TATTOO YOUR SOUL
Raven's Flat.
The building its self was an imposing fortress of solitude, tall and brick. It was the tallest edifice, plunked on a decent sized plot, as if dropped there by the hand of God, himself. Ravens hovered in the air around the STN-J headquarters, heralding the place's namesake with each caw and cry. They jumped up every time someone passed, as if calling out the death and decay that seemed to follow the STN. Every last detail of the building could send chills racing up and down your spine.
Karasuma gave a glance out the window as a whole flock of those black birds took to wing. They cawed and seemed to cackle as the birds flew past the empath. In one sense, they were creatures of death. However, Miho rather liked them. They dove and played just beyond the pane of glass, giving her something to see when the days were dull.
"Hugin and Mugin," she mused.
Michael raised an eyebrow, looking to the woman at her desk. "What?"
Karasuma sighed, sitting back in her chair, relaxing. The day had been long, drawn out by filling out endless forms. As the sunset, there remained a tall stack of more forms on her desk. Kosaka and their Solomon bosses seemed to have it out for Miho, keeping her trapped behind the desk to file endless forms. Punishment for keeping secrets, for practically aiding and abetting the witches of Nocturne.
"Hugin and Mugin," Miho repeated wistfully. "They were the ravens of Odin. Hugin, thought. Mugin, memory." Michael just curiously stared. "Everyday, Odin sent his ravens out to gather knowledge for him."
The hacker gave a shrug, looking back to his computer. "You heading home anytime soon?"
Karasuma gave a nod in the direction of her paperwork. "Doesn't look like anytime this century. I've been buried under all these papers for weeks now." The empath smiled slightly to herself. "You want to order something to eat?"
"Eh…" Michael gestured to the mound of junk food already piled on the computer console, obviously favoring the sugar-encrusted snacks to a real meal.
Miho just let out a small laugh before returning to filing paperwork. Ah, here was a fun section. Requisition forms. Everything the STN-J agency had requested or filed for compensation during the last year or so in a lovely stack perhaps three or four inches tall. Even down to the gas receipts for each of the STN's vehicles at that office. Karasuma, as team leader, should have gone through them once a week, but Kosaka very often took that responsibility off of her to allow the empath to work on more important matters. However, as a result of her failure to follow proper protocol, now, Kosaka had to be a stickler for rules to avoid more fire from Solomon.
She hummed a tune to herself as she began to file.
Here was one left over from when Amon had been the team leader. Karasuma couldn't believe the paperwork went back that far. Her fingers delicately traced over the edge of the paper as she pondered what had happened to the man.
"I know you don't. But you have to look."
Sadness. Pity. Sorrow.
Amon protectively held Kathain close to him. She lay, dying in his arms, her breaths wasting away to nothingness.
Miho jumped.
"Amon."
xxxx
They stood, staring at the building from a distance. They had no other choice. The STN-J's computers and hacker were their only hope of finding Amon and Kathain alive and in one piece. They had to do it.
Sakaki turned to the others. "I'm going to go check and see what the word is."
"Don't go alone," Kristo ordered.
Nycole piped up, volunteering with a fretful eagerness. "I'll go."
"Smart." Brett rolled his eyes in mild chagrin at the telepath. "So we can loose the two of you in addition to Kathain and Amon? Smart." He reached over and patted the empath on the top of her head. "Special."
"Fuck off, Brett," the girl snarled. "I'm going."
The fire elemental conceded, knowing it was best to just let her get into trouble and deal with it later than argue with an embittered telepath. "Alright. Just be careful."
"You, too."
xxxx
"Amon's in trouble."
Michael glanced up. "Miss Karasuma?"
The empath had gone white as a sheet. She looked startled, like she'd seen a ghost, or a particularly bad scry. Michael's heart skipped a beat when he saw the look on Miho's pallid face. A look of shock and horror. As twilight settled and darkness fell upon the Raven's Flat, the woman's face carried the pale, blue of early evening, looking half-dead.
"Miss Karasuma?" the hacker asked again.
Miho snapped out of it suddenly. "I'm sorry."
"So am I," Kristo's voice came out of the shadows, along with the shadow walker, Brett, Geoff, Bear, and Raven.
Michael ducked behind the desk at the sight. Kristo strode defiantly, still bathed in the blood of the soldiers he had slaughtered just 24 hrs ago. His katana rested in his right hand comfortably, while the tonto was held in the left. Both gleamed and glimmered in the lights of Michael's computer console. Brett's fire rolled and danced up his arm from his hand, ready for battle. The runes glowed dimly beneath Raven's tanned skin. Geoff carried with him a wave of energy, while Bear kept his gifts in check, waiting to just unleash them. Robin followed behind, uncertainly.
"What are you doing here? You can't be seen here," Miho whispered.
Robin closed her emerald eyes. "Karasuma, we need your help."
"Solomon." Brett spat the word, as his fire burnt brighter, hotter. "They took Kathain and Amon. We need your computer to find them."
"Michael…" Karasuma breathed, looking to the hacker who still hid behind the desk. Michael had never been a fighter, and he was smart enough to know the odds were stacked against them. "Michael, can you find them?"
The hacker blinked. "Who are they?"
