A/N: I really like this sequence... random action and stuff, not as much humor. I dunno... It was fun to write.

Disclaimer: Don't own ANYTHING except my OC's.

Chapter 10: Assassin's Creed

Ryouko, Himizu, and the characters that hung out with them were crowded around the picture generated by the image analyzer.

"It looks kind of… Middle Eastern…?"

"It definitely looks ancient."

"Does anyone have even the slightest idea what this thing is supposed to symbolize?"

"It looks blue. Is it blue or is that just a weird filter?"

"What's that in the center there?"

"It's some kind of bird. Is that a robin?"

"What? No! That's not a damn songbird! That's an eagle, you imbecile!"

"Okay so it's a blue thing with a flying eagle in the middle. Is it some kind of tapestry?"

"No, it seems way too small."

"A flag?"

"That's weird, why would there be a picture of a flag? Where's the flag from?"

"Who knows? Let's just keep our eyes open for the flag."

Himizu, Ryouko, Eliot, and Hiei stepped out of the break room. The first thing they realized was that the bookstore had become very medieval. The bookshelves and furniture were made of rickety wood; the walls were stone, and dotted with faded tapestries. The books were now all battered and ragged tomes or scrolls, and there wasn't a DVD in sight. Outside there were knights, monks, and people in peasant's garb or very old-fashioned clothes. The second thing they noticed was that on top of a few of the bookshelves were flags and that a man in a white crusader-type robe with a sword at his waist was jumping from shelf to shelf to grab the flags.

"Hey, what the hell are you doing?" Ryouko yelled. "You're going to scuff the tops of the shelves!"

The man turned to stare down at them, then turned away again to grab the nearest flag before bouncing off to another shelf. Within seconds, he'd cleared the third floor, so he dashed to the nearest railing, grabbed it, and swung himself down to the second floor. Ryouko and Himizu both stared. Himizu turned to Ryouko.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" she asked.

"Yes, he's a bloody vandal and needs to be kicked out of this store! Eliot, I hereby dub thee store security, now remove that vandal or you're fired!" Ryouko exclaimed. Eliot stared at her incredulously.

"I don't care if you fire me. Go right ahead. I'm not even an official employee. I don't have to take orders from the people that kidnapped me."

"You make us food, isn't that taking orders?"

"No, I need to eat anyways, so I might as well be nice and make enough for everyone. Plus I like emptying your cupboards and causing you the hassle of getting more food."

"It's not really a hassle at all and your cooking is so amazing, and we're too lazy to make food anyways so your cooking is basically a godsend, not to mention half the reason we kidnapped you in the first place."

"Fine, if you feel that way, I can stop cooking food for you."

"Ryouko, will you shut up? Eliot, will you please go grab that guy? I think he holds the next key to our mystery, and if I'm right, it'll get you home and away from us that much faster," Himizu said. "Hiei, go help him."

Hiei glared at her, but he took off and went over the railing the same way the strange robed man had. Eliot sighed and took off down the stairs, with the girls close behind him. They found Hiei leaping across the tops of the bookshelves, blocking the robed man's every avenue of escape. Hiei was a black blur half the time and the robed man clearly suspected some kind of sorcery. Finally he pulled out a sword and took a swing at Hiei, which surprised the demon enough that the robed man was able to dash past him and leap from the tops of the bookshelves to run along the floor. He was nearly to the railing when Eliot intercepted him and punched him before the man had a chance to swing his sword. Dazed, the man staggered against a bookshelf before clearing his head and dashing off in another direction. He spotted another railing and raced towards it. Once again Eliot was there to stop him and punch him again. The robed man looked around, noticing Hiei running towards him, and ran off in another direction. He spotted the stairs and started towards them, but found his way blocked by Ryouko and Himizu who were standing shoulder to shoulder with their arms crossed. The robed man looked at the two girls, decided they looked weak enough for him to shoulder aside, and dashed towards them, waving his sword in hopes of frightening them out of his way before he even got to them. When he was only five feet from them, both girls held out their right hands in a 'stop' gesture.

"You shall not pass," they intoned, and the robed man found himself blasted backwards by an unseen power (the Force!). He crashed into a bookcase and when he looked up, he found the point of a katana at his throat and a very pissed off-looking Hiei standing over him. Eliot appeared a moment later and hauled the robed man to his feet.

"Okay man, seriously. We come to stop you from stomping around on top of these delicate shelves and destroying some valuable materials, and your first reaction is to draw a sword? What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Says the guy who owns a samurai sword…" Himizu muttered to Ryouko.

"Until you can prove otherwise, I have to assume you are part of the Templar," the robed man snarled.

"Excuse our ignorance, but how are we supposed to prove that we're not part of the Templar? Because we're not," Ryouko said.

"You could still be friends of the Templar."

"We're not. We don't know anyone from around here. Now tell us your name and why you were destroying our store to get those flags," Himizu said. The robed man glared at them, but considering he was facing two girls with (as far as he knew) magical powers, plus their two bodyguards, he decided it would do more harm to conceal the truth than good.

"My name is Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and I'm an assassin. I've been assigned to kill top-ranking members of the Templar."

"An assassin? Cool. You and Eliot should get along well," Himizu said.

"I'm not an assassin, you dork. I'm a retrieval specialist," Eliot snapped at her.

"Well, then Hiei…"

"I'm not an assassin either, you ditz."

Himizu looked confused. "Well… you… er… so I don't know any assassins? Well that just fucking ruined my day."

Ryouko chose to ignore the other girl. "Altaïr, it's nice to meet you. Now tell us about the flags."

