Yay! I'm on a roll here ^_^!! I work quickly because I myself hate it when other fic writers go on hiatus in the
middle of the flippin' story and leave all the readers hanging! For this reason alone, you, dear reader, should
REVIEW!!!!
Again, all disclaimers apply...once again, it should be apparent to you what I own and what I don't own. Don't
sue...
Yeah...so anyways, here's chapter 4!!
* * *
Soon, they had all arrived at a nice, elegant Chinese restaurant and parked the cars in the parking lot . As
Amy and Zack had suspected, the 'janitor' had trailed Serena's Lotus in an unmarked black car all the way to
the restaurant, and was parked close by when the four of them had gotten out. Amy narrowed her eyes, and
took a powder compact out of her purse. Nonchalantly, she walked past the car, and with a barely perceptible
movement, dusted the door with the loose powder. Then, she walked past as nonchalantly as before to rejoin
Zack.
"What did you do?" Zack whispered to her. The two of them were walking behind Serena and Darien, hand in
hand, looking every bit the newlywed, happily in love couple they were pretending to be. A passerby would
simply see a handsome young man whispering sweet nothings into the ear of the lovely young lady next to
him.
"That powder is mildly radioactive. When he opens the door some will land on his body, and of course on his
hand when he shuts the door." Amy took out a tube of lipstick, and twisted it, and pointed it towards the car.
The powder, invisible to the naked eye, shone in green speckles under the beam . "He's not going to enter a
classy establishment such as this dressed as a janitor. He will disguise himself, and this will just make my job
easier. The stuff has a half-life of three hours, and by the time it is all decayed, he'll be lying in a bodybag."
And with that, the four of them entered the restaurant. Amy kept her eyes peeled on the entrance. Just as
the four of them had finished placing their orders, a man in a white shirt and charcoal slacks entered. He
had sunglasses and scarlet hair. Amy flashed her lipstick at him, and tell-tale green flecks shone on his arms
and legs. He moved to a secluded booth in the back of the restaurant, close to the bathrooms, and sat by
himself, watching them silently.
About ten minutes after the man had arrived, Amy excused herself to go to the bathroom. Grabbing her purse,
she entered the ladies' room. Quickly, she put on some makeup and took a lace handkerchief out of her purse.
She walked by a moment later, and dropped the handkerchief close by the man's table. Then, walking back to
her own table, she told everyone that she was going to step out for fresh air. She was nearly to the door
when she felt a tap on her shoulder and looked to see the man with scarlet hair. She smiled, her target had
taken the bait.
"You dropped this, miss." He handed her the handkerchief. Thanking him graciously, she proferred a slim white
hand with a smile.
"Thanks, I'm Amy." The man held out an arm, as if to shake her hand, but suddenly, Amy felt a knife pointing
at her torso, and the man removed his wig and sunglasses to reveal an unfortunately familiar face. Known as
Peridot, the man, although not as powerful as Rubeus or Saffir, was still a formidable assassin. Thankfully,
he did not seem to know that she was Agent Mercury, or else he would have stabbed her already.
"Now, little lady, we're going to make a trip to that Lotus you and your friend came in " Peridot led Amy away
from the restaurant door at knife-point. Amy knew that it would be foolish to move her hands; he would stab
her in a heartbeat. So, obediently, she walked towards the Lotus. But she had a plan in her head.
When they had reached the car, he took out a length of rope and bound her hands behind her back, then, in
the instant that he lowered his knife to look for the key to the Lotus in her purse, Amy kicked the knife out of
his hand. The knife sailed through the air, and Amy caught it securely in her right hand behind her back. The
smile on her beautiful face would have been sweet and winsome had it not been so cold. "Now, now, haven't
you ever learned...NEVER to underestimate the little lady?" With a flick of her wrist, she had used his knife to
slice through her ropes, and in a flash, crouched in fighting stance with the knife pointed at him. He, shocked
that this delicate-looking young woman had been able to break free, immediately dropped her purse and aimed
a kick at her hand which held the knife.
