Okay, so I'll turn into the worst fan fiction-er ever. I don't know how long I'll be gone. I don't know when I'll update next. But rest assured I would. I know you guys always put up with my irresponsibility, but the thing is I'm in a new school, I don't know anybody so naturally I don't have friends. Most of the students – actually, put up your right hand, count your fingers and the number of new students is less than that – have known each other since they were in kindergarten, so imagine how hard it is to fit in. The entire curriculum is new and I'm supposed to volunteer a lot if I want to pursue the career I want. I am so sorry. Please, cut me some slack. Follow me on Twitter (I always check that because that's the only way my friends back home talk to me) or send me a PM if you have any complaints or you have something to say, I wouldn't get mad or get upset. You know, I like hearing from you guys.
So yeah. Here's a pretty long chapter. I'm really sorry if you're disappointed. I would try my very best to update as soon as possible like next week. Or the week after that. I promise to try my best. Really. I would. I hope you don't stop supporting this story. Thank you all so much.
Awesome reviewers: emmelinekat (thank you so much! Your reviews always make me smile. Seriously), magicdemi-god223 (here it is, Dan's POV. Sadly we were given homework during enrolment. Haha), Reginaa2111 (haha XD), NatalieKFan (oh gosh! I'm so happy for you! A baby?! D'aww! Congrats!), clara0414 (I thought I had the gun part edited but oh well. Thank you for pointing those out! Seriously, you should be a beta. XD You have the patience. FINALLY! Somebody asks that question! Haha. But no. Angelle is nothing like me and nope, she's not based on me either. Hihi. I would edit, I promise. For the sake of people's sanity), ILuvHamiltonHolt (how are you?! Haha. I died on the couch, too. Well, that one time it was in the shower, so...), e (Team Hamead!) and Aster (Thank you so much. Sorry if I disappoint you.) Thank you all so much. You make me feel so loved. XD Less than three.
DISCLAIMER: No, I don't.
Enjoy, 'cause that's what matters most.
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Chapter 10
"Aww... It's so boring," Ned whined, putting his feet up the control panel at comm. centre. He shook the empty bag of chips and held out his tongue for the remaining crumbs. "What do we do?"
Atticus looked at all of the Cahills in the room anxiously. He's never been alone with Dan's cousins before and he was terrified. Whenever Dan tells him stories about them, the endings are not really very 'happily-ever-after'. Actually, every single one of those stories ends with 'and then, he broke his neck' or 'in the end, she got splattered with chocolate syrup'. So, he wasn't exactly thrilled at being left alone with this bunch.
Madison lurched up to her feet with a very excited look on her face. "I got it!" she shouted, looking at all of them with flushed cheeks. Reagan, who was seated on the couch beside her twin, looked up at her. Ned and Ted looked at her with identical, uninterested faces. Phoenix and Keightlyn looked up from the jigsaw puzzle they were finishing. "Why don't we..." Madison trailed off, checking everybody's expressions first. "Go through their stuff for blackmailing material?"
Her suggestion met a thoughtful silence before Ted broke it. "Huh." Ted stared at the ceiling. "Normally, as the oldest –"
"One of the oldest," Ned interjected, shooting his twin a dirty look. They've been over this born-after-just-a-half-minute thing and Ted just doesn't get, does he?
Ted ignored his twin. " – one here, I should be disagreeing to your plan." Ted nodded his head seriously, contemplating the situation.
The entire room held their breath for the verdict.
Ted narrowed his green eyes at all of them. "So, whose stuff are we going through first?" All of them jumped to their feet excitedly except for Atticus. The others are all arguing that they really should go through Hamilton's stuff first, but then, Ian's stuff are pretty tempting, too.
"Um... Uh..." Atticus stammered, trying to get their attention before any of them could get their hands around each other's throats. Surprisingly, it worked. The Cahills turned to look at the cowering kid with the glasses.
"What is it, kiddo? You have a suggestion?" Ned asked.
Atticus shook his head nervously. "We-well... A-Amy and Si-Sinead said that we shouldn't b-be snooping a-around other pe-people's stuff," he stuttered, feeling the weight of their stares on him. He shut his eyes tightly, preparing himself for a good smack in the head.
Like an explosion, the room erupted into laughter. "Oh, Atticus. Young, innocent, Atticus," Ned chuckled deviously. He looked at his twin amusedly which Ted returned with a smirk. "Doesn't get a thing in the world, does he?"
