Angel and Stealth
Chapter 2: Figuring it Out
If you need warnings or a disclaimer, go to chapter 1. it is there. That is all. *bows politely and the room darkens*
The wind blew; it was a cold morning. Two figures, both dressed all in black and revealing as little skin as possible, each equipped with two suitcases, stood outside a quaint little shop as the aroma of brewing coffee wafted through the air. One of the figures looked over at the other and nodded. Picking up their bags, they walked down about two blocks to where a shiny midnight blue-silver SUV was parked. The leading figure opened the trunk and the other threw the bags in unceremoniously.
"Where are we going?" asked Seto as they both got in the car.
"I don't know, just drive," Seraphim replied, massaging her forehead. Plans ran through her head, all of them useless. They needed to know who was hunting them.
Seto started the car.
"Wait!" Seraphim had an idea. They were being stupid; just get away? How would that save them? They needed to know who was hunting them right? Well then, go back to the scene of the crime. Set bait and wait for the pursuer to come back to finish the job.
"What is it?" the car came to an immediate halt.
"We are ex-assassins. We should have thought this through," Seraphim said logically.
Seto looked at her like she was crazy. "We have thought this through. Someone wants to get rid of us, we are running away from them."
"No. They'll come back. We don't even know who they are. If we capture the pawn, we get to the king faster. We have to find out who's hunting us. And that means going back," Seraphim reasoned.
Seto sighed; Seraphim had a point. "Okay, we wait two days. If nothing happens, we leave. Fair?"
Seraphim thought about it for a moment. "Fair."
They turned the SUV around and headed back towards the apartment complex.
After tidying up the place(s), both assassins decided to keep in close contact. The phones were left off the hook as makeshift walkie- talkies. The rooms were silent and pitch black. During the day, Seto and Seraphim stayed close, going out one at a time to eat. At the end of the second day, Seraphim was beginning to think that perhaps her plan had been stupid after all. Then Seto's voice sounded over the phone in a low whisper.
"Someone's here. Come over and see if you can get them by surprise," a click was heard meaning Seto had hung up the phone. They had a visitor. Seraphim crept stealthily through the open door. The plan was that they would gang up on the assailant and get whatever information they could out of him or her.
Seto signaled to her as she walked through the door. They both crept up behind the snoop. Seraphim grabbed his arms and Seto his legs. The man flailed wildly for a few minutes, then realized he was caught. He reached for a revolver tucked in his belt but couldn't make it. Seto displayed his lightning-fast reflexes and retrieved the offending weapon.
"Who sent you?" Seraphim asked coldly as the two of them pinned him down.
The man wouldn't speak, he only grunted in discomfort.
"Who sent you?" asked Seto, a little more forcefully and commanding that Seraphim had been. His eyes glittered maliciously, like dark ice.
The assailant said nothing.
Seraphim, outraged, drew out a long silver knife. "Talk."
The man's eyes widened a bit, but he remained silent.
Bringing the knife closer to the man's neck, Seraphim smiled sweetly and repeated her request. "Talk." Then, almost as an afterthought and too sickly sweet to be nice, she added, "Please."
Frightened by the long knife dragging dangerously across his skin, the man began to speak in a hoarse whisper. "Don't hurt me, I'll talk!" His voice was a high squeak, like a frightened mouse that had been cornered.
Seraphim pricked the man's neck when he didn't answer right away. He cringed in fear. "We're waiting," Seto hissed gruffly.
"A...a guy, he called me. Said he'd give me money...lots! If I would sneak into these two apartments and kill whoever was there. He gave me keys...and a silencer. He told me that...if no one was there, just mess the places up and go back later to finish the job. So I did! Please, don't kill me!" the man pleaded. You could see the fear in his eyes.
"Who is your employer?" asked Seto.
"I...don't know!" the man shouted. "I swear! He never gave me a name!"
"Have you heard anything that would give him away?" asked Seraphim. The knife was pressing into his skin again.
"I...I heard someone talking to him. He called him...Mr., Mr. Egg Sauce," the man cowered, they would think he was crazy...they would kill him!!!
