Kitsune here: I'm just going to say I've got a headache, these last two weeks have stunk really bad. So, if you wanna make me feel better...review. Or just read the chapter. That, I'll settle for. The next couple of chapters will show some overlap, please bare with me, there's a reason for this. Enjoy, and know that I'm working on 2 more for this story as we speak (write?)
Question of the chapter: "What's the weirdest thing you've ever pulled out of your pocket?" Mine would be...huh. Lighter (don't smoke) someone else's phone, a map and a receipt from two years ago...and I think that's it. A friend once pulled out a doorknob. He wasn't exactly sure how he ended up with it, but he had it. From my purse, it'd be a pound of fried chicken, a book, and a soda. got some weird looks for that one.
Timothy once again was amazed at how smoothly things were going. The matter of getting the warrant was easy. With the heightened state of alert the country was in, all you really had to do was suggest terrorist activities, and a judge was more than happy to sign off on a search warrant, if not for an arrest. Director Vance had procured one as well as a base of operations, while the team was still on their way up to the city. Thanks to Gibbs's Driving skills, they'd arrived early in the evening. That had given them plenty of time to set up in the shoddy little apartment across the street before the brothers had arrived at around three A. The neighborhood itself wasn't exactly on the respectable end of the spectrum, with the sound of gunfire and sirens not being too uncommon. Surprisingly enough however, the crime rate took a sharp drop right in front of the apartment building they were watching. Sure, there was a mugging down the street, and Tony has pointed out a drug deal, but the whole time the dealer had been warily glancing at the building, as if expecting someone to come rushing out from it.
As the team waited for the brothers to arrive they hashed out how they would handle the surveillance. The warrant and Vance's orders made it imperative that they get into the apartment, but since they had no clue when the brothers were due to actually arrive, Gibbs thought it was better not to take any unnecessary risks. Instead, they'd attempt entry the next day. McGee and Ziva would be in charge of discovering what they could about their suspect by going over the apartment with a fine tooth comb, pictures only. They didn't want to alert him if at all possible. Tony, being a former street cop in Peoria, had a better chance of blending in with the crowds in the city, a must when tailing someone as obviously weary as Ace. Gibbs told them that he would follow the little brother, Luffy. When asked why, he shrugged and had replied that something felt funny about the kid.
Ziva had been on watch when the brothers had finally arrived home, rousing the team to some form of wakefulness as the two dark haired youths stumbled blearily off the canary-yellow bike left parked out in the open with helmets listlessly hanging from the handles. They'd watched as the two made their way to the front door, yawning as they vanished, only to reappear in the now lit apartment a short time later. The bags they carried barely made it in the door before the elder brother headed to the far corner of the apartment, leaving the other to shut and lock the door before following. He returned a short while later, a sour look on his face before he turned his back to the window and the lights went out. The team shared a look before deciding they'd learned all they could from the strange behavior and calling it an evening.
Just three short hours later Gibbs woke his team. Their target was up and moving, going about what seemed like a normal morning routine for him. He stumbled into the kitchen, and made a pot of coffee. Opening the fridge, he pulled something out and gave it a suspicious sniff before promptly eating it. He vanished from sight again only to reappear steaming-wet in boxers as he made his way over to the television, grabbing his coffee on the way. It was debatable if Ace was actually watching whatever news show was on, as his attention seemed to be riveted on a book he had precariously balanced on his lap. After almost an hour, he looked up with a wince in the direction of what Tim assumed was a bedroom and put the book down before storming into the room. When he came back into sight now fully clothed he poured another cup of coffee, obviously talking to someone out of view. Moments later a damp Luffy emerged tugging on jeans, apparently just out of the shower. He took the proffered cup of coffee as the two chatted for a few minutes before Ace raced out the door, hat in hand.
"Wow look at him go. Wonder what lit a fire under his ass?" Tony mused right before Gibbs slapped the back of his head.
"Get going and find out."
"Fine, fine, I'm going...It's a good thing he isn't taking the bike." Tony bitched as he pocketed his keys, wallet, and holstered his gun. "Bye, Boss. Don't mess up, Probies."
"I think maybe we should be saying that to you, Tony."
Tony rolled his eyes as he pulled the door shut, "Whatever. I'm in my element. You guys get all the boring work."
The remaining brother stood there a moment before turning his attention to the television and flicking through the channels at random. He'd watched a bit of one broadcast only to cut away to a different channel showing what seemed to be the exact same thing for settling on the news for a while. None of them were sure if he'd fallen asleep watching it when he stood, grabbing a shirt from a stool and left the apartment, heading for the street. Gibbs was already out the door by the time Luffy reached the street, a muffin magically in his hand that he was happily munching away on.
"Where did the Muffin come from?" Ziva looked at her friend and coworker, obviously confused as Luffy had only been out of site for a few moments.
"Muffin fairy?" Tim said, getting a weird look, "Sorry, it's something my sister says. Maybe he got it from someone else in the building. I mean, he must have. There goes Gibbs. Are you ready?"
"Let us get this over with as soon as possible. I believe Gibbs' gut, there is something very wrong with these two, and I do not like it."
