X~35~X
A creeping pounding and dull yet sharp pain echoes throughout Lapis' head. She rubs her right temple and sighs under her breath, letting the steam from her coffee mug float up and sit in her lungs. The steam clears her head for a brief moment, but the nausea from her creeping headache refuses to let up, and she decides to not chance her stomach by eating the little decorative blue berry cake on the plate before her.
"Can I get you anything else?" The shy looking owner of the café asks, light purple hair dancing under the florescent bulbs that only seem to make the pounding in Lapis' ears grow louder.
"No, I'm fine, thanks. Just a headache." Lapis responds.
"Ah, I see. Drink your coffee, I heard on the news that caffeine helps headaches. I'll get you some extra cream."
"Thanks." Lapis says, smiling despite her dull pain.
Yukari catches site of something around Lapis' neck. "Gorgeous necklace, where'd you get it?" She gestures to the item. Around Lapis' small neck is a glittering blue gem. It is in the shape of a cartoon diamond, with the flat top and the pointy end. It catches the florescent lights above and reflects five different shades of blue, swimming around its sides and reflecting the coffee mug on the table in its shine. It dangles from a light silver chain with a circular clasp that has turned around to the left side of the necklace. It matches the dark blue of Lapis' school's pullover sweater.
"Oh, it was my mother's. She gave it to me the day she-… she gave it to me a long time ago. I think she got it on a business trip up north."
"It's fitting." The purple haired waitress with the name tag Yukari says.
"Huh?"
"See, under the sunlight through storm clouds it kinda' looks like snow." Yukari points outside to the gloomy day. Not a beam of sunlight is seen anywhere. Lapis loves days like this. "I'll go see about that cream." Yukari saunters away.
Lapis fingers the leather binding on her pocket notebook. Slowly she opens the cover and begins to lazily review her notes. The first section is everything she can possibly remember about the files she managed to steal from her father, copies of the photos that she took on her phone are held to the page with bent paperclips. Miku's tear stained and childlike sunken face stares back at her with tear faced eyes. The rest of the page is snippets she can remember being paragraphs she read amongst the confusing papers. The next section is everything she can remember about how Lee acted, what he was doing, the car he was in, and even a rough sketch of him as accurate as she can remember. The rest of the book is filled with assorted notes, even a statement from a book store worker who claims to have seen the group in his store.
Lapis sips down a gulp of warm coffee when movement from outside catches her eye. She turns ever so slowly, cup still cradled in her hands. Just outside the window in the front of the coffee shop is a large white van with the name Crypton Human Adaptions Corp. A woman with light pink hair steps out of the van and Lapis yelps with surprise.
"It- it can't be them! No, it is them, who else would it be? But how could they possibly have found me? Oh god no, no, no!" Her panicked mind screams but her body refuses to move. She thrusts her hands in her pockets and pulls out a twenty dollar bill, not caring if it's too much to pay the bill she rockets out of her seat and runs to the bathroom, locking the door behind her.
"No, no, no, no. How do I get out of here? They would have already seen me..."
She pounds on her forehead with her palm. "Think, think, think, Lapis!" Her eyes dark to the small square window just above the toilet. Grey daylight shines through and outside the hanging storm clouds are visible. Lapis' head pounds. She lifts her tan school bag off the floor and she moves over to the toilet, placing her feet on either side of the seat and pushing open the window with the very tips of her fingers. She lifts her bag up and with much difficulty tosses it through the opening just big enough for her to fit through. She hears it land on the concrete out in the back alley with a thud.
Her hands grip the bottom of the window sill and she pushes herself up and head first through the hole. She flips over her hands and comes crashing face first down onto her bag, smacking her nose on the concrete and zipper. A steady stream of blood trickles down and over her lip.
"There!" A male voice she recognizes to belong to the purple haired man named Gakupo yells. She pushes herself up and turns her head to the right where she is met with a locked chain-link fence too high for an adult to jump. On the other side is Gakupo. He is tall and awkwardly thin with disturbingly long lavender colored hair separated into a large pony tail in back and two face framing strands in front. He is wearing a white long sleeved lab coat nearly as long as his hair over a purple dress suit and tie and grey dress pants. He's holding a Taser.
