A.N.: Ahohoho, nope, I'm not dead... Not really, anyway. I barely have time since school started to write (I'm actually working majorly on my original story instead of fanfics lately). I have sports after school and online classes at night, so it's a little hard to find time and all that.
Sorry, that wasn't much of a good excuse lol. I do work on the fanfics a little every day, but just never seen to be able to finish a chapter in a week. I'll try to be faster in the future, but please forgive me if my updates interval is getting longer and longer.
With that set, this chapter was actually written in three separate time section. The first was a lot earlier, so the writer is kind of bad (too lazy to fix it xD), the middle and the last are fairly recently so I had more time furnishing them.
I hope you like this chapter~
And thanks to those who didn't give up on me xD
Alex wasn't prepared for how realistic school was. Noises. Fake bells. Broadcasts. Students. Homework. Everything was too normal to be normal if that made any sense at all. It was his fourth day at school and every hostile and suspicious thought he had toward the school was put on hold as the clubs began to work.
It wasn't this chaotic back in Brooklyn.
Wolf grabbed Alex by the shoulder, pulling him out of the way as someone blunder passed them, nearly whacking him in the head with a large object, "Be careful."
"It's like an anime!" Robert said, his excitement evident across his features as he side-stepped the blundering student as well, "Club grabbing people and all that! If they don't have enough members, they will be disbanded."
"Is anime everything to you?" Alex couldn't resist but ask.
"It's a segment of everything."
They were out in the large courtyard of the academy, standing aside and observing, or listening in Alex's case, the havoc caused by the lines and rows of clubs lining outside trying to get more people. Alex felt sympathized toward those who were dragged away unwillingly to join the clubs.
"Hey, you there!" One of the students, a little older than Wolf by the voice, yelled from before them and Alex judged that they were about ten meters or so apart.
Alex raised an eyebrow in acknowledgment.
"The slightly taller one," The student said, solving their confusion.
Alex grinned and probed Wolf forward, "He's calling you, Dean. Go for it!"
"I don't want to join any club," Wolf growled at the student while glowering at Alex out of his peripheral vision unbeknownst to the young spy, "But I suppose Feigh here would love to join your club."
Then it was Alex's turn to glare. How childish. Alex never expected to see this side of Wolf, or of any soldier in fact, "Well, I'm not a club person."
The man clearly didn't come to find Alex. Sparing one last glance at Wolf, he cleared his throat, "Too bad, isn't it?"
Alex hid a sly smile behind a cough, "Yeah, too bad."
"Hey, wanna try out that club?" Robert asked, tapping Alex on the shoulder, "I think it's archery. It would be so cool to shoot arrows, Feigh!"
Alex turned toward the boy with exasperation, "I'm blind."
"You can train your sense of direction," A sudden voice behind them made him jump.
Instinctively, Alex whirled around, his eyes narrowing and his fists tensing by his side imperceptibly, "Who are you?"
"Head of the archery club," The man smiled and grabbed his hand in a handshake, "Troy Fortuna. Twenty-eight years old. Favorite color orange. Favorite sports archery. Favorite music country. With that set, you must be Feighton Winchester."
"How?" Alex asked as he removed his hand as politely as possible from the man's firm grip.
"News travels fast about new students," The man said as he pulled his hands away as well when the moment had passed, "We don't have a lot of them here, especially at the start of a new term."
"Why not?"
"This place is secluded," Troy explained, "People don't just find their ways here. We take life-time schools here. Not a lot of people quit and go to college and therefore the school is never on the top elite school list. And that means not a lot of students join us. They usually find their way here unintentionally by hearing it from others."
"I see," Alex said ironically.
"My brother is blind as well," Troy said and Alex glanced up to meet the man's eyes that he knew were gazing at him, "But he learned to adapt with his other senses. I can teach you how to."
"What a caring brother," Alex couldn't help but comment sarcastically.
"Quite," The man ignored his tone, "So will you think about my offer?"
"What is it for you?" Alex questioned. Humans are constantly maximizing their profit instead of thinking about others'. He didn't believe that Troy was a 'good', 'selfless' and 'kind-hearted' man.
Troy smiled, "Do you know why clubs are so desperate for new members? The guy earlier who wanted to recruit your brother-like I said, I know a lot-didn't reach out to you because you don't have the traits he was looking for. The clubs aren't just scared of disbanding, they're competing against each other."
Alex raised an eyebrow skeptically, "Competition is common."