Seraphim looked at Seto, confusion written in her eyes. "Egg Sauce"? Then, a sudden realization hit her...but it was impossible...
"Do you take us for fools?" asked Seto menacingly.
"NO!" the man whispered fearfully. Seto almost missed the small detonator he pulled from inside his sleeve.
Working quickly, Seto swiped the tiny black device from the man's hand. He handed it to Seraphim. "Well what do you know. A bomb. We don't like bombs do we?" she asked Seto.
Seto shook his head, grinning coldly. "No, we don't."
"Too bad, if you had cooperated with us, we would have let you live," Seraphim tsked. "Oh well." Seraphim and Seto tied the man up and bound him to a chair.
Taking the detonator back from Seraphim, Seto led her out of the door. While cleaning out the rooms, they had found a small bomb. It was ingeniously designed, it sent out high radiation for a certain diameter, killing any unfortunate soul in the apartment.
"Bye bye," Seraphim waved.
"NO! Save me!" their intruder shouted.
Seto pushed the button. "Sorry, not today," he grabbed Seraphim's hand and they ran.
"Get anything from him?" asked Seraphim as they got in the car.
"No, that stuff about 'Egg Sauce', what was that about?" replied Seto.
"I think...pEGaSUS. Maybe."
"Didn't he die? We saw it on TV," Seto argued.
"Maybe he set us up. Maybe he didn't want us out of commission, maybe he just wants us dead," Seraphim said thoughtfully.
"That means he's still alive?" Seto concluded.
"Yeah. But we don't know where."
"Then we find him and figure out what the hell he wants with us," Seto replied.
"I guess, where do we start looking?" asked Seraphim.
"Let's do a little hacking," Seto suggested.
Seraphim smiled. Hacking, they could do that. "Let's."
After driving for about an hour, they pulled over to the shoulder of the road, a common tourist spot...but tonight it was deserted.
Seto pulled out a laptop computer and began running scans on anything remotely connected to Pegasus J. Crawford. After about twenty minutes, he called Seraphim over.
"Look at this," he pointed to the screen. "The autopsy on the body. It shows signs of physical abuse. They couldn't do much more because it had been in that fire...but who would be able to abuse that man?" he asked confusedly.
"I don't know. I don't think it was him. I think he faked his death. He waited after that, waited till we were comfortable with our lives again, then, after we got careless, he decided to strike. He wants us dead for some reason."
"Yeah, that's what I assumed, well, it says here that a house had been bought by a MAXIMILLION Pegasus in France, Paris to be precise. Shall we check there?" asked Seto.
Seraphim nodded. "Yeah, that'll be a good place to start."
Seto typed on the laptop for a few more minutes. "Ta-da, first class seats on the six A.M. plane to Venice, Italy. We'd better get to the airport," he added, checking his watch. It was about eleven at night. He started up the car and Seraphim strapped herself in.
"You wanna get something to eat? It's gonna be a while before the flight," said Seto.
"Sure," Seraphim replied, watching the road.
They pulled over at the airport and checked in. Then, they spotted a McDonald's and took a seat with their carry-ons. They each got something to eat and sat for a while in silence. They were both thinking the same thing. 'What does Pegasus want?'
After hours of silent research on Maximillion Pegasus, it was time to board the plane. They had chosen new identities for themselves to cover their tracks. Seraphim was now the brown-haired, blue-eyed beauty known as Krystal Sokugawa. Seto had gotten green-contact lenses and purchased some red-brown hair dye to become Jonathan Cortez. The two were acting as a couple on vacation.
They boarded the plane without incident and immediately went to studying printouts they had gotten on Pegasus. Seraphim had been assigned to his personal habits while Seto looked at his business records. The time- consuming process soon had both ex-assassins tired by the time lunch was served.
"Shall we call it a day?" asked Seraphim, looking over at Seto who looked ready to fall asleep.
Seto's head snapped up. "No, I'm fine. We can keep going."
Seraphim shook her head and slid the papers out of Seto's hands. "Stop. You'll be all tired out by the time we get there. We need to begin work as soon as possible. If you're out of commission, we'll never get anywhere," she reasoned.
