyebrows.
The one large, dark blue eye blinked a few times, most likely perplexed by my audacity at confronting its owner. But the boy remained quiet, despite his visibly clenching jaw and pressing lips, while I refocused my attention on the laptop, eventually getting a valid connection. A heavy, tension filled silence fell between us, while Ciel continued to fix me with something like an awed scowl and I waited for something to happen – I didn't really know what – while I checked my personal e-mail, indifferent to his openly hostile demeanour. Honestly, this kid didn't know shit about shit.
"Ciel! These are the details for your next mission!" Lizzy's high pitched voice suddenly broke the evil spell as she poked her head into the office and shyly handed a thick envelope to the investigator. The boy snatched it from her hand without as much as a glance, let alone a 'thank you', and finally averted his gaze from me as he pulled out the papers and began leafing through them with a preoccupied air.
"Well, since you're so fucking savvy on the subject, I suppose you already know what this is," he said eventually, holding up a picture for me to see, while tossing the rest aside. I glanced at it curiously, and I was met with the sight of what seemed to be the interior of some old, decommissioned plant. Moss and mould was cluttered into the crevices of the old brick walls which had once been a bright red, now faded to a darker, dreary shade. The remainders of metallic structure, pipes and pieces of old equipment were eaten by rust and pools of red coloured rain water dotted the worn tiled floor.
"Let me guess, that old tank there is not empty. I bet that something absolutely charming lives inside, and we're supposed to deal with it, right? But on a happier note, at least it's not the sewers," I concluded in good humour.
Ciel rolled his eye. "It's a chemical plant, moron. But yeah, you guessed the point, it's a coven. And we're going to clean it up." He stood abruptly from his chair and motioned with his head. " Come on, it's time to get you geared up for the job..."
Oh, my... This is good... I appreciated, taking my sweet time to admire the gun rack up close at last. Always outnumbered, never outgunned, I like that, yeah!
"Michaelis, this is Bardroy, in charge with our armoury," Ciel informed me, motioning towards the solid blonde who simply nodded briefly in my direction and continued to chew on his unlit cigarette. "Hey Bard, we're going out on a 'date' today, so we'll be needing some new 'toys'!"
The armourer gave me a once over without a word and then turned away in his rotating chair, staring at the panels in front of him with a thoughtful air, while my investigator drummed his fingers impatiently onto the counter separating us from the goods corner. At last he stood up and picked up two full-auto Beretta 92FSs which he laid down in front of me, and a smaller Walther P99 for Ciel.
"There you go, ladies," he said with a large grin. "Take good care of them, because that's all you're getting this week. Especially you, Mr. Phantomhive..."
"What the fuck, Bard?! No shotguns, are you serious?!"
Bardroy laughed and shook his head like a benevolent parent. "You can't fire a shotgun, kiddo. You're so tiny that the recoil alone would probably knock you off your feet. Trust me, that's something you can use, and anyway, better stick to your regular shit"
The investigator gnashed his teeth, reluctant to admit the other guy was probably right. "Yeah, maybe... But he can!" he pointed at me with a brief glare. "Why can't he have a shotgun at least? I know you have some badass pieces somewhere, I've seen them!"
"Yeah, the Mossberg 500 Cruiser – that's Mey's favourite piece, and I gave the Franchi SPAS-12 to Finny. The two Remingtons 870 are reserved for Father Faustus and Alois. But hey, at least they take care of their shit, while you always wreck everything, so don't give me that sour face, little one," Bard shrugged.
"Bullshit!" Ciel spat. "You know what? Whatever... If you want to send me into the monsters' den with a fucking water pistol, fine with me! Come on, Michaelis, we're leaving!"
He shoved his new gun into the small messenger bag which he'd previously picked from Lizzy's desk and which was already stuffed with the mission papers, and stomped angrily towards the exit.
"Why are you so pissed about?" I asked casually as we went up the stairs that led up into the church above.
"I don't know whatever gives you that impression, Michaelis," Ciel grumbled, trudging forward with a huff. "What occult reason could I possibly have now, eh?"
"Pfft... I feared you'd say that, actually. And it's Sebastian, if it's not too much trouble..."
He reached the top of the stairs and blindly fumbled with the set of keys in an attempt to open the metallic door. "Honestly, is this your biggest problem right now? You know what? I really don't think you're fit for this job at all, Sebastian," the boy stated bluntly while unsuccessfully struggling with the lock, "you're much too relaxed!"
I leaned forward, almost pressing my torso against his back and gently took the keys from his hand. "Please, allow me..." I had been perceptive enough to notice the one key Alois had used to let me in and so I had no trouble whatsoever finding it and inserting it in the lock, as my eyes could see just fine in the semi-obscurity.
"I'm not as much relaxed as I am convinced that in this sort of combat firepower is not as important as one's ability to keep their shit together when things get rough, if you know what I mean. And I'm sure you do, you seem to be a smart boy..."
Ciel flinched almost imperceptibly at my words, but I could hear that hitch in his breath for the briefest moment and I knew I'd hit a weak spot. He pulled away from me and all but darted through the door he'd pushed forcibly, as in an attempt to escape something he could not bear. He said nothing in reply and I followed him equally silent as he sped up through the stalls on his way to the exit.
To be continued...