Lapis pushes herself up, scrambling to get balance as she slings her bag over her shoulder and begins running with her hands up defensively in front of her self.
"Get this gate open!" She hears Gakupo yell to someone behind him. The sound of metal clanking behind her alerts her every sense as she rounds the corner of the building ahead. She follows the only alley way left as the storm clouds rumble overhead. Footsteps of heavy feet smack the pavement behind her. Lapis runs to the left and rounds the corner of the last building attempting to make a mad dash for the busy shopping street she passed through earlier.
Suddenly a figure with short brown hair jumps into the only exit of the alley, completely blocking Lapis path. She yelps loudly hitting the brakes and trying to slow down but she crashes helplessly into Meiko's strong and angry arms. Meiko wraps them around Lapis, pinning her arms to her side as she thrashes, kicking with all her might. She sinks her teeth into Meiko's hand as she tries to cover her mouth.
"Ugh little piece of shit!" A sharp pain shoots through Lapis' neck and she watches a needle pull out of the skin just below her chin on the right side. The world seems to slow down significantly, even the simplest of sounds are distorted. She is looking straight down the path she came from as the world starts tilting. Coming out from behind the café into the alley are the pink haired woman, Luka, and Gakupo. Lapis' own father isn't far behind with his emotionless stare.
The world begins to blurr, each color blending and making a fuzzy image of neon shades on a grey back round. The pounding in her head ceases and a tingling feeling spreads itself from her toes, all the way upwards to her head almost instantly. She can just barely feel her body relaxing into Meiko's steel grip. Lapis' head rolls back awkwardly and her eye lids feel heavier than her bag. She doesn't know where it ended up anyways. Her lungs empty themselves with a hiss of air and she inhales deeply as her eyes slam shut like a heavy door. Then the world's buzzing falls quiet leaving a gaping hollow silence in its place.
Luka sighs as she catches up to Meiko first. "You did the injection wrong and probably gave her too much. If you just would have waited for me to-"
"Blah, blah, blah. Little brat was biting me. Of course I was going to stick her, that's why we all carry either a Taser or the tranquilizer." Meiko snaps back, draping Lapis over her shoulder. She's the strongest of the whole team next to Haku, who hasn't been assigned to this mission.
"We're taking her back to the van, Gakupo, go collect any thing she might have left behind before those waitresses clear it away, Kaito, go start up the car." Luka orders, following Meiko out of the alley and back into the parking lot.
Kaito unlocks the van and slips into the passenger's seat white Luka unlocks the trunk. Gakupo comes running out of the café holding a pocket notebook with a black leather cover.
"Luka!" He pants after coming to a stop. "Look what I found. It's where she was keeping everything she knew about the demon children. She even has pictures of the official sealed files she must have stolen from Kaito. She has newspaper clippings, eye witness accounts, and personal notes. Apparently she met one of them who calls himself 'Lee'. He seems to be the blonde boy, target three." Gakupo shows them while flipping through the notebook and stopping on certain pages.
"Go through it and copy pages with information we don't have. Burn it afterwards." Luka says as she slides the trunk open. Inside are seven large dog crates stacked on top of each other. Meiko unlocks one and tosses Lapis inside. She falls inside at an awkward angle, her arm lying over her head bizarrely.
"So what's the plan with her?" Meiko asks after shutting the trunk.
"Well, The Board says they want her for questioning, I think a week in The Midnight Room will do it, but I'd rather interrogate her myself. I'd probably get more done and in less time." Luka sighs walking around to the drivers' seat.
"Wow, you really are as brutal as they say." Gakupo says with a little shock.
"Haven't you heard? I'm great with kids."
