A/N: Sorry for the long update time! Thank you so much for reading my story, I hope you enjoy it! Leave a review? Or don't. Want to talk? I like new friends!
Ivory meandered down the dark streets of the city. Not sure where she was going, she took a slow pace and continued forwards. Street lights glistened, one after another, lighting her path. After a while, she heard pounding footsteps advancing from behind. She turned around just as Finn, Ratso, and Chow rushed passed her.
"What are you doing kid? C'mon run!" Finn turned around to yell to her.
Ivory stopped walking and gave him a questioning look.
"Uh you know, Valmont wants the job done fast," Chow said with a nervous chuckle.
Looking beyond the girl, he spotted something which made him anxious.
"We better get going," he advised before taking off in a sprint.
Ivory heard an angry yell from behind. She turned to see a restaurant managed running towards her.
"Oh my god, what did they do?" she muttered to herself as she ran after her cousin.
By the time she caught up to the rest of the group, they had stopped in front a small restaurant in Chinatown. Too winded to speak, they stood there for a few minutes as Ivory observed the city landscape. The hills of San Francisco had gotten the better of the adults but not the girl.
When Chow was finally able to speak, he ordered her to wait outside until they returned.
"Yeah this is a pretty nasty business and things might get a bit ugly," Ratso explained as they entered the building.
"Sure but aren't we supposed to go Noodles Noodles? This place says House of Wu," she asked with confusion.
"Don't worry we're at the right place. Valmont must have gotten rotten sources. Trust me, we know what we're doing," Finn assured her.
Shortly after they went in, Ivory could hear shouting and crashing. She stepped aside as the door flung open and customers evacuated the building. In a brief moment before the door shut, she could see Finn hitting the ground closely followed by Chow. a minute later, all three bolted out of the door looking spooked and Ratso was missing his tie.
"C'mon, let's go," Chow shrieked as they ran past the girl and slammed the door shut.
They ran until the three boys needed to stop to catch their breath in an alley. Finn retrieved a large phone from his pocket and dialed for Valmont. He explained they had "stomped Chan" (making Ivory laugh out loud and having Chow shush her) but they didn't see a talisman. Valmont simply stated, "You will be punished," effectively ending the conversation and leaving Finn and Ratso gawking at the blank screen.
"Well it's great knowing that you have everything under control," Ivory teased them.
"It's not as easy as it looks," Chow muttered.
"If it weren't for Chan..." Finn's voice trailed off into a short gasp.
A man blocked the entrance to the ally and Ratso, Finn, Chow sprinted away. Ivory remained in place as the man chased them. He wore very plain clothing and had a soft face. Ivory couldn't understand what was so intimidating about him.
"Oh are you ok?" he asked her quickly as he passed.
"Yeah I'm fine." She gave him a short wave. She thought he heard him mumble something about the Enforcers taking candy from children.
Ivory remained in place long enough to see a small girl peer around the corner. She smirked to herself and pursued the men.
Ivory decided to follow the crowd, which led her onto another main road. She passed an alley and noticed a small red glow. When she peered into the backstreet, it was gone. However, she thought she noticed a small movement in the shadows. As she stepped forward to get a better look, a fleet of ninjas lept from the shadows and rushed down the street. The sight stopped her in her tracks. She stood on the sidewalk with a dazed expression as the ninjas jumped through the street.
-o0o-
"Who has the keys!" Finn yelled as he fumbled through his pockets.
"He's coming!" Ratso nervously informed the others.
Finn found his keys and the three sped away in their car. Finn slowed the car once they were a safe distance from their pursuer.
"See kid, that man is scary. It's best if you stay away- Uh Ivory?" Chow searched the car for his cousin.
"Uh it looks like we forgot the kid," Ratso pointed out. Chow responded with a sarcastic stare.
"Well we better go look for her." Finn turned the car around and began driving back.
-o0o-
Once Ivory regained her composure, she began wandering the dark streets. She wasn't sure where she was so she just kept walking. After a while, she made her way to a street corner on a hill. Below, the street merged with a larger one which led to a bridge. There weren't many cars on that road and none on the bridge.
As she gazed over the water, the small girl whizzed past her on an old skateboard. She rode the hill down to the bridge. She was followed by a large truck with hitch-hiking ninjas. A few moments later, Ivory heard a wailing scream and that man flew down the hill on a shopping cart.
She was still gawking at the strange precession when a white car pulled up to her. The passenger seat window rolled down and she could clearly see Finn, Ratso, and Chow.
"Hey kid, get in the car," Finn ordered.
Ratso and Chow were in the backseat so she sat in the front.
"You know that was kinda creepy. You probably shouldn't say that," she mentioned.