Seto looked at her doubtfully. "But I need to do this," he argued.
"Do it later. When you've rested. You drove all the way here; you need some rest. All I did was listen to the radio," Seraphim pointed out.
Seto sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Fine."
Seraphim smiled to herself, but smirked at Seto. "I'll finish up," she said.
Seto grumbled something to himself including the words "women" and "stubborn." Seraphim chuckled to herself and began looking over the papers. They were very boring. She had finished her work a while ago; Seto was almost done as well. She just had about five more pages to look over. She looked over at Seto. 'Sleeping like a baby,' she thought to herself.
She returned to the task at hand. Soon, she was down the last half of the last page. Rubbing sleep out of her eyes, she proceeded to tackle the last thing they had.
"He had opened a store in Venice, Italy which sold rare artifacts. He has collected many valuable ancient talismans that he says are very powerful. 'The talismans only work with one pure of heart,' says Pegasus. 'One not pure of heart will not be able to use them unless they have stolen the essence of one who is pure of heart using certain rituals. One pure of heart is unselfish and such, but they will also bear a mark shaped like the sun and surrounded by petals if my memory serves me correctly, somewhere on their body.'"
Seraphim froze. This was from a newspaper article dating back to three years ago. The shop had been sold, but all the artifacts had remained in Pegasus' possession. Was this something? A shiver ran down her spine. She lifted her shirt to reveal her stomach. There, on her hip, was a tattoo. Her foster father said she had always had it. It was a tiny mark, in the shape of a lotus blossom. In the center of the blossom, was the sun.
Seraphim rudely shook Seto awake.
"What is it?" he asked sleepily. "Are we landing?"
"No, not yet," Seraphim whispered harshly. "Tell me something...do you have a tattoo?"
"A what?"
"A tattoo," Seraphim repeated. "Like this one," she lifted her shirt and pointed to the tattoo on her hip.
Seto gasped. "Actually...yeah." He pulled down on his shirt collar to reveal his shoulder...and a strange lotus-blossom shaped mark with a picture of the sun in the middle.
"Read this," Seraphim shoved the article in Seto's face.
"How does this relate to him hunting us?" asked Seto.
"He wants us. He thinks we're 'pure' or something," Seraphim replied.
"That's ridiculous," Seto chided.
"Not so ridiculous," Seraphim began. "Since when have you had that tattoo?"
"Since forever," replied Seto. "Why?"
"Don't you see??? It's the mark! The one Pegasus is talking about!!!" Seraphim screamed in a whisper.
"How do you know?" asked Seto again.
"Don't you see? This is why he wanted us, to 'steal our essence' or something. We KNOW he's one of those power-hungry people. You just put two and two together. Figure it out! He wants to use those talismans for something!"
"Perhaps you're overreacting," Seto started.
"You tell me to talk more often and now when I do, you tell me I'm overreacting," Seraphim stated. "I'm not overreacting. This is real, I just know it is."
Seto sighed. His gut feeling was telling him she was right. But what if she wasn't? What if this was all some wild goose chase? "What do you propose we do?"
"I don't know. That's just it. We don't know what kind of talismans they are. We have to find out. As soon as we land, we have some more research to do," Seraphim said wearily.
Seto groaned. More research?
"Passengers, please buckle your seatbelts, we will be landing shortly," a voice said over the intercom. "Thank you!"
"Yes," replied Seraphim. "More research."
Well, that's it for chapter two. I think I'm gonna be starting working on another project sometime soon. So check back with me every now and then for more stuff. As always, read and review! The review part is CRUCIAL. ^- ^ Cherryblossom: one-shot is like a non-chapter fic. So there's only one chapter-type thing. I'd really like to know who the pharaoh/prince person in your dream was. True, I am partial to Seto. But Yami is my second favorite. ( ahm.I like your plot, the beginning is mostly well-thought-out so we just have to be creative with the ending. Ahm.I shall be working on an OC description for you. Please tell me if you want any distinguishing marks. For example, certain color eyes/hair, birthmarks, etc. thank you! ^- ^
Chapter 2: Figuring it Out
If you need warnings or a disclaimer, go to chapter 1. it is there. That is all. *bows politely and the room darkens*
The wind blew; it was a cold morning. Two figures, both dressed all in black and revealing as little skin as possible, each equipped with two suitcases, stood outside a quaint little shop as the aroma of brewing coffee wafted through the air. One of the figures looked over at the other and nodded. Picking up their bags, they walked down about two blocks to where a shiny midnight blue-silver SUV was parked. The leading figure opened the trunk and the other threw the bags in unceremoniously.