Amy, anticipating his move, dropped stance and did a sweep kick at his other leg. His kick sailed harmlessly
past her shoulder. Amy knew that she could not afford to spend large amounts of time fighting with him: in
all likelihood he was not the only one around, and she had to conserve her energy and get back to Serena as
soon as possible. She fought back mostly in defense, and to keep him distracted so that he would not notice
her whipping out an innocent-looking mechanical pencil in her free hand.
Suddenly, in mid-kick, Peridot felt his muscles seize up. Collapsing heavily to the ground, he felt a burning hot,
horrible pain in his thigh. Then a chilling numbness that spread throughout his body. With difficulty, he bent
his head down a trifle, to see a silvery needle thin as a fiber optic embedded within his thigh. And then, he
understood. He had heard of them before: four beautiful, brilliant women who'd had the most vigorous training
and formidable educations in the nation, specifically hand-picked for their brains and beauty to be elite
crime-fighter assassins targeting people like him. He cursed himself for not realizing it before: she'd been way
too obedient, too cool-headed, when he had held her at knife-point. And then, his lungs seemed to be
squeezed empty forcefully inside him. He started choking and wheezing, body jerking spasmodically on the
ground. Amy gave him one cold look, picked up her purse from the ground, extracted an evidence bag and put
in the knife and rope he'd used, then stuck it back into her purse and walked off without a backwards glance.
In time, the local police would find the dead body, then find out that he was one of the nation's most wanted
criminals, then they would call the FBI, get transferred to Luna's department, the department that every
criminal justice official was in awe of, and every civilian only imagined existed. They would note how the man
had been killed, and realize that it was one of those almost legendary elite agents that dispatched him.
~ ~ ~
Zack was becoming restless. Amy had not returned when the food had arrived. Briefly using her ring as she
had shown him to ascertain that the food had not been poisoned, he waited on the edge of his seat, eyes
hawklike focused on the door. When, in ten minutes, she had still not shown up, he set his teeth, strode out
quickly, and met a grisly sight:
A man, whom Zack recognized as the mysterious janitor, and identified to be a vicious assassin named Peridot
who worked under Demando, was keening and writhing on the ground, bloody foam frothing his blue-ish lips.
Amy's words returned to him: "Targets don't even realize they had been hit...until they notice that first their
fingers, then their arms and legs, and then their entire body, loses the ability to move. Then, they go into
convulsions and die choking. I tend to save this for particularly rotten targets." Speaking of Amy, there she
was, looking slightly less impeccable and more mussed than before, putting an evidence bag into her purse.
Zack felt relief: She was safe...she saw him, smiled, and walked up to him.
Or was she?! A deep, jangling sense of danger struck him, a feeling that he had learnt throughout the years
and countless assignments never to ignore. She seemed to feel it at the same time, too, for all of the sudden
she stiffened. Out of the corner of his eye, Zack saw a stealthy figure to his left, about 8 feet away, half
hidden by the shadow of a dumpster, and saw a gun in his hand.
Almost without thinking, Zack gave a flick of his wrist towards the figure, then tackled Amy to the ground as
a gunshot rang out. But only one. Then, there was the sickening noise of metal burying itself in flesh. Zach's
dagger had sunk to the hilt into the second assassin's stomach.
Amy and Zack stayed still on the ground for a minute, hearts pounding. Amy had started to catch her breath
after her fight with Peridot and that close brush with death. But all of the sudden, she came to the stunned
realization that Zack, the conceited casanova, her infuriating and infuriatingly handsome partner, had not only
just saved her life, but...was lying on top of her, the arm that had not flung the dagger encircling her tightly.
Her gratitude for the first was mixed with embarrassment: anyone passing would think that the two had been
making out on the ground in public! And some inner rebellious part of her heart also managed to impishly say
that the position, inadvertent though it was, was not an entirely bad feeling, before her head tamped down
that thought mercilessly.