"It's far more than petty competitions," Troy said and Alex heard the rustle of clothes as he shook his head, "The clubs are competing for a larger thing. A position, rather. This school is ninety-percent run by the student council and each year they host a competition between clubs to choose the next student council body."
"The year before was ran by this cartoon club," Robert said, "And the whole school was so fun!"
"The business club runs it this year," Troy added, "Everything's a bit formal and tidy-up."
"Multi-cultural," Alex muttered.
"Quite," The head of the archery club agreed, "However, I think the school should be fiercer instead of being filled with posh-ness. That's why I want you to be part of the archery club."
"I can't shoot," Alex said. Not with a bow anyway.
"But you are small, you have the stealth and accuracy," Troy brushed aside his comment.
"And how do you know?" Alex questioned, unable to hide the skepticism in his voice.
"You're blind," Troy said, shifting slightly and causing the sand beneath his shoes being ground loudly, "Yet you walk as if you're not. You are keen to everything around you, in fact, you're trying very hard to take note of everything. That's very important to archery, at least the style I teach."
"Being keen to everything around me is a trait that every blind person should have," Alex remarked dryly, "It's not that unusual. Do you reach out to every blind person?"
"Of course not," Troy's tone was almost condescendingly withering, "Most of them I see, not a lot I should remind you, relies on something instead of their senses. But yes, I do reach out to most who grabs my attention, like you."
"I'll think about it," Alex said, drawing it out slowly.
It would be a considerately, hopefully, easier route to learn more about the academy. Troy, clearly, had been in this school for quite a while. He knew more things that they do obviously and Alex wasn't going to let such precious information slide. So far, the academy was clean and everything one would expect. There was nothing suspicious like arming children that Mrs. Jones had mentioned. He would have to delve deeper.
"I look forward to your response," Troy said as he started again, brushing past Alex softly. And just like his arrival, his presence was gone in an instance. It unnerved Alex.
"Archery," Wolf muttered, "I'm up for it. I'm itching for some real exercises."
"You've gotta join, Alex," Robert said excitingly, "Imagine if the archery club wins the competition. The whole school would be so amazing, like swords, bows…katana."
It was that moment Alex knew Tom wasn't alone in this world. There was always someone else like him out there.
Namely Robert at the moment.
Wolf was a little frustrated.
What were they supposed to look for? It would have been much easier of a bomb was presented before them. He knew how to defuse it, it didn't require much secrecy and brain-power. He faltered at the thought and shuddered; if Eagle heard what he had just thought, he would never hear the end of it.
The ex-soldier stabbed the fork into the lettuce with annoyance. The lettuce split in the middle with the force and he twirled the fork absently, causing the rift to open even more. What was he doing here, pretending to be a school kid? It was too normal and it made him jumpy for his soldier sense was screaming at how normal everything was.
"Dean," Coyote snapped a finger before his face, "Earth to Dean."
That brought him back to the second major issue before him: Coyote. Coyote was twenty. Fucking twenty. Fresh out of school. Wolf would understand if he joined SAS but that just wasn't the damn case. He was already deep within the dirty worlds of soldiers and spies. It was messed up. And he had nearly died in the last mission, and who knew how many more before this. Unbeknownst to him, his knuckles were white as he clenched his fist tighter, the fork threatening to break within his tight grasp. He couldn't, not even if he wanted to, forget the moment of drowning despair as the building exploded beneath him as he hovered in safety.
"What?" Wolf growled at Coyote's unscheduled interruption of his thoughts.
Coyote was chewing thoughtfully, a large piece of cabbage leaf dangling out of his mouth rather childishly, flapping up and down as he tried to swallow. At the moment, Wolf was struck by how sixteen Coyote looked instead of the twenty he really was, "About the club, which one are you joining?"
"Why do I have to join?" Wolf frowned. He was glad that Robert wasn't there, being busy in the library, because beside the short amount of time in their dormitory, Wolf hadn't really had the chance to talk with Coyote about the mission.
"It might be useful," Coyote said as he finally swallowed the leaf and sipped gently from the glass of coke beside him satisfyingly, "To know more about the school that way." Wolf caught the conspicuously-hinted message.
Finally stop tormenting the lettuce, Wolf ate it, "We can always ask around instead of that."
"Dedication, Dean," Coyote shook his head with mock disappointment, "Only when you dedicate yourself to something will you find something truly rewarding in return."
"Oh so now you're philosophical?" Wolf snorted skeptically, watching Coyote unconsciously pushing his food around the plate with the tip of his fork, "If we ask when we need help, someone will bound to tell us something." Someone will bound to slip something unaware.