"Where are we going?" asked Seto as they both got in the car.
"I don't know, just drive," Seraphim replied, massaging her forehead. Plans ran through her head, all of them useless. They needed to know who was hunting them.
Seto started the car.
"Wait!" Seraphim had an idea. They were being stupid; just get away? How would that save them? They needed to know who was hunting them right? Well then, go back to the scene of the crime. Set bait and wait for the pursuer to come back to finish the job.
"What is it?" the car came to an immediate halt.
"We are ex-assassins. We should have thought this through," Seraphim said logically.
Seto looked at her like she was crazy. "We have thought this through. Someone wants to get rid of us, we are running away from them."
"No. They'll come back. We don't even know who they are. If we capture the pawn, we get to the king faster. We have to find out who's hunting us. And that means going back," Seraphim reasoned.
Seto sighed; Seraphim had a point. "Okay, we wait two days. If nothing happens, we leave. Fair?"
Seraphim thought about it for a moment. "Fair."
They turned the SUV around and headed back towards the apartment complex.
After tidying up the place(s), both assassins decided to keep in close contact. The phones were left off the hook as makeshift walkie- talkies. The rooms were silent and pitch black. During the day, Seto and Seraphim stayed close, going out one at a time to eat. At the end of the second day, Seraphim was beginning to think that perhaps her plan had been stupid after all. Then Seto's voice sounded over the phone in a low whisper.
"Someone's here. Come over and see if you can get them by surprise," a click was heard meaning Seto had hung up the phone. They had a visitor. Seraphim crept stealthily through the open door. The plan was that they would gang up on the assailant and get whatever information they could out of him or her.
Seto signaled to her as she walked through the door. They both crept up behind the snoop. Seraphim grabbed his arms and Seto his legs. The man flailed wildly for a few minutes, then realized he was caught. He reached for a revolver tucked in his belt but couldn't make it. Seto displayed his lightning-fast reflexes and retrieved the offending weapon.
"Who sent you?" Seraphim asked coldly as the two of them pinned him down.
The man wouldn't speak, he only grunted in discomfort.
"Who sent you?" asked Seto, a little more forcefully and commanding that Seraphim had been. His eyes glittered maliciously, like dark ice.
The assailant said nothing.
Seraphim, outraged, drew out a long silver knife. "Talk."
The man's eyes widened a bit, but he remained silent.
Bringing the knife closer to the man's neck, Seraphim smiled sweetly and repeated her request. "Talk." Then, almost as an afterthought and too sickly sweet to be nice, she added, "Please."
Frightened by the long knife dragging dangerously across his skin, the man began to speak in a hoarse whisper. "Don't hurt me, I'll talk!" His voice was a high squeak, like a frightened mouse that had been cornered.
Seraphim pricked the man's neck when he didn't answer right away. He cringed in fear. "We're waiting," Seto hissed gruffly.
"A...a guy, he called me. Said he'd give me money...lots! If I would sneak into these two apartments and kill whoever was there. He gave me keys...and a silencer. He told me that...if no one was there, just mess the places up and go back later to finish the job. So I did! Please, don't kill me!" the man pleaded. You could see the fear in his eyes.
"Who is your employer?" asked Seto.
"I...don't know!" the man shouted. "I swear! He never gave me a name!"
"Have you heard anything that would give him away?" asked Seraphim. The knife was pressing into his skin again.
"I...I heard someone talking to him. He called him...Mr., Mr. Egg Sauce," the man cowered, they would think he was crazy...they would kill him!!!