Ted nodded with his own share of chuckles. "You see, buddy." He rested his hands on Atticus' shoulder. "When a Cahill tells you that you shouldn't that just means that you should, but it would be 'hard to do'," Ted explained as if it was an important life lesson, making quotation marks in the air.
"Do you understand, shrimp?" Reagan asked with her arms crossed across her chest. Madison had the same posture.
Atticus nodded slowly and uneasily joined in on the laughter that erupted once more as they decided against Ian's stuff and Hamilton's stuff. Oh, boy.
xxxOOOxxx
Jonathan slowly approached the sleeping figure of Natalie Vesper-Hollingsworth. He was emotionless as he slithered closer, his sharp ears quick to hear her mumbles. He rolled his eyes in loathing for that self-centered moron who asked him to take over his twin's job. He strode over to the white board beside her bed and quickly scanned through her vital signs and the progress of the project. Something inside his chest clenched when he noticed that the last addition to the reports is written in Victoria's handwriting.
With a deadpanned look in his eyes, Jonathan carried the dozing girl in his arms and walked out of the room. It would be a long and tiring trip to where they are supposed to be.
xxxOOOxxx
"We're here," Sinead whispered urgently. There was a thin gash running from the side of her head down her cheek. They were at the edge of the forest, just a few feet away from the wall of the alleged Vesper-infested hospital.
Amy took a deep, staggering breath. "Now or never," she said. She was looking for any way entry when she saw a sneaking teenager on the far left side. "Look at that." She pointed at the stripes-clad stealth machine. "She's breaking and entering."
"You mean, like us after a few minutes?" Evan raised an eyebrow.
Jake narrowed his eyes at the target and placed a hand on his forehead. "Huh. I wonder what she's doing."
"One way to find out," Sinead declared, straightening from their crouched position. "We'll ask her." She started walking towards the teenager who is now picking a lock from what looked like a blank white wall.
"Sinead –!" Amy half-shouted, jumping up and successful in rustling the bushes. This, of course, alerted the other teenager of their presence. The stealthy teenager turned at their direction so fast that her beret fell, revealing a messy clump of unevenly cropped, raven black hair. Jake leapt forward and tackled Sinead to the ground, just in time when a couple of darts came whooshing up their heads. Evan slid his own dart gun out of his jacket pocket and pointed it at the offensive intruder. Amy rushed forward to check Sinead and Jake of any damages. Evan slowly walked forward, his dart gun still meticulously trained on other girl's heart.
The raven haired girl, who we all know as Victoria, moved forward in small, lithe steps, almost as if she was dancing. She had a look of recognition on her face as she cautiously yet surely moved towards them, her own gun poised over Evan's chest. "You're Cahills, aren't you?" she asked, her eyes locked on Amy. "What are you doing here in St. Petersburg?"
"We could ask you the same question," Evan shot back, hoping that he exuded a quarter of Ian's natural confidence.
Victoria raised an eyebrow. "I'm a native here," she said matter-of-factly. To prove it, she began speaking in rapid Russian, too quick for any of them to translate. Evan and Amy looked at each other.
"You work with that evil twin of Ian Kabra?" Jake spluttered, obviously the only one who understood her ramblings.
All of them were shocked that Jake turned out to be bilingual if not multilingual, yet Victoria seemed to be unperturbed. She looked as though she was expecting that somebody would be intelligent enough to understand. "I did," she replied, not letting go of her Russian language.
"Not anymore?" Jake clarified when she noticed that she used past tense, switching to her language.
Victoria shook her head. She pointedly slipped her dart gun inside her coat to prove her neutrality.
"She won't hurt us. I think," Jake hesitated, looking at the others and helping Sinead to her feet. He looked at Evan and addressed him. "Don't let your guard down." Evan nodded once.
"Will you answer my question?" Victoria asked them, now in clear English.
"We're investigating something which is none of your business," Sinead shot back acerbically, still annoyed that she had to be shove down the ground because of this girl's impulsiveness.
Victoria ignored her jabbing tone. "You never know, Cahill. We just might be 'investigating' the same thing," she purred teasingly. She had a funny look on her face as though she wanted to really get on their nerves.
"It's about you killing my uncle," Sinead growled, wanting so badly to strangle this girl.
"Oh, that," Victoria said flippantly. "I don't think he died."