"You and me both, Ziva."
The building the two brothers lived in was very worn down, the perfect picture of a slum-lords holding with it's shoddy exterior hiding an even cruder decor. The elevator was broken, if it had ever worked, and the stairs were covered with graffiti. Three flights later, the two agents finally arrived at a nondescript door. They'd both half-expected to see the iconic bone-star and three skull logo underneath the room number, so much so it was conspicuous in its absence. Tim had been expecting Ziva to have to pick the lock. Really, what kind of fool left their door unlocked in New York City, let alone the kind of neighborhood this apartment was located in? Apparently a straw hat wearing kind of fool, not that Luffy'd been wearing the hat when he'd left.
All Ziva had to do was turn the handle, and they were in the rather small apartment, shutting the door behind them. The Israeli pointed to a note tacked to the back of the door which read 'LUFFY! DO NOT FORGET TO LOCK DOOR!'' and calmly said, "I think he forgot."
Tim shrugged reading the sign before snapping a picture of it, "Yeah. We'll just lock it on our way out, I guess."
"Alright. If Ace came home first, I'm sure he'd become suspicious anyway to find the door unlocked. This is a really small apartment."
The two moved away from the door into the main room. The place had an open floor plan, with the kitchen being in one corner of the larger room with a counter separating the two. "What do you suppose these are for?" McGee wondered, gesturing with the camera in his hand. Where a dining table would normally be, a giant bean-bag rested on top of some gymnastic type mats.
"I would assume sparing. Give me a hand with these?" Ziva moved the bean-bag over to the door, and grabbed a corner of the top mat. If the mats were laid out, the rest of the open space in the room would be completely taken up, though currently the ratty carpet was remarkably clear, considering two young men lived there. Quickly the two opened up one the mats to get a better look at them. The mat itself looked a little worse for wear with the foam sticking out in spots and light scorch marks on it.
Tim snapped pictures, wondering what exactly they did to get the mats in such a condition. "I'll tell you one thing, I'd hate to live below these guys."
Ziva eyed them critically, "These mats are very good, even if they are worn out." Her gaze drifted over to the side. Against the wall were two long staffs as well as target-pads used in fight training. A phone number was posted on the wall next to the equipment for a supply company. "I wonder why they train here and not go to a gym? There is not a lot of room, after all."
Tim could only shrug, "Who knows? Maybe Gibbs will be able to figure it out. Come on, we've still got to check the rest of the apartment. Let's see if we can find anything he could have used to start that fire on Earle." The two folded the mat back up, being sure to place it exactly how it had been with the beanbag on top before moving on.
What little space remained for the livingroom was taken up by a sagging couch that had seen better days, a low table and a surprisingly nice flat-screen TV with multiple gaming systems attached to it. The couch smelled vaguely of burnt popcorn for some reason, and had little tiny burns on it.
"Maybe one of them smokes?" Tim frowned, fingering one of the bigger burns on the arm of the couch.
His partner shook her head, her attention already on the table, "I do not think so. I don't smell any cigarettes, can you?" Upon further examination, the table turned out to be two end tables that had been placed together. She lifted a fat envelope that was sitting on the corner and opened it, revealing a large number of photographs. "Looks like someone graduated." She held out the pictures for him.
Paging through them he almost laughed, "More like he goofed off though it. This Luffy sure seems like a carefree type of guy."
"The complete opposite of his brother, I suspect." Her attention was on the book Ace had been reading earlier, opening it to where the bookmark was, "'Child Psychology and You.' Hmm, Strange reading so early in the morning, don't you think? 'Psychological abuse can be harder to spot. A child will develop a myriad of coping mechanisms in order to deal with the abuse, often making it difficult to even tell when they are suffering.' I wonder why he is reading this."
"Well, Abby did say he was taking a lot of college classes. Look at this, it's a scorecard. Ace, three-thousand nine hundred sixty two. Luffy, one-thousand five hundred and seventy. Looks like Ace is winning, by a lot."
"That does not surprise me. Do you recognize this magazine? There's a whole stack of them." She held up the top one. The Magazine was large and glossy, showing a motorcycle on a beautiful scenic road. 'Backroads' written in bold across the top.
"Sorry, motorcycles aren't my thing." Tim said, taking a picture.
Over against the wall was a desk with a laptop, actually tied to the desk. A printer sat empty of paper next to it, a note stuck to it reminding someone to buy paper. "Huh. I used to have to do that in college. Bolt my Laptop down. My roommate kept moving it on me. I guess they share this one. Luffy would have needed something to do papers on, too."
The wall next to the desk was taken up by a bookshelf, full of books. The titles ranged from popular manga and children's books to the classics. Scattered throughout were more educational books on everything from psychology to astronomy. One shelf seemed dedicated to 'how to' type books. Books on welding, sailing, carpentry, making beer, gardening, knitting, sewing, gymnastics, fencing, lockpicking, and bomb-making were neatly arranged by category. The two of them shared a look as they took a picture of the shelf before pulling out the books for a cursory glance. Putting the books back on the shelf, the next thing they saw was a whole collection on Rosetta Stone learning aids for six different languages.