Seraphim looked at Seto, confusion written in her eyes. "Egg Sauce"? Then, a sudden realization hit her...but it was impossible...
"Do you take us for fools?" asked Seto menacingly.
"NO!" the man whispered fearfully. Seto almost missed the small detonator he pulled from inside his sleeve.
Working quickly, Seto swiped the tiny black device from the man's hand. He handed it to Seraphim. "Well what do you know. A bomb. We don't like bombs do we?" she asked Seto.
Seto shook his head, grinning coldly. "No, we don't."
"Too bad, if you had cooperated with us, we would have let you live," Seraphim tsked. "Oh well." Seraphim and Seto tied the man up and bound him to a chair.
Taking the detonator back from Seraphim, Seto led her out of the door. While cleaning out the rooms, they had found a small bomb. It was ingeniously designed, it sent out high radiation for a certain diameter, killing any unfortunate soul in the apartment.
"Bye bye," Seraphim waved.
"NO! Save me!" their intruder shouted.
Seto pushed the button. "Sorry, not today," he grabbed Seraphim's hand and they ran.
"Get anything from him?" asked Seraphim as they got in the car.
"No, that stuff about 'Egg Sauce', what was that about?" replied Seto.
"I think...pEGaSUS. Maybe."
"Didn't he die? We saw it on TV," Seto argued.
"Maybe he set us up. Maybe he didn't want us out of commission, maybe he just wants us dead," Seraphim said thoughtfully.
"That means he's still alive?" Seto concluded.
"Yeah. But we don't know where."
"Then we find him and figure out what the hell he wants with us," Seto replied.
"I guess, where do we start looking?" asked Seraphim.
"Let's do a little hacking," Seto suggested.
Seraphim smiled. Hacking, they could do that. "Let's."
After driving for about an hour, they pulled over to the shoulder of the road, a common tourist spot...but tonight it was deserted.
Seto pulled out a laptop computer and began running scans on anything remotely connected to Pegasus J. Crawford. After about twenty minutes, he called Seraphim over.
"Look at this," he pointed to the screen. "The autopsy on the body. It shows signs of physical abuse. They couldn't do much more because it had been in that fire...but who would be able to abuse that man?" he asked confusedly.
"I don't know. I don't think it was him. I think he faked his death. He waited after that, waited till we were comfortable with our lives again, then, after we got careless, he decided to strike. He wants us dead for some reason."
"Yeah, that's what I assumed, well, it says here that a house had been bought by a MAXIMILLION Pegasus in France, Paris to be precise. Shall we check there?" asked Seto.
Seraphim nodded. "Yeah, that'll be a good place to start."
Seto typed on the laptop for a few more minutes. "Ta-da, first class seats on the six A.M. plane to Venice, Italy. We'd better get to the airport," he added, checking his watch. It was about eleven at night. He started up the car and Seraphim strapped herself in.
"You wanna get something to eat? It's gonna be a while before the flight," said Seto.
"Sure," Seraphim replied, watching the road.
They pulled over at the airport and checked in. Then, they spotted a McDonald's and took a seat with their carry-ons. They each got something to eat and sat for a while in silence. They were both thinking the same thing. 'What does Pegasus want?'
After hours of silent research on Maximillion Pegasus, it was time to board the plane. They had chosen new identities for themselves to cover their tracks. Seraphim was now the brown-haired, blue-eyed beauty known as Krystal Sokugawa. Seto had gotten green-contact lenses and purchased some red-brown hair dye to become Jonathan Cortez. The two were acting as a couple on vacation.
They boarded the plane without incident and immediately went to studying printouts they had gotten on Pegasus. Seraphim had been assigned to his personal habits while Seto looked at his business records. The time- consuming process soon had both ex-assassins tired by the time lunch was served.
"Shall we call it a day?" asked Seraphim, looking over at Seto who looked ready to fall asleep.
Seto's head snapped up. "No, I'm fine. We can keep going."
Seraphim shook her head and slid the papers out of Seto's hands. "Stop. You'll be all tired out by the time we get there. We need to begin work as soon as possible. If you're out of commission, we'll never get anywhere," she reasoned.
