14AmyChan: okay, my head has cooled, and I am going to write~! *^_^*
Train: Next time you put up a poll, put it in the chapter before.
14AmyChan: I know that now. -.-
Saya: Okay, so what's your decision on the matter?
14AmyChan: I'll write the scenes I want and scenes that make the story make sense.
Sven: and… concerning Llyod? *gives gentleman puppy eyes*
14AmyChan: *tries to resist eyes* uh… *fails* yeah, I'll write on him
Sven: YES!
Eve: *eyes with curiosity as Sven does happy dance*
14AmyChan: Please enjoy the chapter~! *^_^*
Train, Saya, and Eve sit at the base of a cliff, waiting for their missing friend. To pass the time, Train had drunken a can of Pepsi while talking with the other two girls. When the soda had emptied rather quickly, Train thought of ways the can could provide entertainment. Throw it in the air? Tried it, wasn't too much fun. If Train kicked it, he would get a stare from Eve, who was in the middle of reading environmentalist documents, and Saya, who despised littering. Throwing and kicking out of the picture, Train set the empty can on a rock approximately ten feet away.
"Train-kun?" Saya asked, noticing that he had withdrawn from the conversation concerning the normal bounties of Sweepers. About how Gyanza had been a strange one.
"What's he doing?" Eve asked, sitting up straighter on her rock, noticing that Train had reached for his gun. Eve instantly began her mental note-taking of drawing and firing a gun.
In his intense concentration, Train hadn't heard either of them. All that was left in the world was him, and that can that seemed to not provide any method of entertainment save one. With a smirk of confidence, he squeezed Hades' trigger. Six times he shot. Every time, he heard a satisfying clang of metal on metal, but three shots were slightly louder than the others. It irked Train to no end. "Missed two…" he muttered, walking to the punctured can.
"But I thought all six bullets hit the can?" Eve asked as she flitted over to Train's side, making sure to take notes and remember her sworn rivalry with the man. She noticed Saya's smile and shake of the head, and Eve wondered what the woman sweeper was thinking, but her pondering was cut through by Train's voice, explaining why he seemed so frustrated.
"Look at this" Train pointed at the defeated can to show Eve three holes. Eve looked and wondered where the other three bullets had gone through if there were only three holes. "I meant for all the bullets to go through the same hole, but two missed…" As Train grieved about him 'losing his touch' and Saya laughed, Eve wondered how Train could be so hard on himself as to not even allow himself to be happy that all the bullets had missed their mark.
"All right!" Train exclaimed, a renewed fire in his eyes. To Eve and Saya, it was comical how determined he suddenly was about his practice. "Until Sven gets back, I need to practice, it's been far too long!"
Eve simply looked at the abandoned Pepsi can and mulled something over. The trip here had been unexplained, and Sven had had a sadder look on his face ever since they arrived. Train and Saya seemed to understand something, and had kept quiet about it. Now Eve's inquisitive mind had reached its breaking point and she just had to know what was going on. "So…" Eve tried being casual about this. Then she remembered that Sven had openly requested to come here, so she used that. "Why did Sven want to come here?" Eve held her head down so she wouldn't step on any proverbial toes, but it seemed that there was no need for that.
"Sven comes here every year to, uh, visit a friend" Saya explained. Eve had caught a glimpse of Saya's face behind her, and could not mistake the sadness in her facial features and tone. As Train continued his slaughter of cans, Saya proceeded to tell Eve that Sven had a dear friend who meant a lot to him here.
Sven stood before a grave, his hat removed in respect for his friend. His late friend. The man who had saved his life in exchange for his own. Sven would never forget his best friend. Sven hadn't said much, but knew that his friend was watching.
"Hello again" Sven said as he looked down at the modest tombstone. That was so like him: simple and modest. Kind and hardworking, too. He had defended anything and everything that was close to him with such a vigor it had cost him his life. "The eye you gave me came in handy the other day, thanks" Sven offered up. With that, he replaced his hat upon his head and looked at the blue sky above. That day had also had a blue sky. Sven began to think aloud. "Funny how the time flies… it's hard to believe it's been seven years, Lloyd."
"Hey kid! You keep playing in the middle of the street and you're gonna get hit" Sven told a few boys he had seen playing ball in the most dangerous place they could find. Being a gentleman, Sven couldn't very well sit back and wait for them to get hurt. He warned them "Go someplace else." The kids, grinning even though their fun had been interrupted by an old man, agreed to take their game of kickball to the park.