"Well you shouldn't run off like that," he retorted.
"Actually we were the ones who ran, I think. After Chan showed up," Ratso interrupted.
She laughed at them. "That's right you did."
-o0o-
The car pulled into to the driveway of an old warehouse on the shore. The men seemed accustomed to this setting and perfectly at ease. Ivory, on the other hand, reluctantly left the car and slowly made her way inside the building.
"Taking children off the streets and putting them in this old shack?" she joked nervously.
"It's really not that bad. Kind of homey," Ratso reassured.
By who's definition of home? Ivory thought after she shut the door behind her. Everyone was crowded in a small room with little furniture. From what she could see in the dim lighting, it appeared that the paint from the walls was peeling. Everything was a hue of brown or orange and covered in a layer of dust. A mountainous man stood with his back to the door. He was explaining to their boss why, once again, they were unable to locate their talisman. After an exchange of riddling words, an agreement was made.
"I understand," the giant boomed into phone to close the conversation. With one final request from his boss, the man made his way to an elevator.
"Whoa, who's that big guy," Ivory asked in awe and fear.
"That's Tohru. He's a no funny business kind of guy so I would stay away from him if I were you," Chow warned.
"Man, he could crush you to a pulp," Finn added looking at her petite figure. "Or er girl."
From above their heads, they heard a large crash.
"We better go check that out. You can stay down here," Chow advised.
She could hear even more clamor from above once the three left. Eventually, the racket ceased so she decided to take the elevator to the second floor to join everyone. She was met with a disastrous scene in a large warehouse room. She did not dare leave the elevator and risk receiving blame (which she figured someone might try to place on her). Boxes about the room lay overturned and broken, their contents spilling out. Large crates had released mountains of fish across the floor. Various cans, a sword and a chain were among the many items strewn about the area. With all of her careful observations, what she failed to notice was three men lying on the ground. She continued her ascension up the warehouse floors without a second thought.
Between traveling from the second to the third floor, three massive crashes occurred abruptly. The first sounded of a thunderous crack of floor boards and shook the elevator. Ivory nearly toppled over from the disturbance. The second, only moments later, was almost as raucous as the first, but didn't rattle the box nearly as much. The following crash could be heard above the mechanics of the rising elevator but seemed distant. There did occur a final, fourth clatter followed by a sizable splash. However, it was inaudible over the ring of the elevator arriving at its destination.
The first room on the third floor was just barely larger than a storage closet. A small figure was crouched on the ground. Upon closer inspection, Ivory discovered a vast hole in the ground. It extended through three floors and the dock below the building. A small girl sprang to life and bounded to the elevator. It was the same girl that Ivory had followed earlier. Before Ivory had the chance examine the hole, a man dangling from the first floor had scrambled to safety.
What she first noticed was her friends talking from the floor below. Crawling to the edge, she peered into the hole. Finn, Ratso and Chow were standing close to the edge and looking up. Ivory decided to join them, but rater than taking the elevator, she plummeted down the hole. The largest gap between floors occurred between the second and third floor but that mattered very little to the girl. Using the edge as leverage, she threw her body weight away from the hole to avoid falling in. She turned circles to regain a sense of direction and descended until she landed upright on the floor below. She had landed behind the others who hadn't noticed her entrance.
"Whoa, how'd you get there?" Ratso was the first to notice her arrival.
"From up there," she pointed towards the ceiling.
"Well how did you get up there?" Chow joined the conversation.
"The elevator?" she responded with a rhetorical question.
"Then how'd you get down from there?"
"The hole."
"So you mean to say you jumped down from the hole which is way above our heads?" Finn asked skeptically.
"Yeah that's what I did." The incessant questioning was beginning to make Ivory feel slightly awkward. She began to shift around.
"And how exactly did you not get hurt while landing?"
"Uh I don't know, I just didn't. And I didn't expect to when I jumped either. Look I'll beat you down to the first floor." She walked away from the interrogation.
While the men took the elevator, Ivory reached the first floor in the same manner as she had reached the second. She stood around the gaping hole as the others arrived in the elevator.
"Wow that's incredible!" Chow exclaimed as he stepped out of the elevator.
"How the heck do you do that?"
"That doesn't even seem humanly possible!"
"You're not an alien, are you?"
The girl didn't hear any of their comments. She was occupied with formulating questions of her own.
"I'll answer your questions if you answer mine," she negotiated. Their whole business of a 'shipping company' seemed highly irregular.
"Shoot," Chow agreed.
"Would you mind telling me again what exactly do you do for work?"
The three looked at eachnother nervously before offering an answer.
"Valmont probably wants a report. Let's head back, then we will talk."