Zack looked at Amy, pinned underneath him, her navy hair messy, her blouse wrinkled and dusty, her blue eyes
huge, her cheeks crimson and her quick breaths tickling his ear. She looked more beautiful this way, trying to
catch her breath, slightly mussed, than he thought was possible for anyone to look. Truly, Meredith Kay, or
any of his previous paramours, could not compare. But now was not the time to tell her that. There were two
dead bad guys lying around, one whose weapon needed to be collected and bagged. So he got up, and held
out a hand to pull her up as well.
Silently and quickly, they walked up to the assassin that Zack had just killed. It was another of Demando's
assassins, Bloodstone. As Zack collected the gun in an evidence bag, Amy looked towards where they had
just been on the ground. Past them was a tree, and there was a smoking hole in the trunk. Bloodstone was a
notoriously good shot. Had it not been for Zack's tackling her to the ground, that bullet would have killed her.
Zack rejoined her after bagging the gun. In that time, she had brushed most of the dust from her clothes and
straightened out her hair. She walked up to him, and then did something that surprised both of them. Standing
on her tiptoes to accomodate for his 6'1" frame, she dropped a light, gentle kiss on his lips. "Thank you for
saving my life, Zack." She whispered.
Zack smiled, somewhat shakily. Gods, was she cruel? Did she not realize the effect she had on him whenever
they touched? She was not his, and yet, tempted him mercilessly with her light kisses! In a somewhat strained
voice, he said to her, "You're very welcome. Let's return to the restaurant. I doubt that there will be any more
attacks today, Demando, filthy rich though he may be, isn't that extravagant. Serena and Darien will be very
worried."
Amy nodded silently, and hand in hand, they walked back into the restaurant.
* * *
Ta-da! I just finished whipping out another chapter! So far, the majority wants this relationship to NOT go too
fast, so I'm trying to comply. However, I'm also trying to include fluffy scenes here and there, because those
seem to be in demand as well^^;; Anyways, tell me how I'm doing! REVIEW!! The next chapter in the works...
~Thalia
middle of the flippin' story and leave all the readers hanging! For this reason alone, you, dear reader, should
REVIEW!!!!
Again, all disclaimers apply...once again, it should be apparent to you what I own and what I don't own. Don't
sue...
Yeah...so anyways, here's chapter 4!!
* * *
Soon, they had all arrived at a nice, elegant Chinese restaurant and parked the cars in the parking lot . As
Amy and Zack had suspected, the 'janitor' had trailed Serena's Lotus in an unmarked black car all the way to
the restaurant, and was parked close by when the four of them had gotten out. Amy narrowed her eyes, and
took a powder compact out of her purse. Nonchalantly, she walked past the car, and with a barely perceptible
movement, dusted the door with the loose powder. Then, she walked past as nonchalantly as before to rejoin
Zack.
"What did you do?" Zack whispered to her. The two of them were walking behind Serena and Darien, hand in
hand, looking every bit the newlywed, happily in love couple they were pretending to be. A passerby would
simply see a handsome young man whispering sweet nothings into the ear of the lovely young lady next to
him.
"That powder is mildly radioactive. When he opens the door some will land on his body, and of course on his
hand when he shuts the door." Amy took out a tube of lipstick, and twisted it, and pointed it towards the car.
The powder, invisible to the naked eye, shone in green speckles under the beam . "He's not going to enter a
classy establishment such as this dressed as a janitor. He will disguise himself, and this will just make my job
easier. The stuff has a half-life of three hours, and by the time it is all decayed, he'll be lying in a bodybag."
And with that, the four of them entered the restaurant. Amy kept her eyes peeled on the entrance. Just as
the four of them had finished placing their orders, a man in a white shirt and charcoal slacks entered. He
had sunglasses and scarlet hair. Amy flashed her lipstick at him, and tell-tale green flecks shone on his arms
and legs. He moved to a secluded booth in the back of the restaurant, close to the bathrooms, and sat by
himself, watching them silently.