Sven, seven years younger and in a white trench oat covering his IBI suit, pulled out a cigarette. His hair was tussled freely by the wind and both eyes were fully functioning and operational. Under the true blue sky, he grinned at kids' free time and careless lives. "Speaking of time, he's late" Sven muttered as he took a drag.
A second later, a 'tsk' could be heard from Sven's left. "Those things are gonna kill you, Sven" a familiar voice to the green-haired man playfully scolded. Turning to the voice, Sven watched as his partner approached him with a happy smile. He, too, wore a coat, though it was brown in color, unlike Sven's. Their suits matched, though. Under a splash of tidy black hair, glasses-clad eyes of happiness, accompanied with a warm and apologetic smile, greeted Sven's vision. "Hey" Lloyd greeted as he beamed.
"Mind your own business, Lloyd" Sven slanted his eyes as he took another puff. "A gentleman is allowed certain… indulgences." Sven just watched as his partner approached him with a bewildered expression.
"All this time we've been partners and I still don't get your gentleman's code" Lloyd laughed. By now, he had reached Sven and they were talking like old friends. Which they were. Ever since they became partners, they had developed a close friendship. Whenever Lloyd had important family events, such as his daughter or his wife's birthday, Sven would be invited to those. Whenever Sven had something important, Lloyd would be the first to know. They were best friends, even if they didn't understand each other at times.
"Don't worry about it" Sven waved off Lloyd's confusion. "It's just my thing, that's all." Sven lowered the cigarette and got down to business. "So?" he asked his partner. "You checked everything out?"
"Of course" Lloyd pushed his glasses up his face in an expression that Sven had come to dub as the 'I can do anything' look. It didn't happen often, but only when Lloyd was extremely confident, and that gave Sven confidence. He, however, didn't show it as easily as his partner. "You guessed right, the drug cartel's assassin is already in town, and I'm pretty sure I know where they're hidey hole is" Lloyd continued. "So what's next, inspector?" Lloyd was fishing for a reaction and he got one.
Sven smiled at the thought of taking down the assassin and taking him out. He simply asked his partner "Isn't that obvious?"
Later that night, Sven and Lloyd had cornered a poor shot who tried to pass himself off as an assassin. The drug cartel's little assassin was no match for the dangerous duo. Already, he had been shot in the left shoulder and leg.
"Curse you, IBI dogs…" the man spat out as he held his wounds. He looked furious, but he also looked pathetic.
"That's right" Sven taunted with a face as cold as ice. "And you don't stand a chance as long as dogs like us can sniff out crap like you." Sven's hand held ready to his gun in case the criminal decided to make things difficult.
"What's it gonna be, Mr. Assassin?" Lloyd asked, hand to his glasses. "You gonna go quietly and make this easy on all of us?" Lloyd was watching the man's every move, and listening for any sign of danger. And when a cornered criminal starts to laugh, you know there's danger coming. The question was, what kind. That was a question Lloyd could answer with his vision eye.
With intense concentration, Lloyd stared at the assassin. Suddenly, the image colors inverted and a grenade explosion obscured Lloyd's sight. Rushing out of his vision eye, Lloyd yelled at the criminal and threw a knife. The knife his its mark and his hand was paralyzed. "SVEN!" Lloyd warned.
"I'm on it!" Sven ran forward and plucked the hot grenade off the ground and threw it into the air, where it exploded. It looked like a small firework as the criminal finally submitted to IBI arrest.
"The vision eye… the power to see into the future…" Sven mused over his drink. "Man, that must be nice." Sven wondered for a second what it would be like to have a power like that. He and Lloyd had a habit of making their way to the bar after a job. Just a relaxer and a time to talk.
"You'd think so" Lloyd interrupted Sven's personal imagination. "But it's not as great as it sounds. For one thing, I can usually only see a few seconds ahead, and for another, if I try to use it too often I get so drained it knocks me out" as Lloyd listed off the cons, Sven wondered if it were worth the obvious pro.
"But if you use it sparingly, like today… you're okay?" Sven asked, taking note that Lloyd wasn't passing out from strain now.
"I guess so" Lloyd smiled as he took a sip from his drink. The answer seemed to satisfy Lloyd, but guesses weren't enough for Sven.
"So, with a power like that, why would you bother with the IBI?" Sven asked, a sudden heaviness in his voice. Lloyd was a great partner, and had saved his skin on more than one occasion, but part of him wondered why Lloyd bothered with that. "You could do whatever you want" Sven continued, thinking about he'd probably win a lottery with that power.
