Chapter 9: Partnership

Inside the Chaotix Detective Agency house, Chuck was brought to large foyer with an overhead ceiling fan, a couple of filing cabinets, and a large desk with a bulletin board behind it. The desk itself was occupied by a man in his late twenties who had yellow-tinted skin and wore a green, white, and yellow sweat-suit with black boots. His eyes were closed as he was listening to something coming from his black and gray headphones attached to his closely-shaved head of green hair.

"Hey, Victor!" the boy with the aviator cap shouted. "We have a customer!"

The man didn't respond, and continued waving his head back and forth to the music.

Irritated, the boy let go of Chuck and walked up to the desk. "HEY, VICTOR!"

"Ah!" The man called Victor was so startled by the boy's cry that he leaned back and fell out of his desk.

"Charles, did you really have to do that?"

Chuck and the boy looked towards the water cooler in the corner and saw a boy about Chuck's age emerge from behind it. His eyes were bright-yellow, with medium purple hair that was gelled up into three spikes and he wore a matching purple T-shirt over a black shirt with purple knee-length shorts. While his arms were covered by metallic forearm guards, his calves were wrapped in bandages, with purple boots decorated in yellow spikes.

"Espen," the boy with the aviator cap said. "I didn't see you there."

"Of course you didn't," the purple-haired boy responded. "I don't call myself a ninja for nothing."

Meanwhile, Victor managed to get to his feet. He rubbed the back of his head while picking up the chair that had fallen. Once that was done, Victor sat back in the chair and sighed.

"Charles," Victor said, glaring at the boy with the aviator hat with gold-colored eyes. "How many times do I have to tell you to not disturb me while I'm listening to music?"

"I'm sorry, Victor," the boy Charles responded. "I was so excited because I found our first customer."

"Customer?" Victor saw Chuck standing next to Charles and grinned. "Well, hello there. If I came off as being rude, I apologize. My name is Victor Croc, the boy who brought you in is Charles Bee, and the kid standing near the water cooler is Espen Camellia. Together, the three of us make up the Chaotix Detective Agency, and we'll find anything and anyone for the right price."

Chuck hesitated for a moment, and then he said, "I'm Chuck Kidman and I was told to come here by a man called Nik. He said you guys could help me."

At that moment, the three guys looked at each other.

Then Victor walked around the desk. "Why didn't you say so sooner, kid? Just tell us what to find, and we'll do it."

With Victor standing in front of him at six feet in height, Chuck timidly reached into his jean pocket and pulled out the red gemstone. "I need you to look for gemstones that look like this. They're not the same color, and there are six of them supposedly scattered throughout the island. Do you think you're up for it?"

Victor took the red gemstone from Chuck's hand and examined it. Then he looked over his shoulder. "Espen, come over here."

Reluctantly, Espen walked over.

"What can you tell me about this thing?" Victor said as he gave the gem to Espen.

Espen looked over the gem several times and then he said, "I don't think I've seen anything like it. It's the same color as a ruby, but shaped like an emerald, and I feel some kind of energy radiating from it."

"Yeah, I felt it, too," Victor responded.

Then suddenly, the gemstone left Espen's hand and floated in mid-air radiating with light. All four boys were speechless, and watched it with wonder. After a few minutes, Victor briefly nodded.

"All right," he said finally. "We'll find these gemstones for you. After all, there aren't any gems I know of that float so they shouldn't be too hard to locate."

Charles then reached into his short-pocket and pulled out a small camera. The three got out of the way as Charles took a picture of the red gemstone before it suddenly faded and fell. Fortunately, Chuck caught the gem before it hit the ground.

"Now in terms of payment, we'll say that each gem costs 500$, so that'll be 3000$ for finding the six gemstones," Victor said dialing numbers on a small calculator he pulled from his sweat-shirt hoodie. Then he held out his hand to Chuck. "If you see Nik again, tell him that. Otherwise, do we have a deal?"

"Sure thing," Chuck said, shaking Victor's hand.

"Hurray! Our first job!" Charles cheered.

"Let's hope Victor doesn't screw this one up," Espen said. "We're already several months behind on rent as it is."

Charles glared. "Espen, don't ruin the moment!"

To be continued…