About ten minutes after the man had arrived, Amy excused herself to go to the bathroom. Grabbing her purse,
she entered the ladies' room. Quickly, she put on some makeup and took a lace handkerchief out of her purse.
She walked by a moment later, and dropped the handkerchief close by the man's table. Then, walking back to
her own table, she told everyone that she was going to step out for fresh air. She was nearly to the door
when she felt a tap on her shoulder and looked to see the man with scarlet hair. She smiled, her target had
taken the bait.
"You dropped this, miss." He handed her the handkerchief. Thanking him graciously, she proferred a slim white
hand with a smile.
"Thanks, I'm Amy." The man held out an arm, as if to shake her hand, but suddenly, Amy felt a knife pointing
at her torso, and the man removed his wig and sunglasses to reveal an unfortunately familiar face. Known as
Peridot, the man, although not as powerful as Rubeus or Saffir, was still a formidable assassin. Thankfully,
he did not seem to know that she was Agent Mercury, or else he would have stabbed her already.
"Now, little lady, we're going to make a trip to that Lotus you and your friend came in " Peridot led Amy away
from the restaurant door at knife-point. Amy knew that it would be foolish to move her hands; he would stab
her in a heartbeat. So, obediently, she walked towards the Lotus. But she had a plan in her head.
When they had reached the car, he took out a length of rope and bound her hands behind her back, then, in
the instant that he lowered his knife to look for the key to the Lotus in her purse, Amy kicked the knife out of
his hand. The knife sailed through the air, and Amy caught it securely in her right hand behind her back. The
smile on her beautiful face would have been sweet and winsome had it not been so cold. "Now, now, haven't
you ever learned...NEVER to underestimate the little lady?" With a flick of her wrist, she had used his knife to
slice through her ropes, and in a flash, crouched in fighting stance with the knife pointed at him. He, shocked
that this delicate-looking young woman had been able to break free, immediately dropped her purse and aimed
a kick at her hand which held the knife.
Amy, anticipating his move, dropped stance and did a sweep kick at his other leg. His kick sailed harmlessly
past her shoulder. Amy knew that she could not afford to spend large amounts of time fighting with him: in
all likelihood he was not the only one around, and she had to conserve her energy and get back to Serena as
soon as possible. She fought back mostly in defense, and to keep him distracted so that he would not notice
her whipping out an innocent-looking mechanical pencil in her free hand.
Suddenly, in mid-kick, Peridot felt his muscles seize up. Collapsing heavily to the ground, he felt a burning hot,
horrible pain in his thigh. Then a chilling numbness that spread throughout his body. With difficulty, he bent
his head down a trifle, to see a silvery needle thin as a fiber optic embedded within his thigh. And then, he
understood. He had heard of them before: four beautiful, brilliant women who'd had the most vigorous training
and formidable educations in the nation, specifically hand-picked for their brains and beauty to be elite
crime-fighter assassins targeting people like him. He cursed himself for not realizing it before: she'd been way
too obedient, too cool-headed, when he had held her at knife-point. And then, his lungs seemed to be
squeezed empty forcefully inside him. He started choking and wheezing, body jerking spasmodically on the
ground. Amy gave him one cold look, picked up her purse from the ground, extracted an evidence bag and put
in the knife and rope he'd used, then stuck it back into her purse and walked off without a backwards glance.
In time, the local police would find the dead body, then find out that he was one of the nation's most wanted
criminals, then they would call the FBI, get transferred to Luna's department, the department that every
criminal justice official was in awe of, and every civilian only imagined existed. They would note how the man
had been killed, and realize that it was one of those almost legendary elite agents that dispatched him.
~ ~ ~
Zack was becoming restless. Amy had not returned when the food had arrived. Briefly using her ring as she
had shown him to ascertain that the food had not been poisoned, he waited on the edge of his seat, eyes
hawklike focused on the door. When, in ten minutes, she had still not shown up, he set his teeth, strode out
quickly, and met a grisly sight:
A man, whom Zack recognized as the mysterious janitor, and identified to be a vicious assassin named Peridot
who worked under Demando, was keening and writhing on the ground, bloody foam frothing his blue-ish lips.