Sinead staggered back. "Wha-What?"
"Wyoming ended up with a bullet wedged deep inside his shoulder blade," Victoria smirked. Whether she found Wyoming being severely injured amusing or their expressions even more so was a mystery to the others.
"So, Uncle Alistair's safe," Sinead breathed a sigh of relief.
"But, you'll still try to go inside, won't you?" Victoria guessed, jerking a thumb at the hospital's direction.
"I don't think that's anymore of your business," Jake cut through, pointing a spot on the white wall of the hospital with his lips. "So there are hidden doors on the walls?"
"Maybe," Victoria shrugged. Then, she started walking away.
Amy grabbed her arm. "Wait!" Victoria tilted her head back. "You didn't tell us what you were looking for," Amy continued, not missing the flash of wariness on the other girl's face. "We might be able to help."
Sinead looked at Amy disbelievingly. She knew exactly that this was an Amy thing to do, but still.
Victoria let out a hard chuckle. She removed her arm from Amy's grip and said, "I don't need a Cahill's help. There's a password-protected door on the left side. I'm sure you're smart enough to figure it out." Victoria pulled a slightly longer than usual bobby pin from her hair and inserted it on a miniscule keyhole on the wall she was working on earlier. She glanced at her watch and after five seconds, a billow of smoke erupted from it. With one last, smug look at the Cahills, Victoria slipped inside and the door clicked shut.
"Should we listen to what she said?" Evan asked them. "It might be a trap."
Amy looked at the ostensibly blank wall that Victoria indicated. "We have to risk it," she decided. "We can't go in the same way she did."
"Why not?" Jake asked.
"Because she already led the guards in her direction," Amy replied, holding out the hand she placed on Victoria's arm. It was stained with blood as red as rose.
xxxOOOxxx
Dan felt sick in his stomach. It wasn't because he was hungry. He just ate. But, it was the anxious guilty feeling that makes his stomach turn upside down. He glared at the box in his hands as he continued to trudge towards the streets of Kyoto, knowing that he's near the appointed place.
He bought a box of ninja stuff. The legit kind. A hidden store he so coincidentally passed by was selling them and as a ninja, he couldn't resist, now can he? He is now in the middle of distributing the smaller ninja stuff in each of his pockets to distract his mind. But, the guilty feeling won't subside. If the older Cobra was here, he would've bonked him in the head for wasting precious time. You never know when they will come in handy, Dan thought to himself, imagining himself throwing the ninja stars at the enemies they had a while ago. With a heavy sigh, Dan opened the box and placed six shuriken inside his jacket pocket, three in pants. Only one more. Where to put? He played with it as he decided. Then, he pulled to a stop.
"This is the place," Dan breathed, the glinting shuriken still in his hands. He cautiously walked inside the vacant warehouse, glancing behind him to see if he had tails. Nobody seemed to be following him.
"Hello?" he called out, pushing the heavy door open. "I'm here now, Helping Hand-san. Where's the younger Cobra?"
Noticeably, Dan hasn't mastered the whole concept of stealth and silence. So, naturally, he alerted the snakes around the place. Three men in black biker vests, all of which are sleeveless, came in with heavy-looking tubing pipes in hands.
The first guy spoke up in Japanese. It sounded as if he was asking Dan something.
Dan narrowed his eyes at him and blew his hair out of his eyes. "Don't know what you just said," he replied, pointing a finger at the speaker. "But, I come in peace." He held up both his hands in a Star Wars hand sign.
The men grunted, blasé, obviously unimpressed.
"No? Okaay..." Dan crossed his arms over his chest, his right hand feeling up his jacket for the shuriken. "That's gonna be a problem 'cause I don't fight. Usually."
The other biker dude told the third man something and all three of them guffawed. Dan joined in their loud laughter. After a few more awkwardly-shared chortles, the three men stopped, leaving Dan laughing on his own.
"You understand, attack?" the first one asked Dan, his lips pulled into a tight, sadistic smile.
"Oh." Dan felt a trickle of sweat down his back. "Yeah, I understand that."
The second man wore the same spine-chilling grin. "Then, run."
