Disclaimer: I have already mentioned that I do not own Alex Rider or Sherlock, but I should mention that I do not own 'What Does the Fox Say?' or 'The Macarena' either.
Only If-Thank you so much! I am glad that you approve of my grammar and spelling. I know what you mean, occasionally I see a story with an amazing plot, but grammar that puts me off the story. Grammar is definitely not a problem in your stories either! (Brilliant writing by the way). Please enjoy this chapter!
Alex Rider's Spygirl- Thanks! I am never quite sure how a cliff-hanger will be received, you have put my mind to rest. I am really happy that the response put a spring in your step! Yassen is a major character and I am definitely using your first idea. K-Unit will have a major role eventually, they will move in and out for a few chapters, and M-Unit will have some sort of role. V-Unit is not exactly major, yet. (Thank you for encouraging me to use K-Unit and Yassen by the way). The idea was to make Mycroft Jerry (with a major attitude change) but if you have any protests to that, do let me know. It is not exactly a case and Sherlock will not exactly meet Alex, but I am using your second idea next chapter. Once again, thank you. Your ideas were invaluable. Please enjoy the chapter!
yashendra2797- Thank you! I hope this is soon enough, if not, I hope the extra 1000 words makes up for it. Enjoy the new chapter!
MLM24- Thank you so much! As for the soon? Uh, 1000 extra words instead? Please enjoy the chapter.
Marvel123- Thanks! It is just the fact that you reviewed that counts! Please enjoy this chapter!
MyOtherNameIsAPseudonym- I am glad you enjoyed it, thanks for reviewing! Please enjoy the new chapter!
yourguestreviewr- Yep, Alex is alive and Tom is Sherlock. Thank you so much, for this review and all the others you have posted to my various stories! I hope you enjoy the new chapter!
PJHPcrazysis- Thank you so much! Yassen and K-Unit are going to get those large roles. K-Unit's may take sometime before it becomes apparent though... Thanks again and I hope this update was fairly quick, if it was not, sorry. Please enjoy the new chapter!
Notes: Alex-27 Tom-27 Yassen-47 (looks 37) Ben- 35 John-34
Word count (by that I mean actually story content) for this chapter is over 2000. I normally only write just over 1000, so please do not expect them all to be this long.
Chapter 3-But, Satisfaction Brought It Back.
A man carefully assembled his gun. His hands flew over the parts, swiftly building the weapon. Then, with the grace of a ballet-dancer, he moved towards a brick wall. He crouched down and peered through the open vent. He had ten minutes before his target arrived, but, in his line of work, you were better safe than sorry.
His ice blue eyes raked the through the pedestrians on the street below waiting for the, seemingly plain, face of his target to register in his mind.
All was silent, the noise of the streets failed to carry up to the ears of the assassin and he was the perfect example of tranquillity. Even the wind refused to sigh and the rats did not dare to scuttle close to the man.
Suddenly, the sound of 'What Does the Fox Say?' filled the air.
The assassin growled under his breath, mentally cursing his childish (and currently missing) companion. He withdrew a sleek, black, iPhone from his pocket with his black-gloved hand. His finger hovered over the 'decline' button before he froze, confused.
His companion had set the ringtone to 'The Macarena'. Had he not?
He glanced at the caller ID, before remembering that his companion had somehow set the entire list of caller IDs to 'Idiot-in-a-Suit'. He sighed and weighed the phone in his hand, before pushing his blonde hair behind his ear. Clicking the 'accept' button, he lifted the phone to his ear.
"Hello?" The voice on the other end asked in greeting.
"Good Afternoon." The assassin responded in a faux, upper-class, British accent.
"Same to you." The caller answered hesitantly. "I am sorry, but I don't know who you are."
"Who gave you this number?" The assassin demanded impatiently.
"An old, dead, friend." Was the sorrow-filled response.
"Who?"
"Um, I'm not sure if I should tell you that. No offence, but I don't know what your 'profession' is or who you're working for."
The assassin chuckled in amusement. "Enemies?"
"Luck of the Devil."
The assassin's eyes widened with realization. The ringtone had not been set to annoy him that was merely an added bonus. He opened his mouth, and then closed it, before taking a deep breath and responding smoothly in the British accent. "Ah, Fox."
"H-how?" Fox sighed and the assassin could almost see him shaking his head with disbelief. "Never mind, Fox it is."
"Just in case."
"Just in case."
"Call me Thanatos and my partner's Letus."
"Partner?"