Amy's words returned to him: "Targets don't even realize they had been hit...until they notice that first their
fingers, then their arms and legs, and then their entire body, loses the ability to move. Then, they go into
convulsions and die choking. I tend to save this for particularly rotten targets." Speaking of Amy, there she
was, looking slightly less impeccable and more mussed than before, putting an evidence bag into her purse.
Zack felt relief: She was safe...she saw him, smiled, and walked up to him.
Or was she?! A deep, jangling sense of danger struck him, a feeling that he had learnt throughout the years
and countless assignments never to ignore. She seemed to feel it at the same time, too, for all of the sudden
she stiffened. Out of the corner of his eye, Zack saw a stealthy figure to his left, about 8 feet away, half
hidden by the shadow of a dumpster, and saw a gun in his hand.
Almost without thinking, Zack gave a flick of his wrist towards the figure, then tackled Amy to the ground as
a gunshot rang out. But only one. Then, there was the sickening noise of metal burying itself in flesh. Zach's
dagger had sunk to the hilt into the second assassin's stomach.
Amy and Zack stayed still on the ground for a minute, hearts pounding. Amy had started to catch her breath
after her fight with Peridot and that close brush with death. But all of the sudden, she came to the stunned
realization that Zack, the conceited casanova, her infuriating and infuriatingly handsome partner, had not only
just saved her life, but...was lying on top of her, the arm that had not flung the dagger encircling her tightly.
Her gratitude for the first was mixed with embarrassment: anyone passing would think that the two had been
making out on the ground in public! And some inner rebellious part of her heart also managed to impishly say
that the position, inadvertent though it was, was not an entirely bad feeling, before her head tamped down
that thought mercilessly.
Zack looked at Amy, pinned underneath him, her navy hair messy, her blouse wrinkled and dusty, her blue eyes
huge, her cheeks crimson and her quick breaths tickling his ear. She looked more beautiful this way, trying to
catch her breath, slightly mussed, than he thought was possible for anyone to look. Truly, Meredith Kay, or
any of his previous paramours, could not compare. But now was not the time to tell her that. There were two
dead bad guys lying around, one whose weapon needed to be collected and bagged. So he got up, and held
out a hand to pull her up as well.
Silently and quickly, they walked up to the assassin that Zack had just killed. It was another of Demando's
assassins, Bloodstone. As Zack collected the gun in an evidence bag, Amy looked towards where they had
just been on the ground. Past them was a tree, and there was a smoking hole in the trunk. Bloodstone was a
notoriously good shot. Had it not been for Zack's tackling her to the ground, that bullet would have killed her.
Zack rejoined her after bagging the gun. In that time, she had brushed most of the dust from her clothes and
straightened out her hair. She walked up to him, and then did something that surprised both of them. Standing
on her tiptoes to accomodate for his 6'1" frame, she dropped a light, gentle kiss on his lips. "Thank you for
saving my life, Zack." She whispered.
Zack smiled, somewhat shakily. Gods, was she cruel? Did she not realize the effect she had on him whenever
they touched? She was not his, and yet, tempted him mercilessly with her light kisses! In a somewhat strained
voice, he said to her, "You're very welcome. Let's return to the restaurant. I doubt that there will be any more
attacks today, Demando, filthy rich though he may be, isn't that extravagant. Serena and Darien will be very
worried."
Amy nodded silently, and hand in hand, they walked back into the restaurant.
* * *
Ta-da! I just finished whipping out another chapter! So far, the majority wants this relationship to NOT go too
fast, so I'm trying to comply. However, I'm also trying to include fluffy scenes here and there, because those
seem to be in demand as well^^;; Anyways, tell me how I'm doing! REVIEW!! The next chapter in the works...
~Thalia