Ziva shook her head as they took more pictures of the shelves before moving on. "The more I see, the weirder these two brothers seem. Why is there only one bedroom? Wouldn't they normally sleep in separate rooms at this age?"
"Well, it's possible that this was all they could afford." Tim mused, following her into the tiny room. The beds took up most of the space, both being up against a wall. The dressers stood side by side, doing obvious double duty as nightstands. A few brightly colored rugs were on the floor. Toeing a lump on the floor, Tim left Ziva to go through the drawers as he checked out the strange substance. It was hardened and stuck firmly to the rug. It seemed to be plastic of some sort. Looking around, he spotted a similar mark on the same rug and took a picture, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
A disgusted sigh drew his attention to his friend, "I have found nothing except for some smelly socks and an old candy-bar. Have you?"
"Not really. All that's left is the bathroom and the kitchen, right? I'll check the bathroom, you get the kitchen."
The bathroom as small, containing a curtained off shower stall, a sink with a cabinet under it, and a toilet. He carefully checked under the sink, just in case the brothers had hidden anything there, though he doubted it. Clean as it was, the bathroom was really too damp for any kind of explosive or incendiary device. He even checked the tank of the toilet, thanking Tony in his head for telling him about how some drug traffickers were known to hide their stashes there. It too was empty. The mirror hid a medicine cabinet, fully stocked with pill bottles, drawing a whistle from McGee. Carefully he took out each bottle, jotting down what it was and the dose as well as taking photos of them. Some of the bottles had big X marks on them, and about half had an 'A' while the other half had an 'L'. Tim assumed the ones with the X were medications that were no good, or were for something else, and so took special care to get the names right on them. The remaining bottles seemed to be duplicates, many being full of Armodafinil, marked just with an 'A', and Amphetamine-Dextroamphetamine, marked with 'A' or 'L', depending on the dose. All the bottles were either from a Doctor, Hiluluk or a Doctorine, Kureha. Tim had a feeling the name were aliases of some sort.
There were also a large number of caffeine tablets and stimulants. Tim recognized a lot of them, having used them himself at work as well as on his personal time to get writing done or leveling in a game. Most were just over the counter ones you could find at any pharmacy, but a few seemed to be homemade pills, the bottles ranging from 400mg to 600mg. Taking down notes, he ran a hand through his hair, worried. Tim was no doctor, but even he knew that a lot of Caffeine could be dangerous, and there was no way those pills would be legal. If that was what they were, that is. Both brothers had a record for drug trafficking, and so far he'd found no illegal drugs, or even a lighter. Part of him was tempted to take the bottles so Abby could test them, but instead he took out one pill in each bottle and placed it in an evidence bag before returning them to the cabinets.
When he reached the small kitchen it was to find his fellow agent making a face at the nearly empty refrigerator. It was obvious by her stance that she was agitated, "There is nothing here. Nothing at all. I checked the cabinets, under the sink, even in the freezer. No explosives, nothing to make them with, no food. Not even a cockroach. He is like that man, you know, the magician...?"
"Hoodini?"
"Yes! Him! Hiding things. I am beginning to think Gibbs is right, and this Ace is a Devil-berry..."
"Fruit," he corrected. Her English always suffered when she was upset.
"Fruit user. I do not like it." She grumbled as she headed to the door, before coming to a stop.
"What? what is it?" he asked, noticing the confused look on her face.
"McGee...Was there a light-switch by the bedroom?"
He glanced over his shoulder in the direction of the room, confused. "No, not that I noticed. Why?"
"Are you quite certain?"
"I'll go check if it'll make you feel better," Tim had to stop himself from rolling his eyes as he checked, "nope. none."
"So then, this is the only light switch for this room, correct?" She turned it on as he voiced his agreement, "Then how did Luffy turn off the lights from all the way over there?"
"Who knows? Clapper?" Tim clapped, "Or not. Maybe a remote. Let me check something." He pushed a table out of the way in order to see the socket the lamp currently on was plugged into.
"Well?"
"Huh. Well that's odd. There's no receiver, so I don't think he was using a remote. I've got no clue how he did it. Maybe he threw something, his back was to us after all. But his aim would have to be amazing."
"I think this might be something to mention to Gibbs. There is something just not right about this." Ziva shook her head opening the door. Holding it open for Tim she continued, "This kind of mystery is more Abby's thing, I feel like I am out of my depth." After they shut the door she made sure to lock it, heading back to the base of operations across the street. Hopefully they'd hear from the others soon, but for now all they could do was wait.
Kitsune with a quick note at the end here. I just want to say that the magazine that Ziva found, "Backroads" IS a real magazine, and it's really good. The full title is "Backroads Motorcycle Touring Magazine" in case you want to go look for it, since it's a smaller publication. I personally DO NOT ride a motorcycle, but I do read this, and I know the people who put it out. The real reason I put this in is not because I know them, however, it's because they tour the world on their bikes, and the stories they tell are very real, with a good helping of dry-witty humor in them. I could easily see Ace reading them and laughing out loud as Brian talks about how he confused a monkey with his bald head, or the doctor's killing the power on the grid to do an X-ray for his broken leg in a small town in South America.