"We work together." Thanatos, the assassin, smirked as he avoided the main question. "I'm dead, he's dead. It works rather well."
"The Diablo Brothers?"
"So, what happened for you to call this an emergency?"
"You know Tom? Well his flatmate Jo-"
"Cougar."
"-hem, yes Cougar. He's been digging. Maybe he saw the gravestone or something, but he found that picture. You know. The football picture?"
"I've seen it."
"Well, there's a link to an article. Cougar managed to spot the trail of contradictions. Tom's in danger. See, he's got an enemy who might unintentionally put him in more danger. That guy's what you might call 'emotionally unstable' won't let anyone but his little 'brigade' harm Tom. You never know though, his insanity is quite unique."
"I've heard of him, we call him 'The Vulture' in the business. He uses others to deal with his enemies, before feasting on the satisfaction he gets in seeing their remains."
"Very apt." Fox replied dryly. "Anyway, Cub told me to call you if there was an emergency. This qualifies as one. Cougar's invited me to a party, along with V, M and K units. He recognised Cub in the photo and he wants to find out what's going on. If Scorpia gets a whiff of this…"
"You tell Tom that help is on its way. We, Letus and I, will keep an eye on Cougar and Tom. Unfortunately, there's not much we can do without Tom coming clean." Thanatos glanced out the vent. "Hang on."
Thanatos pocketed the phone and picked up the gun before lying down on the floor and poking the gun through the vent. He gave one last glance through the vent before pulling the trigger.
Without even watching as the man crumbled to the ground, Thanatos promptly disassembled the gun and packed it into a black brief-case. He removed his dirtied black trench-coat and folded it neatly into the brief case. The black gloves followed the coat and Thanatos opened a duplicate briefcase.
He removed a pair of gloves and a trench-coat, both identical to the ones in the other case. He pulled the gloves on his pale hands and shrugged the on the coat of his black business-suit.
Thanatos lifted both brief-cases and descended elegantly down the stairs. By this time police had swarmed the scene, fussing over the body like mothers over a child.
Thanatos dropped one bag off in the rubbish pile near the crumbling building before slipping off into the alley ways and eventually into the crowds of ignorant London citizens.
"So, as I was saying…"
Line Break
John took his seat at the head of the long table. His eyes darted around the lifeless room, which he had hired with money Sherlock had insisted on giving him. John frowned as he waited for his guests to arrive. Sherlock had been acting very out of character lately. First Sherlock had seemed to silently object to John's party, it was as if he knew John's ulterior motive.
The problem was, John did not know why Sherlock was trying to stop John's investigation. This was, supposedly, one of Sherlock's friends and there was something fishy about Alex's death. John would have expected Sherlock to support the investigation.
After a tiring week of Sherlock's endless glares and mutters, the detective's views seemed to take an abrupt turn. Sherlock suddenly went and handed John the money for a private room to host the party in.
John sighed and shook his head, deciding to attempt to solve the mystery that was his flatmate later.
"Cougar!" An enthusiastic, Irish, voice called from the doorway.
Cougar turned to see the ruffled fair-hair and piercing grey eyes of a fellow member of M-Unit. "Lyrebird!" He responded. "It's been ages, what have you been up to?"
"Little bit of this, little bit of that. Desk jobs don't seem to be for me." Lyrebird sighed dramatically and plopped down on a seat next to Cougar. "I here you're a big-shot blogger now. Sherlock Holmes and all that."
"Yeah, he can be an annoying person to be around most of the time, mind you. Wonder what would happen if we locked him up in a room with Wolf…" Cougar trailed off grinning evilly.
"Lock who in a room with Wolf?" A gruff voice asked inquisitively. The voice belonged to a man with dark brown hair and sapphire blue eyes. The man was a member of K-Unit. "I thought we agreed that no-one deserved that."
"Stingray!" Lyrebird and Cougar cheered happily before Cougar began to explain.
"Well you see…"
Guests poured in. All three units were in attendance and everyone was enjoying themselves in one way or another. Wolf and a grey-eyed redhead, Hawk, were yelling at the green-eyed-brown-haired Eagle and the brown-haired-blue-eyed Caiman. A man with platinum-blonde hair and dark blue eyes, Owl, was chatting to someone with brown hair and grey eyes called Bear. Their Unit leader, a man with black hair and grey eyes called Iguana, was chatting to Cougar and Lyrebird. Dingo, reddish-brown hair and green eyes, was conversing quietly with the fair-haired brown-eyed Snake.