Coyote hummed in disagreement, his brows furrowing as he seemingly glared at the pork on his plate. If they didn't know he was blind, the common conclusion drawn would be that Coyote held a deep grudge against the pork. Wolf, secretly, was glad to see Coyote getting used to the absence of sight finally. He seemed to be more at ease and Wolf swore that sometimes Coyote seemed to act as if he had been blind his whole entire life.
It was a pretty lucky excuse to not work on loads of work assigned by the professors.
"I'm thinking about joining the archery club," Coyote finally said after a moment, his fork carefully tapping onto the pork and sinking into the boneless meat.
Wolf didn't like the idea even though he knew that he would be the same if he was in Coyote's shoes. Coyote, like him, had the need to be active, to do something, anything, instead of nothing. The thrill of battlefields, though with horror and bereavement, challenged them. There were times where Wolf would be reluctant to step onto the bloodshed field, but there were also times where he couldn't sit still. It was almost frightening to think that he was excited about going to fight.
"You don't have to follow my idea," Coyote frowned again, looking up to find the proximity of Wolf's eyes, with slight difficulty the ex-soldier noted.
"Brothers are supposed to help each other," Wolf commented dryly. We're supposed to be a team.
"But we can have different ideas," We don't have to work together.
This time, it was Wolf who hummed in disapproval. Then he remembered the missions and the time he spent with Coyote at the camp. Coyote was fast and had stealth. He was quick-minded and dealt with situations cautiously. Even though their teamwork, in the short time they had in the beginning, was sloppy and barely at the level, Coyote always excelled in individual tasks.
It was obvious.
Coyote worked better alone.
"Fine," Wolf slapped it down with reluctance, "But if you shoot yourself in the head, don't expect me to give a flying fuck."
Coyote's wide smirk made him narrow his eyes though the expression never went pass Coyote's blind eyes.
Damn Coyote.
But Wolf had a small smile of his own.
At least Coyote was alive.
The four sat at the rectangular table. The leader had his hands laced before him and his elbows on the table, setting his head on his hands, "So what do you think?"
Even though he wasn't the oldest of the five, his figure spoke of authority.
A man in his mid-thirties cleared his throat, "They seemed to be an excellent pair."
"They're brothers after all," A boy about eighteen replied cheerfully, his feet on the edge of the table and tipping himself back, rocking gently in the comfortable chair, "The older brother seem to have a soft spot for the younger one."
The leader tapped his fingers on the back of his hands rhythmically, "They wouldn't abandon each other, that's for sure."
"But the younger one is blind," The fourth member, a woman older than the leader, pointed out, "It would be a hassle."
"It might be," The leader nodded but they could see that he had already considered the objection beforehand, "But they rarely doubt disability people. It might prove to be our advantages. Besides, they're both fit and strong, even with the younger one's blindness."
"Let's wait and see a little," The boy suggested as he tipped his chair back to place, "I really have to go to the cafeteria now."
"Wait," The man in his forties said, holding up his hand to halt his retreat, "What about the police investigation?"
"Police investigation?" The woman asked, clearly wasn't informed.
"Some local police caught wind about this," The leader informed her, sitting straighter and crossing his arms. He was constantly restless, "Don't worry about it, they won't find anything. There are plenty who doesn't know and those who do know knew better than to say anything."
"If you say so," The man frowned, clearly put-off by how lightly the issue was passed, "But if we were found out…"
"We won't," The boy said, "Just trust us. You're safe. But do remind those who know the consequences of voicing their personal opinions."
"Of course."
"Who is this local police?" The leader asked, turning toward the man.
"An inspector by the name of Ian Cavalier," The man replied immediately, clearly prepared and completely informed than any of the other occupants in the conditioned room, "He has been on us for quite a while now. Someone must have leaked something or else he wouldn't personally come for an interview."
"Well, it'll be your job to find who the leak was," The leader offered, "And I want them dead. Any way you want."
"Of course."
"That's cruel to leave the job to him," The boy commented with a grimace, "I feel sorry for the leak."
"I thought you were going to the cafeteria?" The leader commented dryly.
"Oh right, of course!" The boy was out the door in a second.
One by one, the others left until the leader was the only one left in the cool room. He turned the air conditioner lower, feeling the temperature drastically dropped within a minute. He gently turned the ring on his middle finger, the words Power and Fortune were engraved on the front and back.
Standing up, he began to leaf through the documents before him. If he wanted give the inspector a warm welcome, he would have to start preparing.