"I was 11 when I had my first vision" Lloyd started out. Sven didn't know this, and he thought that eleven was a young and impressionable time to be having supernatural visions. "I was just a kid and I didn't understand what was happening until the next day when my vision came true" Lloyd continued as a dark shadow crossed his features. Not an evil shadow, just one that comes when sad memories plague your thoughts. "…and my parents were murdered." Sven, who didn't like showing emotion of any kind, took a drink. "I had a lot of questions, like 'why me?' and 'what am I supposed to now?'" Lloyd took a breath, and the shadow erased itself from Lloyd's face. "Eventually, I came to a conclusion."
Sven looked over at Lloyd. As he continued, he was beaming with pride at his appointed conclusion of "I was given this power in order to protect people like my parents from those who would do them harm" Lloyd's statement was too noble to be logical. "However imperfect, this power is a gift of mine from above" there was some logic in that, Sven decided.
"I see, so the IBI was right up your alley…" Sven sighed of relief. For a few seconds there, he had thought the IBI was Lloyd's road to revenge. As long as that wasn't the case, Sven could rest easy.
"Oh crap!" Lloyd suddenly bolted up out of his seat, his eyes glued to his wristwatch. "Look at the time! I need to get home!"
Sven chuckled as his friend's predicament. Sven had no family of his own, so he could only imagine the troubles that came with marriage and kids. "The wife got you on a short leash?" Sven asked, a joking tone in his voice.
"It's not like that!" Lloyd tossed the money he owed on the bar and rushed out. Realizing he was being rude, he called back "Sorry Sven, see you tomorrow!"
He couldn't see the shadows in the alleyway.
A few hours later, Sven exited the bar, calling back his thanks and the location of the due money (on the table). As Sven lit up, he weighed his options and decided that even though no one was waiting for him at home, he might as well head that way anyways. What was waiting for him was a comfortable bed with his name on it.
His musings were interrupted by the timely arrival of three Italian men. They stopped right in front of Sven, and—unwilling to play games at this late hour—he asked "What d'you want?"
"We're with the Bernado family" the head man said, his accent prominent. "We have unfinished business, inspector."
Sven was clueless, but he was also without care. He didn't want to be bothered with these guys. A bed was still calling him at home.
Sensing his apathy, the man continued. "Remember? Two months ago, you made a bust while we were doing a deal, so two of our bosses are doing time thanks to you." Just as Sven remembered the fact that those bent on revenge are dangerous, his world went black.
Lloyd was hurrying home when something caught the corner of his eye. A little keychian teddy bear screamed at him "buy me! Your daughter, Jessica. Yeah her, she'll love me!" Unable to resist, and hoping that this would make up for him missing his two-year-old daughter's birthday party, Lloyd walked into the store and bought the chain. After the transaction, Lloyd was flooded with guilt at his 'impulse buy' Instantly, he mentally vowed to go straight home.
That was before the attack.
Colors began to invert on their own. Lloyd was not in control. He couldn't see except for a fast forward into the future. The colors were inverted, but he knew blood when he saw it. He was falling. His glasses had fallen away from his face. Sven was there. The vision ended.
Lloyd didn't realize he had fallen against a wall for support. Instantly, he began to try and rationalize it. Sven would never do anything to hurt him. He began to pray. "P-please… please no…" Just then, his phone went off like a shot. Scared and confused, Lloyd answered with a calm "hello", though he felt anything but calm.
"Inspector Lloyd?" a crackly Italian voice came from the other side of the line. If Lloyd's skin wasn't covered with goose bumps already, it was now. He had a bad feeling… "Check your caller ID and you'll see I'm making this call on your partner's phone…" As the phone started a disheartening beeping, Lloyd looked at the caller ID. "Sven Vollified". Those two words filled his stomach with ice and a sense of deathly dread.
Sven tried again for the umpteenth time to struggle his way out. Bound by his own handcuffs and no response from his right eye, Sven felt at his lowest. While he had been unconscious, his motionless body had been looted, and his alarm clock was a gun butt to his eye.
"If this is a joke, it's not funny" Sven called out as he scraped his cuffs against the beam that was holding him hostage. His hope—his impossible hope—was that he could break the chain and escape. "I-I can't see out of my right eye… crap!" Sven could feel the blood rolling down his face, mixed with sweat. He was as good as dead in this situation. Yet, he had to keep fighting.
"SVEN!" a familiar voice called from the only entrance and exit. As Sven looked up to face the door, he saw his friend's face, drowned in worry and sweat. "You… You're in trouble!"