Seto looked at her doubtfully. "But I need to do this," he argued.
"Do it later. When you've rested. You drove all the way here; you need some rest. All I did was listen to the radio," Seraphim pointed out.
Seto sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Fine."
Seraphim smiled to herself, but smirked at Seto. "I'll finish up," she said.
Seto grumbled something to himself including the words "women" and "stubborn." Seraphim chuckled to herself and began looking over the papers. They were very boring. She had finished her work a while ago; Seto was almost done as well. She just had about five more pages to look over. She looked over at Seto. 'Sleeping like a baby,' she thought to herself.
She returned to the task at hand. Soon, she was down the last half of the last page. Rubbing sleep out of her eyes, she proceeded to tackle the last thing they had.
"He had opened a store in Venice, Italy which sold rare artifacts. He has collected many valuable ancient talismans that he says are very powerful. 'The talismans only work with one pure of heart,' says Pegasus. 'One not pure of heart will not be able to use them unless they have stolen the essence of one who is pure of heart using certain rituals. One pure of heart is unselfish and such, but they will also bear a mark shaped like the sun and surrounded by petals if my memory serves me correctly, somewhere on their body.'"
Seraphim froze. This was from a newspaper article dating back to three years ago. The shop had been sold, but all the artifacts had remained in Pegasus' possession. Was this something? A shiver ran down her spine. She lifted her shirt to reveal her stomach. There, on her hip, was a tattoo. Her foster father said she had always had it. It was a tiny mark, in the shape of a lotus blossom. In the center of the blossom, was the sun.
Seraphim rudely shook Seto awake.
"What is it?" he asked sleepily. "Are we landing?"
"No, not yet," Seraphim whispered harshly. "Tell me something...do you have a tattoo?"
"A what?"
"A tattoo," Seraphim repeated. "Like this one," she lifted her shirt and pointed to the tattoo on her hip.
Seto gasped. "Actually...yeah." He pulled down on his shirt collar to reveal his shoulder...and a strange lotus-blossom shaped mark with a picture of the sun in the middle.
"Read this," Seraphim shoved the article in Seto's face.
"How does this relate to him hunting us?" asked Seto.
"He wants us. He thinks we're 'pure' or something," Seraphim replied.
"That's ridiculous," Seto chided.
"Not so ridiculous," Seraphim began. "Since when have you had that tattoo?"
"Since forever," replied Seto. "Why?"
"Don't you see??? It's the mark! The one Pegasus is talking about!!!" Seraphim screamed in a whisper.
"How do you know?" asked Seto again.
"Don't you see? This is why he wanted us, to 'steal our essence' or something. We KNOW he's one of those power-hungry people. You just put two and two together. Figure it out! He wants to use those talismans for something!"
"Perhaps you're overreacting," Seto started.
"You tell me to talk more often and now when I do, you tell me I'm overreacting," Seraphim stated. "I'm not overreacting. This is real, I just know it is."
Seto sighed. His gut feeling was telling him she was right. But what if she wasn't? What if this was all some wild goose chase? "What do you propose we do?"
"I don't know. That's just it. We don't know what kind of talismans they are. We have to find out. As soon as we land, we have some more research to do," Seraphim said wearily.
Seto groaned. More research?
"Passengers, please buckle your seatbelts, we will be landing shortly," a voice said over the intercom. "Thank you!"
"Yes," replied Seraphim. "More research."
Well, that's it for chapter two. I think I'm gonna be starting working on another project sometime soon. So check back with me every now and then for more stuff. As always, read and review! The review part is CRUCIAL. ^- ^ Cherryblossom: one-shot is like a non-chapter fic. So there's only one chapter-type thing. I'd really like to know who the pharaoh/prince person in your dream was. True, I am partial to Seto. But Yami is my second favorite. ( ahm.I like your plot, the beginning is mostly well-thought-out so we just have to be creative with the ending. Ahm.I shall be working on an OC description for you. Please tell me if you want any distinguishing marks. For example, certain color eyes/hair, birthmarks, etc. thank you! ^- ^