Dan held his ground, smirking as he slid his arms off the pockets of his jacket and pants. He flicked his wrist downwards and smoke erupted from the ground in front of him. Billows of smoke increased exponentially, cloaking the three mean in suffocating, white smoulder. They felt the need to shut their eyes and the coughing followed soon after. When they opened their eyes after a few seconds, the little, dirty blonde-haired boy was gone, leaving in his wake the shells of ninja smoke bombs.
xxxOOOxxx
The next day, Hamilton yawned hugely, stretching his long arms way above his head, as he blearily made his way inside the kitchen of Alistair's Japanese home. It was eight in the morning; the sun is shining happily out in the streets of Japan. Jonah is already seated on the table, scanning through a newspaper while munching on an octopus-shaped hotdog which is perched on his chopsticks. Hamilton looked around the room. "Where's Kabra?" he asked, flopping down the wooden chair opposite Jonah.
Jonah briefly looked at him and went back to looking at the pictures on the paper. "Morning to you, too," he greeted dryly. He glanced at the sliding door. "As for I-dawg, he's still in Dreamland. I don't think he managed to sleep a wink last night."
Hamilton nodded in between huge mouthfuls of pancakes and eggs. "Aren't we supposed to meet Dan-o today in that tower?" he asked with his mouth still full.
Jonah wrinkled his nose, but nodded silently.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Hamilton chugged on his glass of orange juice, sighing hugely when he finished.
Jonah frowned at him, and then glanced at his watch. "Precisely seven hours, forty-four minutes and ten seconds," he informed him. "Ian's cutting Dan some slack and meant it when he said he was giving him a day." He held up his hands, two fingers on his right hand and four on his left, indicating twenty-four hours.
"Huh." Hamilton thought about it, glaring at Jonah's fingers. "Well, that's stupid," he muttered, feeling dejected at the sudden drop of adrenaline. He moodily stabbed at a mini hotdog with a chopstick and chewed on it.
Jonah folded his newspaper and stared out the window. "I wonder if that person who's helping Dan-o would keep his word..."
Hamilton chewed mutely. He knows that Jonah was also thinking about the antidote for that Saunders girl. As he finished the rest of his meal, Hamilton felt guilty about his impatience. Out of the three of us, Jonah should have the most reasonable edginess and yet, he sits there, tolerating mine instead, he thought. If you think about it, Ian made the choice of letting Dan handle everything, so he pretty much can't complain. Hamilton just tagged along to help, not having anything on the line. Jonah, however... Jonah has been silent until now, simply going with the flow of the mission. "I'm sure Dan will get Natalie and the antidote back," he assured him. "He's a Cahill after all."
Jonah thought about that last sentence for a moment. "Did you ever wonder if being a Cahill is a good thing or not?" he asked him in a very quiet voice. "If it's more of a compliment than an insult?"
Adhiraj leaned against the sliding door outside of the dining room, shaking his head with a sad smile. These kids are now learning how cruel this world is, especially when you're a Cahill. "They might just get out of this predicament in one piece," he murmured softly to himself, thinking of all the things he himself has seen. He made a face as he clutched the side of his stomach. Now, all he need is for that young, cocky Kabra to ask the right questions before it's too late.
In weird accordance to his thoughts, Ian appeared at his left. "You didn't get out of that hospital totally unscathed, did you?" he asked his uncle in a form of greeting.
Adhiraj smirked which for anybody who knows him, is as close to a smile as it could get. "Is that really the first question you should be asking me?" he told Ian, almost as if he was mocking him.
Ian rolled his amber eyes at him. "You and Father are so much alike, aren't you?" He stuck his hands inside the pockets of his dark trousers. "Always hiding hints in everything you say."
"Took you long enough," Adhiraj said simply, neither acknowledging the question nor agreeing to it.
Ian studied his uncle. Adhiraj had a look of impatience, almost as if he couldn't see that Ian is leading him to answer the questions he wouldn't ask yet. But he could and Adhiraj wouldn't say anything unless Ian asks him first. It was a battle of the wills. Ian sighed dejectedly, knowing that he wouldn't win this one, especially if he's playing this game with a senior Lucian. It might have worked if he's dealing with any other branch of the Cahills, but... He took a deep breath before asking that one question that mattered more than anything else. "That Alexander Ian person is not my twin, is he?"
Adhiraj breathed a slow breath in and looked at Ian. "Isabel only had one son."
Ian watched in stunned silence as Adhiraj left him to contemplate on his answer. Ian huffed an annoyed breath out, hitting his forehead with his fists as he felt another wave of a migraine. Oh, Isabel... You and your dirty, little tricks.
oooooOooooo
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