"Lloyd?" Sven asked to convince himself that he wasn't hallucinating or going over the edge. When the figure began to approach him, Sven couldn't hold in his rage at his friend. "You idiot! What did you come here for! You have to know this is a trap! You want us both killed?"
Lloyd's only response was to uncuff his friend and tell him to be quiet. However, his efforts at remaining quiet proved useless, as maniacal Italian laughter filled the shed where they were.
"Oh, this is priceless!" the head shouted. As Sven and Lloyd turned, they saw that the door had been blocked off by a number of Italian gang members. "It's good to know we can still depend on IBI agents to be as sentimental as they are stupid." The leader slicked back his hair, no doubt to look good in front of his followers. "Don't you know how this works by now? We lure you here… then we kill you! Too bad…" the man brought up the gun in his hands and fingered the barrel, seemingly deep in thought, but the IBI agents knew this was just a criminal mind having the spotlight. "I guess we'll just have to show you. Our family lost face because of you. I'm not the type to forgive and forget…"
As the leader continued to ramble off, Lloyd talked quietly with Sven. Villains' hearing seem to be turned off whenever they have a maniacal rant. "That's the only way out…" Lloyd observed. He was scared beyond his wits, but he knew this was the right way. "Sven, where's your gun?"
"He's got it" Sven had closed his right eye to try and stop the bleeding, and it had helped a little. Now, he just needed to worry about the blood loss he had sustained. That was, if they managed to survive that far.
"Take mine" Lloyd passed his gun to Sven, who only looked at his partner, dumbfounded. In response to his questioning gaze, Lloyd only told him "IN a minute, there's going to be an opening… when you see your chance, take it. Don't think, just shoot. Got it?" Lloyd pushed the gun into his friend's hands.
"Times up! Now, you die!" the leader started shooting at the friends, and Sven expected a barrage of bullets. When he felt none, he focused ahead of him. What he saw shocked him beyond belief.
Lloyd was falling. There was blood. Sven couldn't comprehend the scene before him. "Don't think, just shoot". And Sven did. No one died there. No one except one.
"I don't understand" Sven finally said, staring at Lloyd's face. "You saw this? In your vision thing?"
"Yeah" Lloyd smiled. His glasses had fallen away from his face, but his eyes were shining clearly. Full of pain, yes, but still shining. "Something like that. It was like when my parents died."
"You knew…" Sven accused weakly. "You knew what would happen and you still came… Lloyd you shouldn't have done that! You idiot!"
"Sven…" Lloyd was reaching into his pocket. "I… I need you to do something for me." Pulling something tiny out of his pocket, Lloyd held it up. It was a small teddy bear on a keychain. "…take this. Give it to my daughter… it isn't much, but…"
Sven had heard enough. "Stop it!" he yelled. This couldn't be happening. "Quit talking like that!" Sven yelled some more, as if the words could prevent the inevitable.
"I knew it…" Lloyd chuckled. "I should've called first… My wife… I should have told her, at least…"
This was happening, it was real, and Sven could deny it no longer. "I'll… I'll tell her for you…" Sven finally gave into reality. He saw Lloyd's last smile.
"Thank you, my friend."
Eve was reading a book when Sven came back. Saya was watching Train with interest. Train was, well…
"What the-?" Sven was immediately drawn to the pile of Pepsi cans on the ground. Each of them had at least one hole and at most three. "How many shots have you wasted?" Sven roared at Train. Saya laughed and Eve put down her book.
"I'm not wasting them, I'm practicing!" Train defended while Eve answered Sven's question.
"53" Eve said flatly. Saya laughed some more.
"I thought you were reading" Saya smiled as she looked at the cover of the book Eve had just set down. "All about cats?" Saya raised an eyebrow.
"What?" Eve asked, a tinge of defensiveness in her voice. This just earned a smile from Saya.
"Nothing" Saya responded, turning her attention to the fight that was erupting between Sven and Train.
14AmyChan: I hope you enjoyed the chappie~! *^_^*
Eve: IBI means the International Bereau of Investigations
Sven: Where'd you read that?
Eve: in a few books about international law.
Sven: *swells with pride*
Train: *whispers* is it me, or does he have a daddy complex?
Saya and 14AmyChan: *nods*
Sven: what was that?
14AmyChan, Saya, and Train: Nothing!
Eve: please take the information on this page and formulate an educated opinion. With that opinion, please click the link below and express your honest views and thoughts concerning the story.
Train: …?
Sven: Read and Review
Saya: You should know this by now, Train-kun.
Train: *angry*
14AmyChan: please R&R~! *^_^*