"It doesn't matter. Just find Amon," Robin instructed, turning away. "Please?"
Michael nodded. "Ok… I'll do it."
xxxx
"Hurry."
Sakaki stood outside of the graveyard gates, peering through the wrought iron at the rows and rows of white columns, each inscribed with a name in elegant, carved calligraphy. As a child, he'd come out to the cemetery, feeling welcomed by the space in the cities of Tokyo. Sometimes, it seemed like the graveyards were the only place one could go to find breathing room in the metropolis. He even had an imaginary friend there, a little girl his age. Now, with Nycole dancing about nervously behind him, still wary of another attack by Solomon, Haruto wanted nothing more than to climb on the motorcycle and speed back to Raven's Flat.
The man scrambled up the gate and into the quiet grounds. Nycole followed, landing down a bit harder than Sakaki. Together, they moved between the headstones, towards the center of the graveyard. Haruto allowed his mind to open, just as Nycole, the empath had taught him, letting in the distant and hushed whispers of the dead all around them. They crooned and sang in Sakaki's ears, growing louder the deeper into the cemetery the pair trespassed.
'Haaaarrruuuuuuutttooooo…. Har…. Ru…. To. Ha! Did I scare you?'
Sakaki smirked. He found the spirit he had been looking for. The voice was small and childish, teasing and joking. It was a young spirit, perhaps only ten or twelve years old in real life, but far older in death, and female. Haruto had yet to find a gravestone for the child who had been his playmate in his youth and guide once Nycole sorted everything out in his mind and saw the truth.
"Sanyu…. It's been a while," Sakaki greeted the playful spirit.
Nycole took a seat on the cushiony grass, watching everything unfold and listening in with her own telepathy.
'Come to play a game?'
Haruto shook his head, still passing his hand from headstone to headstone. "I can't."
'Aw.' Even spirits could pout. When Sanyu spoke again, she sounded annoyed and frusterated that Sakaki wouldn't play with her. 'Then why are you here?'
"Two of my friends are in trouble," the man informed the incorporeal child. "I wanted to know if you'd heard anything about them." The spirit didn't answer right away. "It has to do with the Thirteen and the Oracle."
'Really?' Sakaki had Sanyu's interest.
Sakaki nodded slowly. "Yup. The Oracle's been taken."
'In that case, lemme see what I can do.'
xxxx
They stood, peering over Michael's shoulder. They were worried, terrified, and Michael understood that. However, it didn't stop their leering from bugging the younger man to death. Finally, the hacker grew annoyed and swatted over his shoulder, trying to send them away as he worked, searching for any information on Amon and Kathain.
It was hard to crack into Solomon's computer system than it had been in the past. After the Factory incident, Solomon put tougher password protection and encryption on their network. It took Michael a while to even get a good lock on the main server and attempt to access it. This was what the hacker lived for, the pure thrill of it all. Michael loved nothing better than the challenge of a tough system to crack and the eventual access it granted the young man.
It didn't seem like too long before Sakaki and Nycole returned on his bike. Kristo shadow melded out of the STN and back in with the pair.
Geoff looked to Sakaki with hopeful eyes, but Haruto just shook his head. "Sanyu has no idea. No one in the area does. She said she'd keep her eyes and ears open, but no guarantees." Sakaki sat, flopping down in one of the desk chairs and putting his feet up as he had so many times before. "But it's made them loud, restless even."
"Figured as much," the bartender replied.
Robin tried not to think about what that could mean. If even spirits couldn't find Amon and Kathain, it meant they definitely were not in Japan and not within easy reach. Nycole couldn't feel them, nor could Kristo shadow meld directly to them, meaning nothing. Those could have been based off of the consciousness of the two who were missing. Robin could easily write that off and ignore it. No. If spirits could not locate the pair, that meant they were much further away.
She and Amon never fled the county for the simple fact that there was just too much red tape between them and any other country. Passports, visas, plane or boat tickets. It all added up to a paper trail directly back to the witch or the former hunter. If Kathain and Amon weren't in Japan, it would be far more difficult to free them. The teenage witch had been hoping against hope this whole time that they were still in Japan, in some Solomon base Robin hadn't known about.
She clenched her fist. Sweet fire flickered in her eyes, but, under a stern gaze from Brett, Robin extinguished it.
"Save it for Solomon," the fire elemental instructed.
Robin nodded.
"I've can't be certain," Michael finally said. "But it looks like two prisoners, witches both, were taken to Rome from the Tokyo facility in the last 48 hrs. There's a work order for the transport, but it doesn't list the witches."
Robin gave a quick nod. "That must be them. There's no one else it can be." She leaned close. "Michael, can you tell me exactly what facility they were taken to?"
"Sorry, Robin, but it doesn't list that. Solomon's been more careful since… well… you know," the hacker replied.
"It's alright," the girl closed her eyes. "You tried your best."
Nycole put her arm around Robin, just as she would Kathain on a bad day. The girl grew more and more attached to the fire starter with every day. Robin had become like a little sister, just as Kathain had. Nycole wouldn't let either of her sisters hurt.
"If we get close enough, I'll be able to feel them," the empath whispered.
"Then, to Rome, it is."
xxxx
Ah, travel plans…. And a few, fun things I hope you noticed.