~ ~ ~X~ ~ ~X~ ~ ~
Rin comes down the stairs and turns into the living room, plopping herself next to Len on the couch with a loud sigh. Miki's bobbing head is visible behind the counter in the kitchen bobbing up and down as she cooks before a plume of steam. Crowbar girl's bouncing neon green head of hair is also visible behind Miki's and their inaudible chatter is heard from the living room.
"Okay, Oliver's upstairs with Yuki and IA-" Rin starts to speak before Len cuts her off abruptly, sitting up.
"Wait you left him alone with IA after what she just went through?" Len looks shocked.
"It's not like he's going to hurt her, and I don't see you up there with her." Rin groans brushing her bangs out of her eyes and blinking for a long moment.
"Look, Rin we need to talk." Len sits up straight and faces his twin.
"Ugh you and talking." Rin groans even louder, sinking further into the couch.
"You need to take this seriously, please. We need to talk about-"
"No, we really, really, don't. Len, you aren't some weepy and clingy school girl, you don't need to constantly talk about your feelings. 'Rin you hurt my feelings' 'I'm just so stressed'." She mocks him in a whining tone. "You want to talk about that stuff, get a girlfriend. You know I got mad, you know I shouldn't have done what I did and I know that too, but also, you know me. You should know by know what I'm like and what I do. This-" She moves her arms around her head wildly. "-is not what I do. You want me to apologize, fine, I'm sorry, Len. But can we just move on now?"
"Its not just that, you've been avoiding talking about him for so long now, and I can tell it's finally starting to eat away at you-"
"Stop!" Rin shouts so loud that Miki and Gumi are instantly silenced. Gumi mutters something quietly. "Don't you dare bring Lui into this. Lui died a long time ago, Len, and you're right, it eats at me every day, but don't you use him to try and make me talk to you like a normal person. 'Cause I'm not normal, Len, okay? Just give it up and don't bring him into this again. Please? Just… stop with Lui." Rin's face goes grim as the bathroom door opens upstairs.
"Okay. Sorry, Rin. I really am but I just- worry about you, you know?" Len's face softens allowing Rin, just for an instant, see how pained his eyes actually are.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine, Len. We're fine." Rin stands up and walks into the kitchen as Gumi comes out, taking her place on the couch.
"Rough, sibling drama." She jokes, putting her feet up on the coffee table. Miki suddenly shouts from the kitchen as a spatula goes flying for Gumi's head, barely missing.
"Feet off!" She screams.
Gumi gives her a military salute, her face drained of color. Len laughs and the noise of footsteps on the stairs comes into the room. Miku walks down slowly with a towel draped over her head. Droplets of water cling to her hair, pulled into its usual pigtails. She is wearing a black spaghetti strap shirt under a baggy and see through white T-shirt and she has put her scarf and black mini skirt back on. She looks comfortable but still on edge, eyes darting back and forth every so often, as if waiting for something.
She sits on the other side of Len, watching the news on the TV, but not really paying it any attention. That's when the doorbell rings.
"I got it!" Miki says, setting down her large wooden spoon on the kitchen counter and walking to the front room.
Upstairs in Yuki's fluffy red and pink room IA suddenly jumps off her bed, staring out into space with her small hands balled tightly into fists. A burst of bright white light explodes in her vision and a loud ringing noise hisses in her ears.
"The men with needles are coming." She says with an eerie tone, turning to Oliver. Her eyes have opened wider than he's ever seen and turned redder than blood. "The men with needles are at the door."
Miku jumps off the couch.
"Do you hear it? The ringing in my ears, Len." She covers her ears as Rin's vision is temporarily blinded by a flash of white light.
Miki opens the front door just as rain starts to fall. Before her is a pink haired woman wearing a black leather jacket and skin tight black jeans with a white shirt.
"Hello, Darling." Before Miki can move or respond she feels a sharp pain in her neck and watches the woman draw a needle out of her neck. Miki, as if watching the world in slow motion, falls to the floor with a loud thunk. The last image her eyes capture before falling shut burn into her mind, like a bad scar. The image of a pond, filled with blood, and that smiling pink haired woman, entering her home, a gun in her hand.