"I collect them. They're everywhere."

"…..Details please."

"Mostly I collect them because they represent different military or political factions here in the Holy Land. My Brotherhood believes that no group has the right to claim part of the Holy Land for themselves. It is a sacred place and everyone should have the right to visit any part of this land that they choose. Collecting the flags is a symbolic way of expressing our distaste for the greedy attitudes of the groups that claim territory here." Altaïr paused for a moment, then a half-smile appeared on his face. "Not to mention that they look fantastic in my hideout."

"So it's safe to say that you're an expert in flags?" Himizu asked.

"I suppose you could say that," Altaïr agreed.

"Okay, have you ever collected a flag that looks like this?" Ryouko whipped out a sketch she had made of the picture from the image analyzer. Altaïr looked at it closely for a moment.

"It's possible… very possible. But I can't be sure."

Himizu's eyes narrowed and she leaned over and whispered in Eliot's ear. After a moment, he nodded his head. Himizu smiled.

"And I suppose you want us to let you go so that you can check your hideout for this flag and bring it back to us," she said pleasantly.

"Naturally, if you would be so kind…" Altaïr said, attempting to match her smile, and failing badly.

"And I suppose you think that we're idiotic little novices who were born yesterday and are willing to trust you on your own in this city which you clearly know like the back of your hand, and which we know nothing about."

Altaïr's smile faltered even more. Himizu's widened.

"No, I don't think we're going to play that game. You'll be taking two of our associates to make sure that you don't double-cross us. And you're going to comply since technically these flags that you just grabbed are our property and you're stealing and we could totally call the Templar right now and have you arrested and probably executed."

Altaïr blanched. "Er… my hideout is… um… on top of a roof of one of the buildings in the city. I don't know that your associates could… er… climb up the way I do," he said lamely.

"Hiei darling, I do believe he's insulting you," Ryouko said. Hiei scowled, though whether it was because of the insult or being called 'darling' was unclear.

"Don't worry, kyoukan, I will be able to keep up with you no matter what tricks you pull," he snarled at Altaïr, who shrugged innocently and turned to Eliot.

"And you? Will you be able to keep up? You don't look as swift as your short friend here."

Both men seemed about to attack the impudent assassin, but Himizu stopped them.

"I'm sure Eliot would do wonderful if he was being sent on this mission, but he's not the one we were thinking of."

"And just who the hell are you planning to send instead of me? That Kakashi guy? He wears a mask and has silver hair, he'll stick out like a sore thumb," Eliot pointed out.

"Sure he will. That's why we're sending Parker."

"She's a woman with no respect for men, authority, or historic dress codes and this is medieval Jerusalem. HOW IS THAT LESS OBVIOUS?" Eliot yelled at her.

"What about Hiei is not obvious to you? He's an angry short guy dressed in black with anti-gravity hair and red eyes who looks like he just arose from the pits of hell, not to mention he's literally a demon," Himizu said.

"Eliot, who's in charge of this mission? Not you, that's all you need to know," Ryouko added. Then she went back to the break room to fetch Parker. She appeared moments later, dressed all in black and holding her climbing gear.

"This sounds like fun, let's do this!" she exclaimed. Altaïr stared at her, then at Ryouko and Himizu.

"You're crazy. You're asking for all of us to get killed, including me, and I really don't appreciate this."

"Sorry friend, but this is what happens when you fuck around with us," Himizu said pleasantly. "Now off you go."

The assassin, accompanied by the demon and the thief, left the store and headed off down the street. Himizu and Ryouko waited a beat, then turned and walked off. Eliot stared after them.

"Hey, where are you going? Aren't you going to wait for them to get back? Aren't you at all worried about what's going to happen to them?"

"We're just getting some insurance."

"What the hell? What kind of insurance? Please don't tell me you kidnapped the Geico gecko."

"Dude, are you on drugs? If you are, please share. But seriously, we think that you had a good idea earlier about sending Kakashi, so we're fetching him and sending him to keep an eye on our little group."

"Wasn't the whole point of not sending him was because he was really obvious? Aren't you making the whole situation worse?"

"He's a goddamn ninja! He works better alone and will fuck up the day of anyone who messes with him," Ryouko pointed out. Eliot sighed and followed them to Kakashi, who (unsurprisingly) was looking at dirty books. Himizu glared, put on rubber gloves and pulled out tongs, snatched the book from Kakashi's hands, then tossed it back on the shelf.

"Kakashi, you can read these books anytime you want! We have a job for you!" she told him.

"Why would I want to do a job for you?"

"You volunteered your services the second you got your ass trapped in our dimension-hopping funhouse of a bookstore!"

"Your rules are interesting."

"And the consequences for not following them will be deadly, so GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE AND FOLLOW THEM RIGHT NOW GODDAMNIT!" Himizu yelled at him.

"Okay, okay, I'm going… sheesh… psycho chick…" He took off out the door and vanished moments later. Eliot frowned at the girls.

"You really think he's going to help?"

"Of course…"

"…not…"

Eliot looked confused. "What?"

"Translation, we have no idea," Himizu admitted.

"Actually I think Hiei and Parker would have been fine on their own, but Kakashi will just be there to make sure nothing goes wrong," Ryouko said.

"You know you're only saying that because you love Hiei and hate the thought of something happening to him, so you trick yourself into thinking he's invincible," Himizu muttered.

"Lies!" Ryouko yelled at her. Eliot clapped a hand to his forehead and briefly considered knocking their heads together before heading off to find a spot where he could watch for the group's return.