At the very back of the room a man watched the proceedings, his eyes glinting with amusement. The man was in his mid-thirties, like the rest of the soldiers, and seemed to be on constant alert. His cobalt-blue eyes darted around the room as if searching for something. His tousled black hair sat on his head, covering the small black device resting in his ear.
"Sir, would you like a refill?" A brown haired waiter approached the soldier, eying his empty glass.
"Go ahead." The soldier assessed the waiter carefully as he replied in an accent that marked him as a man from Liverpool. "Thanatos." He murmured to the green-eyed man.
"Buono." The waiter replied in an Italian accent before switching back to a London accent. The soldier did not contemplate the seemingly obvious credibility of the accent; he swiftly dismissed it as fake. "Nice to see you, Fox."
Fox chuckled and his mouth formed a smile. A small grin slid onto Thanatos' face as well, and his eyes twinkled with hidden mirth. Neither was quite sure why they were laughing, it was just one of those moments where the tone of voice can seem funny.
"Where's Letus?" Fox asked after a moment of inane humour.
"Over there." Thanatos jerked his head towards one of the waiters standing near the snack bar. The waiter in question had strawberry blonde hair and hazel eyes. The one thing that jumped to Fox's mind was the age gap of about seven years.
Thanatos appeared to be in his mid-thirties while Letus seemed to be in his late-twenties or early-thirties. Fox frowned as he looked more closely at Letus. The younger 'brother' was definitely wearing make-up that made him look older. So the assassin was probably in his mid-twenties.
"He's a little young." Fox said with hints of disapproval and concern in his voice.
Thanatos raised an eyebrow with a tinge of surprise. "You saw through it? I'm impressed." He responded sincerely.
"Doesn't mean he's not a little young."
"He gets the job done." Thanatos responded vaguely. "Anyway, you should join the party. Have some fun." Thanatos nudged the agent before disappearing into the crowd of SAS members.
Fox rolled his eyes as shook his head. After briefly closing his eyes and taking a deep breath Fox plunged into the sea of people.
Line Break
Cougar weaved his way through the crowd. He stopped to chat when invited but he mostly kept an eye out for Fox. The former SAS man was the only member of K-Unit Cougar had yet to interrogate.
Wolf had admitted, whilst under the influence of alcohol, to have taken a bullet for the teenager and to have watched the teen snowboard down a mountain on an ironing board whilst being shot at. Then there was the whole thing about Cub hitting a train. Cougar was quick to ask what the teen had been doing there; Wolf had said that the school was for rich delinquents. Cougar had filed the piece of misleading information away for later.
Snake mentioned that he had heard from Cub when he was shot during a raid. The boy had somehow sent him a 'Get-Well-Soon' card with a short message. Snake had been astonished that the teen was forgiving enough to send him a card after everything that K-Unit had done to him.
Eagle muttered something about a birthday present before re-joining the party. Ah well, Cougar had not thought that he would get much out of the man anyway.
Now Cougar's target was Fox. After about ten minutes of searching, the blogger spotted him over by the buffet bar. Allowing his mouth to break into a grin, Cougar swiftly approached the shy man.
Nobody noticed a waiter with strawberry-blonde hair exit the room. He slipped out as quietly as a ghost, leaving his older 'brother' to cater to the masses.
Letus had a job to do.
Line Break
Sherlock paced the flat, his mind flitting through plans and ideas. He sighed and flopped down onto the wide armchair. The detective heard his phone go off to indicate that he had received a text message. Sherlock sprang to his feet and scooped the phone off the table.
The text was from Lestrade and offered another juicy case. Despite the many fictional quirks of Sherlock Holmes, solving cases was something that the man truly enjoyed. The boredom was real as well, it was a trait picked up after years of insane plans and exciting activities.
Something about the text put Sherlock on edge. 'A clean shot straight through the brain, died instantly.' That very sentence told him one clear thing. Assassin. That word alone was enough to scare Sherlock. He had a life here. Sure, it was not entirely real, but it was something he had never thought he would have again.
If the Assassin was Scorpia 'Sherlock Holmes' was done for. Of course it could be The Diablo Brothers, who were helping Sherlock at Ben's request. There was only one way for the detective to solve this.
He had to go to the scene of the crime.
Thank you to everyone who reads, follows, favourites or reviews this story!
Note: Letus is the Roman form/name of Thanatos, god of the dead working for Pluto/Hades. Diablo is devil in Spanish.
